Everyone on our committee has a great deal of respect for your ability. We certainly appreciate your advice because of your long experience in the Senate and also in the House.

If you desire to complete your statement, or if you desire to read part of it, then put it into the record, I am quite sure the committee will abide by whatever you choose to do.

STATEMENT OF HON. CLAUDE PEPPER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA

Mr. PEPPER. Mr. Chairman, I thank you very much for your kind

words.

You know I am delighted to be here before you, my old colleagues on this distinguished committee. That was a very happy experience for me, the 2 years that I was privileged to serve with you on this great committee. You have done great work in the service of our country and I know you are going to continue to do that.

This bill that you have before you today is another evidence of the important contribution that this committee is making to our country.

You do have a little bit more space surroundings than we enjoyed in our old committee room. It is very lovey and very fitting to the dignity and importance of this committee.

I just have a relatively short statement here, Mr. Chairman, which I will read if I may.

Mr. Chairman, I am glad to have this opportunity to register my fervent support of the legislation being considered by this Subcommittee on Housing.

I have long been an advocate of forward-looking housing programs and I have consequently introduced four bills, H.R. 13278, H.R. 13279, H.R. 13280, and H.R. 13281, which are identical to those put forward by the administration to encourage a new surge of urban revival in our Nation.

First on the list is the imaginative Demonstration Cities Act of 1966. Cities have always represented the citadel of culture and human accomplishment, but America has now been witnessing the tragic results of insufficient care and concern for these monuments of Ameri can creativity. Decay of inner city tenements, the exodus of middleincome families and the steady pollution of air and water are only a few of the problems our urban areas are facing.

They cannot solve these problems alone. Billions of dollars and much human talent are needed. And it will demand the cooperation of our Federal Government and our States, as well as the cities them selves, to begin the task of making the quality of life in our cities commensurate with our material abundance.

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Therefore, the proposal for Federal grants to cities of 90 percent planning costs and 80 percent of costs for demonstration projects is a greatly needed first step in this effort.

The concept of the demonstration project is sound.

It stresses the provision of educational and social service as well as physical renewal. The city's plans must pay adequate attention to the supply of housing of low and moderate cost. And in light of the

Congress developing concern for high esthetic standards in our Federal programs, the bill encourages cities to do all possible to maintain high quality design in architecture and to preserve where appropriate their historical and cultural heritage.

Mr. Chairman, shortly after the Watts riots in Los Angeles last summer, unhappily now, repeated to a degree, I called for a congressional inquiry into our areas of urban friction. In my speech on the floor on September 9, I suggested that consideration be given to better coordination of Federal programs in housing, welfare, job training, education, and antipoverty efforts. I said that "Part of our problem now seems to be the lack of concentration of those efforts where the most could be achieved." And I advocated that certain areas be designated by the Federal Government as eligible for concentrated aid.

I am hopeful, therefore, that this Demonstration Cities Act, with its provisions for concentrated assistance to blighted neighborhoods and its provisions to help cities participate more fully in existing Federal aid programs will do much to eradicate the causes of social unrest and despair.

Mr. Chairman, I would also urge the subcommittee's favorable report on the Urban Development Act. This bill contains authorizations for assistance to planned metropolitan development. In the last few years the Congress has passed landmark legislation dealing with water pollution prevention, open-space land and urban beautification, and grants for water and sewer facilities.

In all these pieces of legislation and many others, the Congress has required comprehensive planning as a prerequisite for Federal assistance. Now, Mr. Chairman, if we lay this necessary task on local governments, it seems to me altogether proper that we also do what we can to aid them in their planning. Certainly we do not want to jeopardize the pace of our urban development programs by imposing new planning burdens on our localities which they cannot financially afford.

The other key provisions of the Urban Development Act is that authorizing mortgage insurance for builders who develop "new communities." I look on the development of such entirely new towns as a creative way to meet the growth in population and to alleviate the crowding of our central cities. This is the third time this proposal has come before the Congress, and each year we delay, the more difficult becomes the fulfillment of an inevitable responsibility-that of rationally guiding the necessary land development to accommodate urban growth.

The other bills now being considered by this distinguished subcommittee are the housing and urban development amendments and the group practice facilities bill. The first strengthens our housing programs for low- and moderate-income persons by liberalizing FHẨ insurance provisions and by facilitating the lease of low-rent housing for displaced families. The group practice facilities bill will enable the Federal Housing Administration to assure the availability of credit on reasonable terms for the construction and equipment of facilities for the group practice of medicine or dentistry.

A most important contribution to our country. Other bills that are following along—there are going to be increasing needs for pro

fessional personnel and so arrangements for personnel that we have to provide their services most efficiently to the public. The group practice for medicine, I believe, has been demonstrated to be perhaps the most efficient of all methods of rendering those professional serv ices to the public.

Mr. Chairman, 1966 can be another great year for housing and urban development legislation by the Congress. If those four bills are enacted, 1966 will indeed be what President Johnson has called the "year of rebirth for American cities."

This distinguished committee made an immeasurable contribution in this area. I am sure you are going to carry on your program this year. I commend you for what you did.

Mr. BARRETT. Thank you, Congressman Pepper. You have given us a very fine statement in support of these bills and your statement will be of great help.

Mr. PEPPER. If you get them up to the Rules Committee, I will give you all the help I can.

Mr. BARRETT. Our next witness is Morris Ketchum, president, American Institute of Architects.

It is certainly nice to have you here this morning. It is the desire of this committee to always try to make the witnesses feel at home with as much relaxation as possible and we hope we can give you feeling, too.

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I note that you have associates with you. I was wondering, Mr. Ketchum, if you would be desirous to introduce them for the record. Mr. KETCHUM. I do, sir, but before I do and before I go into my statement, I would like to ask your advice.

