Design: WILLIAM MCDONOUGH: A Whole New World

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As we go on talking, a man and a woman appear and stop to talk shop loudly no more than 3 ft. from where we are sitting. Though it has to be clear that McDonough and I are in quiet conversation, they bray at each other for several minutes as if we do not exist. To me their behavior is simply a moment of normal human rudeness, though it is a little jarring in a building that is supposed to foster collegial bliss. I suggest to McDonough that civility is something that cannot be designed, and he starts to agree. Then he stops, grows pensive and says, as if making a note to himself, "Design for civility."

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