Engineers are human too

The Toronto Star’s architecture critic, Christopher Hume, will raise some hackles by a careless and unfounded attack on engineers in his New Year’s resolution, published January 3.

In, “A few proposals for ’09 (modest and not)”, Hume writes: “END THE TYRANNY of engineers: Engineers may be necessary, but must they be a necessary evil? Organizations such as the TTC [Toronto Transit Commission], run by engineers, are notorious for ignoring the most important part of their operation — the paying customer. That’s why Toronto is one of the last cities in the developed world where passengers line up daily to buy tickets. As long as the turning radii are adequate, who cares about passenger convenience? The city should mandate that every engineering project [should] also include designers from other disciplines, and maybe even one or two real human beings.”