I have here, and I believe the members of your subcommittee have, as well, our statement. I can either read it in full, which I leave to your judgment, or take the most basic and important points in this statement and dwell on those. I would like your advice on that point.

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Mr. BARRETT. We are hopeful, as I pointed out, that we can make feel at home, and anything that you desire to do, you may take advantage of. We will be quite sure that this committee will go along. Mr. KETCHUM. Thank you, so much.

STATEMENT OF MORRIS KETCHUM, JR., FAIA, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS; ACCOMPANIED BY WILLIAM H. SCHEICK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; AND PHILIP HUTCHINSON, JR., DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

Mr. KETCHUM. My name is Morris Ketchum, Jr. I am a practicing architect and principal of a firm located in New York City. With me are William H. Scheick, executive director of the American Institute of Architects, and Philip Hutchinson, Jr., the institute's director of governmental affairs.

Today it is my privilege to appear before you as president of the American Institute of Architects. The AIA, now in its 109th year, organized to unite architects in a professional society wherein

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they could combine their efforts to promote the artistic, scientific, and

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practical efficiency of the profession. AIA members now number about 24,000 and include 95 percent of the architectural firms in this country. Although a small profession in number, we have a great role to play as builders of America's cities.

I would like to limit my remarks this morning to specific sections of legislation, introduced by Representatives Patman, Barrett, and others, entitled "Demonstration Cities Act of 1966" (H.R. 12341 and H.R. 12342), the "Urban Development Act" (H.R. 12939 and H.R. 12946), and the "Housing and Urban Development Amendments of 1966" (H.R. 13064 and H.R. 13065).

I. DEMONSTRATION CITIES ACT OF 1966

FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF PURPOSE

Under the heading "Findings and Declaration of Purpose" the Demonstration Cities Act begins:

The Congress hereby finds and declares that improving the quality of urban um, life is the most critical domestic problem facing the United States.

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We could not agree more. The American Institute of Architects has repeated over and over again that some aspects of urban life are sad indeed.

We amplify this statement. I would be happy to read that if the committee would like me to. May I have your advice on that point? Mr. BARRETT. You may.

Mr. KETCHUM. Shall I proceed?

Mr. BARRETT. You may read it if you so desire. You may read the entire statement.

Mr. KETCHUM. The pattern is essentially the same in the great majority of our towns and cities. The approaches to the city are defaced by billboards, garish store-front signs, utility poles, overhead wires, junkyards, and blighted business buildings. Downtown is usually congested, rundown, and may already have been dissected by a badly located highway. The waterfront, potentially a place for recreation, is littered with junk and industrial debris.

Too often, that part of the suburbs available to medium-income residents is devoid of interest and vitality. Most suburban shopping centers are squat islands in a sea of asphalt. In many things, large and small, there is a blindness to the good design and planning necessary to improve urban living.

Why should the Nation, with the most advanced technology, the highest living standard, the best program for mass education, the most successful political system, and the highest degree of ingenuity in solving scientific problems make such a mess of its physical environment? It is not that we do not know how to cope with community growth. We have a rich and valid heritage in community design. Thomas Jefferson, our third President and an architect, designed not only Monticello and the campus of the University of Virginia but several towns; he also made a design for the city of Washington before L'Enfant did, and he proposed a national system of roads and canals. William Penn's original design for Philadelphia was strong enough to guide the orderly development and redevelopment of the city to

this day. Distinguished examples of early American community design also embraced Annapolis, Williamsburg, Savannah, and a num ber of communities that have been designed and built under both pri vate and public auspices over the past two centuries. Communities have been built as "company towns" like Hershey, Pa.; as religious centers, like Salt Lake City, Utah; as governmental experiments, like Greenbelt, Md.; and as private developments, like Reston, Va.

Let me assure you that the architectural profession, which is daily confronted with the problems this legislation seeks to meet, is well equipped for the task of revitalizing our cities. Presently, the profession is carrying out all major objectives of the housing laws. We harbor no illusion that the architect is a superhuman who can remake a decaying city in a blinding flash of esthetic inspiration. But, as men who will be intimately involved in the rebuilding process, we assure this subcommittee and the Congress that by working together with politicians, sociologists, engineers, city planners, and others we can arrest the decay that is gripping our metropolitan areas and create an urban architecture worthy of our great Nation.

COMPREHENSIVE CITY DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM

We are extremely enthusiastic about this section of the bill. For the first time, to our knowledge, language has been written into a bill that recognizes the importance of quality of design and construction. Section 4(c) (2) requires the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to give maximum consideration, in determining whether a comprehensive city demonstration program is eligible for assistance, to whether "the program will enhance neighborhoods by applying a high standard of design and will, as appropriate, maintain distinctive, natural, historical, and cultural characteristics."

Practically, you might ask, what does the phrase "high standard of design" mean to an architect and how would this ideal be translated by a demonstration city? Primarily "design" is the function of an architect, and he applies the methods of design to creating man's total environment. The solution to the very existence of our cities lie basically in the architect's ability to design these complexes of buildings and related services so they will function and serve man rather than stifle him. "High standards" are the rules for the measure quality. This quality we attempt to produce with our knowledge, dedication, and skill.

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Our activities in increasing the public awareness of, and demand for, excellence in architecture and community design are supported by a swelling tide of interest. In the demonstration cities program lies the unprecedented opportunity of contemporary times for transmitting to this great movement the efficiency and beauty of which our profession and this Nation are capable.

Section 4(c) (3) further directs the Secretary to give maximum consideration, in determining whether a comprehensive city demonstration program is eligible for assistance, to whether "the program is designed to make maximum use of new and improved technology and design, including cost reduction techniques."

Writing this into the proposed law will insure that the demonstra tion cities will be truly demonstrative of good quality construction and design at reasonable cost.