Editor’s Note

Any time information design and architecture overlap, my brain obsesses over the intersection. It's just how I'm wired. With the rise of AI, a lot of information that has been sitting in databases for decades suddenly has a chance to become accessible. This got me wondering: what would happen if every building came with a credit line?

When I meet someone new, there's a good chance I'll forget their name within a week. I write names down constantly just to keep up. It's embarrassing, but it is what it is.

Architecture is even worse.

My buddy can walk down a street and identify architects the way some people identify hockey players. He knows who designed what, when it was built, and often the story behind it. Meanwhile, I can spend years admiring a building without ever learning who designed it.

That got me thinking about something.

Why doesn't Google Maps tell us?

If Google can tell me the hours of operation for a coffee shop, show me photos of the interior, and let me read hundreds of reviews from strangers, why can't it tell me who designed the building?

Every building already has an address. Most have a construction date somewhere in a municipal database. The architect, developer, and contractor are usually documented. The information exists.

It's just strangely difficult to access.

Imagine opening Google Maps, clicking on a building, and seeing a few additional lines:

Architect: XYZ Architects
Completed: 2018
Developer: ABC Developments

Most people move through cities without knowing much about how those cities came to be. Buildings become background scenery. We notice them when they're beautiful, ugly, confusing, or inconvenient, but we rarely know who was responsible for them.

That feels like a missed opportunity.

Architecture has an unusual relationship with visibility. Almost everyone experiences it, but very few people know much about it. Most professions have a direct connection between the work and the person responsible for it. Authors have their names on books. Artists sign paintings. Politicians attach their names to policies.

Architects, by comparison, often disappear.

A building can shape a neighbourhood for fifty years and the public may never know who designed it.

Making that information visible would do more than satisfy curiosity.

It would help people understand their cities.

Imagine visiting a new city and being able to explore its architecture simply by walking around with your phone. Imagine discovering that several of your favourite buildings were designed by the same firm. Imagine being able to trace the history of a neighbourhood through the buildings themselves.

Cities would become easier to read.

There is another consequence as well: accountability.

Architects spend a lot of time presenting their best work. That's perfectly reasonable. Every profession does it. But the reality is that a firm's website usually represents a carefully selected portion of its portfolio.

Google Maps wouldn't care which projects won awards.

It would show everything.

The exceptional projects.

The average projects.

The projects everyone would rather forget.

As an architect, I find that idea slightly uncomfortable. I can immediately think of reasons not to do it.

What if a young architect is judged by early work?

What if a developer cuts costs and compromises the design?

What if a project simply doesn't age well?

These are legitimate concerns. At the same time, most professions live with some version of this reality already. Doctors, authors, engineers, politicians, and business owners all have work attached to their names. Architecture is unusual in how easily that connection disappears from public view.

Maybe a little more visibility would be healthy.

Not because architects should be shamed for imperfect projects, but because architecture matters.

The buildings around us influence how we experience our cities, our neighbourhoods, and our daily lives. If we believe that architecture contributes something meaningful to society, then it seems reasonable that people should be able to learn who created it.

Will Google ever add a feature like this?

Probably not.

At least not because one architect wrote an article about it.

Still, I think it's an idea worth considering.

The next time you're standing in front of a building you admire, ask yourself a simple question:

Who designed it?

The fact that the answer is often difficult to find might be part of the problem.

Until next time,