Cotswold Unspun

Guy Hagstette, director of capital projects and planning for the Downtown Management District, a subset of Central Houston Inc., also believes that Cotswold's flaws have little to do with the concept. "I think [the critics] mix up the process-oriented questions with the merits of the proposal itself," Hagstette says. "This proposal is in general an incredibly good set of ideas."

Of course, ideas don't always translate well in practice, notes Joe Webb, president of the Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In 1995, Webb led a team of 100 architects in a pro bono project to examine alternatives for the northern end of downtown. Despite his expertise, no one from Cotswold asked Webb his opinions in advance. "It was done in a vacuum, kind of like a lot of things that are done in Houston," he says.

Cotswold may sound like a fine idea in concept, but great ideas don't always pan out. Webb notes that for every successful major public or private development venture in Houston, there's a corresponding failure, though they all may have looked like winners on the drawing board.

"We've got examples of things that work," Webb says. "We've got just as many examples of things that don't work.