"Well, architecture in itself, to me, wasn't enough. It wasn't a total understanding of the whole society, and planning gave me that background. It gave me the background of the environment and what had to be done. That was terribly important to me, to understand more than the building, but also the grounds on which the building stood and the environment in which the building was to be placed....One building is not enough. You've got to create the whole ambience that the building is in: the society of the people that are going to live in these buildings and how they lived, who they are and how you are going to improve their lives. I want to leave the place a better place than I found it. I think that's the biggest thing, to make life just a little better than I found it, and I'm trying to do that."

John Donald Cordwell
(1920-1999)