Recently, we’ve struggled a bit with some of our designs. At first, I thought it might be us. But, after reviewing what’s happened, I’ve decide its the client. Clients do more to kill great design and ideas than anything else, including the budget.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s best works came from clients who let him design what he thought was best. The best work has always come from clients who aren’t afraid, or if they are, they suppress their fears long enough to see what could be.

My best projects have been from clients who’ve trusted my enough to let me design the project. But some of the most mundane and “failed” projects are those where the client pulled up. At the last minute, they let their fear get the best of them and they couldn’t follow through. You know what happens in sports, driving and just about anything else in life when you pull up, rather than follow through. Disaster. Missed shots. Accidents. Medicore failures.

Throughout the history of architecture, it is good clients–clients who let the architect do their best work–that create good architecture. Without the client, there isn’t architecture. It’s all up to the client.

If you want a spectacular design, let your architect design. Let them go. Let yourself be surprised. You might get something as great as Falling Water…or at least something better than medicore.