Only four people in the United States carry the official designation of Lego Master Model Builder. And 23-year-old Andrew Johnson of Illinois is the newest — and youngest — to earn the title. — npr.org

Released on Sunday by the Center for an Urban Future — a think tank focused on New York City — “Designing New York’s Future” cites that New York City graduates twice as many students in design and architecture as any other city in the country. While extolling the schools’ strengths, the report also advocates for more business coursework in curricula... — thirteen.org

An intern-rights movement is afoot, sparking class-action suits against Hearst and Fox Searchlight; rumors of new rules at Condé Nast; a Times “Ethicist” column (headline: “The Internship Rip-Off”); and a book (Intern Nation) decrying many of the unpaid jobs as boondoggles. Amid the uprising, our interns surveyed 100 other New York interns about the apprentice’s life. — nymag.com

"Last month more than 25 staff failed to turn up for work one day in an organised protest at missing wages.

...Staff in New York are owed up to two-and-a-half month’s wages and the email sets out the company’s response to those either not turning up for work or asking to be put on unpaid leave." — bdonline.uk

The Learner stage generally lasts about three years. Entry level compensation starts at roughly $36,966 and can grow to $46,701 during that time — an increase of 26 percent, or nearly 9 percent per year. The starting base is small, but the growth potential is large in percentage terms. — di.net

China, of course, is not new terrain for international architects. Many top American firms have run offices inside China for a decade or more. The new arrivals, though, come not by invitation or out of curiosity but because they need work. They are, as Michael Tunkey, head of the China office for the North American firm Cannon Design, says, “refugees from the economic crisis.” — New York Times

Look, the infrastructure of industry is broken. It’s time to consider going pirate, setting sail, and making your own rules. Try life as your own boss, on your own voyage. No daily commute. No salad bar at 12:15. No cc’ing about the meeting. As Sara Horowitz, executive director of the Freelancers Union, puts it: “You can either be in the past and mired in bureaucracy in these big nonfunctioning institutions or you can be a swashbuckler.” — wired.com

With steady migration to Sun Belt states and many baby boomers retiring in the next few years, there should be an uptick in demand for new homes, healthcare facilities, and office buildings. This means the job market for architects should remain solid. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects architect employment growth of 23.1 percent between 2010 and 2020, adding 31,300 more professionals to the 135,400 already-existing jobs in this field. — money.usnews.com

For three straight months now, the Architecture Billings Index — a measure from the American Institute of Architects — has shown slight increases in work levels at architectural firms, with the latest figures showing a score in January of 50.9, compared with 51.0 in December.

... the index tends to provide a decent lens into the mood of the real estate world, and an increase may lay the groundwork for new construction projects months down the road. — blogs.wsj.com

I first visited Los Angeles in 1987 and the joint was then jumping for architects, as it was in many cities caught up in the building boom of that time. Then I moved from London to LA in 1991 and found all my new architect friends out of work, in the economic slump of the early 90s. The New York Times was running articles[...] that sounded remarkably similar to the Salon piece in their “it will never be the same again” declarations about the profession. — blogs.kcrw.com

There is randomness in job searches. Not every step will be successful. It's easier said than done, but here are three ways to build resilience: — Harvard Business Review

Architect and Woodbury School of Architecture professor Barbara Bestor presented an optimistic vision of architecture—one grounded in entrepreneurial practice and creating new opportunities—at the 2011 ACSA Administrators Conference: Old School/New School in November. (Co-chaired by Dean Norman Millar.) — vimeo.com

One of the coolest creative-class careers has cratered with the economy. Where does architecture go from here? — salon.com

If we’re going to find jobs in the U.S. and the rest of the world, they’re going to have to be found in exactly the area where China is finding them — tertiary industry, or services.

How do you create service-industry jobs? By investing in cities and inter-city infrastructure like smart grids and high-speed rail. Services flourish where people are close together and can interact easily with the maximum number of people. If we want to create jobs in America, we should look to services... — blogs.reuters.com

Private nonresidential construction may pick up this year, as demand grows for new U.S. projects.

The Architecture Billings Index held at 52 last month, a sign of expansion, according to the American Institute of Architects. The commercial and industrial component -- a proxy for private building activity -- climbed to 54.1 in December, the highest in 10 months, the Washington-based association said Jan. 18. — bloomberg.com