Young Architects Forum

In the matter of the use of Architect as title, I have the following harsh criticism of the Architectural profession and community. The AIA and NCARB don’t own this term, they only think they do. Individuals who studied architecture have every right to call themselves an architect. The AIA and NCARB can and do set up guidelines for licensure; that is their role. This gentleman in the article didn’t claim to be a licensed architect, or registered architect. From my experience in this profession, being licensed in no way ensures a good architect. I’ve experienced excellent unlicensed architects in my fifteen years in the profession, and licensed architects that were incompetent; and that their only obvious ability was to memorize information for the AIA test. The AIA guidelines established for licensure are questionable at best. In my opinion they are far over reaching and shouldn’t include structural, civil, and MEP engineering at all. These are completely separate fields in today’s environment. In fact they overexpose architects to litigation and grossly mislead the public to the abilities and responsibilities of an architect. Architects are not civil engineers, structural engineers, or MEP engineers; they might someday take notice that these fields are responsible for their own work. Many architects manage the entire process as I did, but that was our choice to influence all aspects of the project; to create an architectural space or detail. We don’t need the AIA and NCARB to base licensure on anything but architecture. After fifteen years of disgust with this profession over titles, ridiculous pay, decreasing benefits, unpaid overtime because of being “salary”, bonuses so small they have no relation to the excellent work and record profits made, long hours all year every year, and a complete disregard for family or personal life. I have decided to quit and leave architecture to a future generation. Hopefully if enough architects quit the profession, it will force change for the better.

Sincerely,

Architect
Assoc AIA
Pennsylvania

Posts like these never fail to move me; I often see people's testimonials of loss and disappointment in relation to their chosen profession. I hope it gives them some relief to write about it and some comfort to know that others do read them and can share their burden of sadness.

When I hear the bitterness in the post by "anonymous", I recall the down-trodden posts of my own. But a wise woman once said to me that if I didn't want to be a doormat, I had to get up off the floor.

I, too, have been passed over for promotion, underpaid, harassed, lied to, even fired at 4 months pregnant. And it's true that their actions were wrong. But I have to recognize my part in those things--that I accepted unacceptable behavior, gave the impression I was available to abuse, and failed to enforce good boundaries. Bad things happened to me in part because I let them happen.

I have to recognize as well the immense pressure my bosses were under--perhaps because they, too, were lying down on the floor for someone. The death of the profession will arise from architects who apologize for their fees and accept less than they need to maintain a hospitable environment in their personalities and their offices.

I hear the pain in these posts, especially the piquant lance from those who have another ARE fail letter, with no prospect of guidance for improvement. All I can say is that since I have started doing a better job of taking care of myself, I have ended up in offices that took care of me, too. It's true that I did move around a lot, but maybe that was necessary to learn what I needed to know. It has to be more than providence at work.

I have such compassion for the plight of people new to the profession, especially when it turns to the bitterness of people who've been around for a while. We all need to moan about the unfairness of it all for a time. At some point, however, we decide to focus on what we CAN change, and at last we notice the heroic efforts of people everywhere, trying to mend the broken system. If we're especially fortunate, we even join them.

I don't know when "anonymous" will reach that point, but with power like that, I do hope it's soon. I wish the same for all people in the profession who have suffered the way we did.

My daughter wants to be an architect. She will be entering her freshman year in August. I must say that reading these post, and others, is very depressing. Are there any architects out there that are happy and actually enjoy their work? Reading these post really makes me worry about my daughter if she chooses to pursue this career because no one seems happy or content. No one seems to enjoy their job.

To Tosha and others,
Here is the story of my short architectural career.

After growing up with a developer dad and experiencing the beauty of the classic, architectural buildings of Albert Kahn. I decided that I wanted to be an architect. I went through a grueling 5 year program at Michigan where I spent most of my time there in "Studio". It was actually uncommon for me to be back at my dorm room before midnight on any given day but I made it through. After graduating with a substantial college loan debt I got my first job 5 years ago making a whopping salary of 38,000 dollars a year. In reality I only made 28,000 K a year because I consistanly worked 60 hour weeks and didn't get paid overtime because everyone was salary. I seriously have to say that I have never been so stressed out in my life. Those five years, I had to deal with un realisitc deadlines, constantly changing designs and extremely low project budgets. Not all of this was our firms fault.But what I did notice is that I wasn't the only one experiencing this. Almost all of my friends that I graduated with were dealing with the same thing.

To make things worse year after year I only received a cost of living raise with a promise of a larger raise once I get licensed.
Fast forward to this year, I'm a five year, licensed architect with experience in healthcare and sustabile buildings. Because of a bad economy and even worse firm management I was one of 54 people they had to lay-off. At the end of of everything I was making only 42,000 a year.

I'm treating that lay-off as a blessing. I can definitely say that I WILL not return to Architecture as a profession but treat it as a hobby.

My advice to any young person wanting to be an Architect would be to make sure you absolutely LOVE the profession because there are plenty of things that would challenge that love.