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Skriven 2007-07-18 23:31:12 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0707183) for Wed, 2007 Jul 18
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Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards
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For Immediate Release Office of the First Lady July 18, 2007

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards The East
Room

˙˙Photos


12:05 P.M. EDT

MRS. BUSH: Welcome, everyone. Welcome to the White House. Congratulations
to the finalists and recipients of the 2007 National Design Awards.

The White House is a perfect place to honor outstanding design. The iconic
architecture of this building was actually the result of a design
competition. Responding to an advertised prize of $500, architects from our
new nation submitted their proposals for "The President's House." You might
call that contest the first "National Design Award." (Laughter.)

You may know that the winner of the competition was the Irish-American
architect named James Hoban. And you may not know that his plan had some
early, and prominent, detractors. When Thomas Jefferson was elected
President, he invited architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe to oversee the
construction of the President's House. It turns out Latrobe had some
"aesthetic differences" with his client -- I'm sure none of you have ever
had that. (Laughter.)

President Jefferson contributed his own designs to embellish the house --
including a proposal for extra colonnades and wings. Latrobe detested both
Jefferson's and Hoban's architecture. (Laughter.) He wrote that President
Jefferson's colonnades were -- and I quote -- "exactly consistent with
Hoban's pile -- a litter of pigs worthy of the great Sow it surrounds."
(Laughter.) Latrobe's commentary was meant for a friend -- but the great
architect accidentally sent the letter to the President. (Laughter.) And
that was in the days before email. (Laughter.) Later, President Jefferson
claimed never to have read the letter, and Latrobe kept his job.

Despite Latrobe's initial disapproval, James Hoban's early sketches have
become a recognized and beloved symbol of democracy. Design, however, is
about much more than symbolism or aesthetics. Coco Chanel once said,
"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion has to do
with ideas, and the way we live."

Your creations remind us of design's ability to influence the way we live.
The work we're recognizing today has turned concrete and landfills into
parks and gardens. Your designs have brightened the libraries and play
yards of primary schools in New York, and upgraded the athletic center of a
high school in Mexico. Your firms have designed a library in Rhode Island,
a science center in Arizona, and a college dormitory in Ohio.

Your union of form and function has changed the way we peel potatoes, write
our names, and brush our teeth. Your designs have made it more fun to go
back in time by playing Oldies on our iPods -- and then to really go back
in time by doctoring our old personal photos with Photoshop. (Laughter.)

As the 2007 National Design Awardees remind us, the reach of designers'
innovation knows no limits. Increasingly, designers are showing their
innovation in the fields of sustainable design. You're working on projects
that are friendly to the environment, and that can help address global
challenges like poverty and pandemic disease.

I recently visited the Cooper-Hewitt's new exhibit, "Design for the Other
90 %." This exhibit showcases design concepts that benefit more than 5
billion people around the world who are not traditionally served by
professional designers. These works provide shelter, health, sanitation,
energy and transportation and education. They can improve the quality of
life for people living in poverty. And they can help whole communities
recover from natural disasters.

One challenge being addressed by these designs is the lack of clean water.
Around the world, more than a billion people do not have safe water to
drink. A child dies every 15 seconds from illnesses related to unsafe
water. Designs like the LifeStraw -- a personal, mobile water purifier --
help protect against the water-borne diseases of typhoid, cholera, and
dysentery. And products like the Q Drum -- a durable plastic container that
rolls easily when filled with water -- eases the burden of fetching clean
water in remote areas.

I've seen first-hand the difference sustainable designs can make. Last
month, at a school in Zambia, I helped inaugurate the first U.S.
government-supported PlayPump. PlayPumps are children's merry-go-rounds
that are attached to a water pump and a water storage tank. When the
merry-go-round turns, clean water is produced. PlayPumps are fueled by a
limitless supply of energy: children at play. (Laughter.)

I've also seen how socially responsible designs can improve lives here in
the United States. Many of the projects highlighted in "Designs for the
Other 90 %" help people on our own Gulf Coast who are recovering from the
devastating 2005 hurricanes. The Seventh Ward Shade Pavilion is restoring a
sense of community to New Orleans neighborhoods. Projects like YouOrleans
and Katrina Furniture Project turn recycled debris into tables, stools, and
church pews.

This February, in Mississippi, I visited the Katrina Cottages. These
affordable single-family homes are an attractive alternative to FEMA
trailers. The cottages are engineered to withstand hurricane-force winds,
while respecting the Gulf Coast's architectural traditions. The designer of
Katrina Cottages, Marianne Cusato, received the Cooper-Hewitt People's
Design Award in October, and Marianne is with us. (Applause.)

From communities here in the United States, to rural areas in Africa,
product designers, architects, landscape designers, and urban planners can
improve millions of lives with their work. And here's my yearly charge:
Don't forget schools. Pay attention to school architecture and to school
landscape design, to creating sustainable schools, and to the restoration
of our historic old school buildings.

Thank you for your contributions to design, and for using your creativity
to make life better for us all. And congratulations to each and every one
of the award winners.

Now, to say more about each of our National Design award winners, I'd like
to introduce the director of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Paul
Thompson. (Applause.)

END 12:13 P.M. EDT
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