Archinect - News

SCI-Arc announces resignations and important policy changes amid months of controversy

2022-09-26T19:20:00-04:00

Nearly five months have passed since the tumultuous March 25 Basecamp panel discussion and the wave of controversies that came after. While the LA-based architecture school has slowly faded from heavy media reporting, the team at Archinect has kept an eye out for any updates and changes coming from the school.

However, recent news from the school sent out via email to the SCI-Arc Community has announced essential policy changes AND the resignations of Tom Wiscombe and Marrikka Trotter, who have received intense heat from students, alums, and the architecture community at large.

Our April 7 coverage reported on a slew of petitions, news of third-party internal investigations, public "apologies," new faculty appointments, and responses from the community. At that point, only time would tell how the school of "archit...

Carolina A. Miranda thinks Tom Wiscombe's new billboard should prompt a 'reckoning in architecture'

2022-08-25T17:09:00-04:00

Formally known as the Sunset Spectacular, it consists of a trio of massive steel panels that converge at a height of 67 feet, two of their surfaces draped in irregularly shaped digital screens bearing ads for tech overlords Amazon and Meta. If a game designer for “Halo” were to imagine a billboard, this is probably what it would look like. [...] There is an important story embedded in the design of the Sunset Spectacular. It has nothing to do with its forms.

Responding to the New York Times’ recent “puff piece” on embattled SCI-Arc professor Tom Wiscombe’s long-awaited Sunset Spectacular billboard in West Hollywood, critic Carolina A. Miranda offered a rather cutting take on Joseph Giovannini‘s “extra curious” failure to mention what has become a rather viral academic and professional controversy.

Previously on Archinect: Controversy at SCI-Arc over labor practices leads to faculty members placed on leave. Isolated incident or a wake-up call for the industry at large?

Wiscombe was the centerpiece of the recent investigation into student intern labor abuse at SCI-Arc and has been placed on administrative leave as a result of his alleged actions. “To many skeptics, it seemed as if the architectural establishment were intent on scrubbing the record clean,” Miranda wrote, citing the chorus of derision that has swelled on social media. “This whole episode also calls into question how critics (myself included) write about architecture.”

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UCL issues an apology and published report on the decades-long investigation of misconduct at the Bartlett School of Architecture

2022-06-09T19:09:00-04:00

A resolution has been provided in the saga at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture that has made waves in the press since first coming to light last year.

The institution has now issued a formal apology in response to the independent investigation into educational practices and environment that permeated at the school for decades.

UCL says it is also in receipt of the recommendations for improvement put forth in a recent investigative report created by independent consultancy Howlett Brown using a survey of more than 300 former faculty and students. As was expected based on previous reporting of first-hand accounts, the respondents in their survey detailed a frightening and toxic culture of abuse, racism, bullying, and even sexual harassment occurring at every level. Accordingly, the school has announced it will be removing several faculty members from student-facing administrative duties in addition to setting up a new working group that will help further adapt the recommended ...

A public apology gone awry, new faculty appointments, and a postponed 50th-anniversary celebration are among the most recent updates to the SCI-Arc controversy

2022-04-07T20:22:00-04:00

Nearly a week and a half has passed since the March 25 Basecamp panel at SCI-Arc that sent shockwaves across the school's community and the architecture industry. Since my initial reporting on the incidents and controversies happening at the institution, discourse regarding academia and labor practices has sparked further conversations around the systemic issues highlighted at SCI-Arc.

With news rapidly spreading across the internet, a wave of responses and comments from the community has surfaced, indicating that this wasn't an issue found solely within this particular school but across the profession. As I stated previously, "Discussions surrounding work and studio culture within the architecture community are nothing new. It would be foolish to say that those working within the industry at both the professional practice and academic levels are unaware of the highly problematic issues of labor and equitable working conditions."

As our editorial team continued to follow the events ...

Controversy at SCI-Arc over labor practices leads to faculty members placed on leave. Isolated incident or a wake up call for the industry at large?

2022-04-01T15:30:00-04:00

On Friday, March 25th, a panel discussion became a lightning rod striking attention to the questionable ethics of architectural academia and professional practice. Depending on what news and social media platforms you follow, keeping track of the events that followed SCI-Arc's Basecamp lectures can appear like organized chaos.

Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a "take" on the highly controversial and unsettling comments. But before I dive into what's already been documented and shared across the internet, it's vital to address the larger issues. Discussions surrounding work and studio culture within the architecture community are nothing new. It would be foolish to say that those working within the industry at both the professional practice and academic levels are unaware of the highly problematic issues of labor and equitable working conditions.

Ongoing efforts to reform toxic and exploitative work environments have been pushed to the forefront thanks to organizations like Th...

MIT Media Lab director, Joichi Ito, resigns as extent of financial connections to Jeffrey Epstein widens

2019-09-07T16:46:00-04:00

Mr. Ito stepped down less than a day after an article in The New Yorker described the measures officials at the lab took to conceal the relationship with Mr. Epstein, who killed himself in jail last month while facing federal sex trafficking charges. Mr. Ito sent a copy of the resignation email to The New York Times after repeated requests for comment.

“After giving the matter a great deal of thought over the past several days and weeks, I think that it is best that I resign as director of the media lab and as a professor and employee of the Institute, effective immediately,” Ito wrote in an email to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology provost Martin A. Schmidt, according to The New York Times.

The New Yorker report, written by investigative journalist Ronan Farrow, can be found here.

MIT Media Lab leadership under scrutiny for financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein

2019-09-05T19:00:00-04:00

MIT Media Lab director Joichi Ito has faced pressure to resign after revealing that he took research funding from financier and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. But today Nicholas Negroponte, who cofounded the Media Lab in 1985 and was its director for 20 years, said he had recommended that Ito take Epstein’s money. “If you wind back the clock,” he added, “I would still say, ‘Take it.’” And he repeated, more emphatically, “‘Take it.’”

Both Joichi Ito, MIT Media Lab director, and Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the MIT Media Lab, have come under scrutiny in recent days as news that a portion of the lab's funding was donated by convicted sex trafficking billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, MIT Technology Review reports.

Epstein, who reportedly donated at least $525,000 to the MIT Media Lab, died by suicide in August while awaiting trail for a series of new sex trafficking-related charges.

Cultural offerings at The Shed dry up as fashion week, artists avoid the venue due to developer's Trump donations

2019-09-05T14:30:00-04:00

Hudson Yards’ nonprofit arts center, The Shed, has been shunned by the fashion elite since developer Stephen Ross’ Trump ties were exposed in early August. Sources say that Michael Kors, Vera Wang and the Academy of Art University were all slated to show their collections at the sleek, $475 million venue but have pulled out. Rag & Bone publicly nixed the space, which opened in April, right after news broke of Ross’ Aug. 9 Trump fundraiser in the Hamptons.

Fern Mallis, the mogul who created New York Fashion Week in the 1990s, told The New York Post that The Shed is “kind of over,” adding, “If you know people showing at The Shed, please tell me because I don’t know who is."

The fallout comes after news broke in August that Stephen Ross, one of the developers behind the Hudson Yards development, was hosting a $250,000-a-seat fundraiser for President Donald Trump. The news was met with boycotts of many Ross-affiliated business enterprises.

Former Los Angeles City planning director charged $281,250 for illegally lobbying on behalf of real estate developers

2019-08-20T17:00:00-04:00

Former planning director Michael LoGrande recently admitted to violating city ethics laws by lobbying planning department officials just months after leaving his job running the agency.

This week, the City of Los Angeles Ethics Commission voted to fine former Los Angeles City Planning director Michael LoGrande $281,250 for violating the city’s “revolving door” rules. The fine is the largest single penalty ever levied against a current or former city employee, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Shortly after leaving his post, LoGrande was hired as a consultant by the City of Los Angeles to provide his expertise on unresolved projects, The Los Angeles Times reports. During this time, LoGrande used his influence and relationships with former colleagues variously to curry favor for several development projects he had been hired to lobby on behalf of as a private citizen.

Los Angeles Ethics Commission President Melinda Murray told The Los Angeles Times in a statement, “These are extremely serious violations that illustrate the reason we have revolving door laws,” adding, “Former city officials should not use inside information or personal relationships to try to creat...

Is the AIA doing enough to address sexual harassment in architecture?

2019-08-06T14:05:00-04:00

Post-Meier, the AIA has centered its efforts to stop sexual harassment by affirming good behavior in the profession. It’s using positive reinforcement to address sexual harassment and discrimination by saying the best work emerges from firms that embody equitable practices, and using that as the foundation of its strategy to incentivize better behavior.

Curbed's Diana Budds takes a deep dive into the efforts being undertaken within the architecture community to eradicate sexual harassment in the workplace in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

According to the report, although the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has worked to update its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, the organization has largely avoided taking punitive measures in their efforts to reform the profession's workplace culture. The report brings into question the effectiveness of AIA's current role in addressing delicate and difficult issues like workplace harassment, and whether architectural workers might be better served through the existence of a more official "secondary avenues" for reporting harassment, abuse, and other ethics issues.

The reactive approach, according to Gabrielle Bullock, director of global diversity at Perkins and Will and a member of the AIA’s Equity in Architecture commission, is to be expected. Bullock told Curbed, “The AIA is g...

Weapons mogul resigns from Whitney Museum board amid artist revolt

2019-07-25T12:41:00-04:00

A vice chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art stepped down on Thursday after months of protests over his company’s sale of tear gas, culminating in the withdrawal of eight artists last week from the prestigious Whitney Biennial exhibition.

The decision came days after London-based Forensic Architecture joined seven other artists in withdrawing from the 2019 Whitney Biennial exhibition.

Kanders struck a petulant tone in his resignation letter, saying, “The targeted campaign of attacks against me and my company that has been waged these past several months has threatened to undermine the important work of the Whitney,” adding, “I joined this board to help the museum prosper. I do not wish to play a role, however inadvertent, in its demise.”

Forensic Architecture withdraws from Whitney Biennial, citing evidence linking board member to violence in Gaza

2019-07-24T17:18:00-04:00

Forensic Architecture has announced its decision to withdraw from the 2019 Whitney Biennial. The London-based research group has also requested to replace its 10-minute video about the global spread of tear gas and bullets produced by companies linked to Whitney Museum vice chairman Warren Kanders, with new evidence they’ve found that directly links the weapons manufacturer to violence on the Israeli-Palestinian border in Gaza.

The fallout over the unethical business ties of certain members of the Whitney Museum of American Art's board of trustees continues unabated.

Forensic Architecture's decision to join seven other exhibitors in withdrawing from the prestigious 2019 Whitney Biennial exhibition comes as the art world questions the ethically-dubious funding that underpins some of the field's more coveted and valued institutions and events.

Serpentine Galleries chief resigns as art world confronts dirty money

2019-06-20T14:45:00-04:00

The head of the Serpentine Galleries has resigned after the Guardian revealed she is the co-owner of an Israeli cyberweapons company whose software has allegedly been used by authoritarian regimes to spy on dissidents. On Tuesday, Yana Peel announced she was stepping down as the chief executive of the prestigious London art gallery so the work of the Serpentine would not be undermined by what she called “misguided personal attacks on me and my family”.

Announcing her unexpected departure from the Serpentine Galleries in a statement, Yana Peel said, “I have decided I am better able to continue my work in supporting the arts, the advancement of human rights, and freedom of expression by moving away from my current role.”

Peel added, “The work of the Serpentine – and its incomparable artistic director – cannot be allowed to be undermined by misguided personal attacks on me and my family."

Issuing a warning to her peers, Peel added finally, “If campaigns of this type continue, the treasures of the art community – which are so fundamental to our society – risk an erosion of private support. That will be a great loss for everyone."

Peel's resignation comes as the art world begins to take stock of its dependence on unethical funding, board members with questionable business ties, and other problematic sources of income and support for its survival.

The Whitney Museum has received criticism for its ties to the unethical business practic...

Architecture Lobby survey takes a hard look at the state of the profession

2013-12-06T13:46:00-05:00

The Architecture Lobby is an organization of architectural workers advocating for the value of architecture in the general public and for architectural work within the discipline. […] The Architecture Lobby survey that is being distributed here gathers information that provides evidence for ourselves and for the public about the nature of our work and where we do and do not place value; where we could and should demand respect.

UPDATE: Please take the Archinect/Architecture Lobby survey on job satisfaction here.

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Frustrated by a lack of professional agency and fair compensation, an organization of architectural workers known as the Architecture Lobby are vying for a renewed critical appreciation of the architecture profession, from both the architectural community and the general public. To make their appeal, the Lobby is gathering data from architectural workers (architects, designers, administrators) and their firms through a 70 question survey.

In a similar effort to increase transparency and accountability within the profession, Archinect launched the Architecture Salary Poll in April of 2013. You can anonymously submit your employment information in an ongoing effort to generate real data on the profession over time.

Contribute to the Architecture Salary Poll.