Archinect - News

AIA releases seven-point advocacy agenda for 2024 U.S. elections

2024-09-13T12:45:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects has released a statement urging action on a number of key priorities related to architecture and the built environment for the 2024 presidential elections following Tuesday’s debate between candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

"Architects across the country are keen to see greater progress toward key goals related to the built environment and our businesses," 2024 AIA President Kimberly Dowdell says in a preface to the seven-point agenda. "Our top election priorities highlight critical issues including the need for increased investment in affordable housing, aggressive climate action measures, enhanced resiliency against natural disasters and sound tax policies."

"[The] AIA calls on the candidates as well as the incoming new Congress to listen to architects as experts on the forefront of designing a more sustainable future," her statement continues. "Through these priorities, AIA’s members will continue to move the built environment forwar...

AIA issues statements on Supreme Court’s affirmative action and student loans rulings

2023-07-06T13:42:00-04:00

Last month’s disappointing Supreme Court decisions in the cases regarding student loan forgiveness and affirmative action have prompted a response from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in unison with other leading industry groups, including the AIAS, ACSA, and NOMA.

The former comes just months after the AIA published a study indicating that (as many already knew) student loans disproportionately burden both women and borrowers from traditionally underrepresented groups, respectively.

“The AIA believes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging enriches not only architects and design professionals but also the entire world through the built environment they design,” part of the AIA statement on student loans reads. “Protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the public is vital to the role that architects play in shaping our collective future. The AIA is committed to supporting a diverse profession that reflects the communities being served. Thus, equitable access to ...

AIA New York awards $7,500 in student loan support to six aspiring BIPOC architects

2023-05-18T10:00:00-04:00

AIA New York has awarded $7,500 to help six aspiring BIPOC architects pay off their student loans. The money is to be drawn from the organization's 2030 Fund, which seeks to “help build a more diverse and representative profession.”

The 2030 Fund was developed by AIANY in collaboration with the New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects. The fund is also used to support NOMA’s 2030 Challenge, which aims to double the number of licensed Black architects by the end of the decade.

The six future architects to receive the latest funding are Wilfrido Adames (Pratt Institute), Hamees Gabr (City College of New York and Harvard Graduate School of Design), Chae Park (Cornell University and the Art Institute of Chicago), Reuben Posada (Texas A&M University and Cornell University), Jahaan Scipio (Syracuse University and Yale University), and Stephen Sewar (University of South Florida).

AIA releases study on student debt and its impact on demographic groups within the industry

2022-12-07T12:30:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has released a new study examining the impact of student debt across different demographic groups in the architecture industry.

The organization used the research company Ipsos to conduct an interview survey of over 700 members who provided insights on how everything from employment to life choices was affected by the repayment of educational loans.

AIA EVP and CEO Lakisha Ann Woods said: "This data provides critical insight into how student debt is harming the profession. Through a better understanding of how debt impacts different demographic groups among our membership, this data will help us break barriers to the profession that disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Our goal is to propel all architects to new professional heights."

Among other data, the survey found:

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of all AIA membe...

Snapchat co-founder offers to repay student loans for Otis 2022 grads

2022-05-18T14:47:00-04:00

Otis College of Art and Design has received a significant donation that will allow for the payment of student loans of students in the graduating Class of 2022. The money comes from Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel and his wife Miranda Kerr, KORA Organics CEO and model, through their philanthropic foundation, the Spiegel Family Fund. This is the largest single gift in the history of the school.

“Student debt weighs heavily on our diverse and talented graduates,” said Otis College of Art and Design President Charles Hirschhorn. “We hope this donation will provide much-deserved relief and empower them to pursue their aspirations and careers, pay this generosity forward, and become the next leaders of our community.”

The donation was announced during Otis College’s 2022 Commencement, where Spiegel, Kerr, and interior designer and Queer Eye host Bobby Berk received honorary degrees. Spiegel attended a high school summer program at Otis College when he was 15 prior to attending Stanford Univer...

Billie Tsien on New York City, student loans, and hating Hudson Yards

2021-10-26T14:26:00-04:00

I would like to remove Hudson Yards. I don’t even know what I would replace it with. I just feel really angry because it’s a part of the city that turns its back to the city. It’s not even the buildings, or size of the buildings — which are humongous — that bother me. It’s that back-turning. I actually have refused to enter it, except when I was walking on the High Line […] it pretends to be a space for everybody when it is not.

Tsien, who broke ground last month on the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago, recently began a four-year term as Chair of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which will afford her a direct line to government officials on a number of different topics involving the design community.

"The biggest problem and opportunity facing the profession of architecture is diversity," she told Curbed when asked about the challenges facing the industry today. "And one of the causes is expensive graduate school with not necessarily any payoff in the end. Leaving school $200,000 in debt, and the prospect of a job that might pay $65,000 a year, is daunting to anybody."

Can the new College Ratings System help improve architectural education?

2014-12-19T14:13:00-05:00

Today the Education Department released long-awaited details on a plan to hold colleges accountable for their performance on several key indicators, and officials said they'll be seeking public comment on the proposals through February. [...] Two other possibilities on the list for outcomes are grad-school attendance rates, and loan-repayment rates. That last metric has already been put into place as the "gainful employment rule" for for-profit colleges, which are suing to stop it.

We'd like to hear from you: What predicted implications may the newly announced College Ratings System have on business, culture and education at Schools of Architecture in the U.S.?

Student loan default rates don't tell the whole story

2014-09-24T12:44:00-04:00

This week, the U.S. Department of Education will release data on the percentage of borrowers who have defaulted on federal student loans over the last three years. Schools with high rates of default face consequences. [...] Is default the student’s burden? Or the institution’s? And the federal government doesn’t always consider a would-be borrowers’ credit risk the way private lenders can.

How the US Crushed Youth Resistance?

2014-07-31T14:25:00-04:00

Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination.

In the darkness of the passive and compliant society we are living in, the article by Bruce E. Levine offers some clues to why it is like this. Are we now "WHATEVER PEOPLE?"

Chilean artist steals and destroys $500 million worth of student debt papers

2014-05-20T17:29:00-04:00

Late last week, Chilean police arrived at Santiago’s Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral and removed a white bin of gray ash — allegedly all that remained of $500 million worth of student debt notes. In the video, which went viral last week in Chile, Papas Fritas confessed he had recently stolen the documents from the for-profit Universidad del Mar. Then he set them ablaze in a defiant, brazen act of art.

Applications to Cooper Union stumble in wake of decision to charge tuition

2014-04-10T17:59:00-04:00

[Cooper Union], which announced last April that it would charge undergraduate students tuition for the first time, released figures on Friday that showed overall applications were down this year by just over 20 percent. [...] The new figures indicate that the admission rate nearly doubled, from 7.7 percent last year to 14.4 percent this year, which still places Cooper Union among the most selective schools in the country.

The freshmen class of Fall 2014 will be the first in Cooper Union's history to pay tuition. It remains to be seen whether Cooper Union's reputation overtime will falter, as quality considerations are matched against tuition rates and student debt, and students are given fewer options to pursue affordable education.

Architects Laud Introduction of Bipartisan National Design Services Act As Way to Cut Spiraling Student Loan Debt

2014-03-12T14:39:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) today committed to timely passage of the National Design Services Act (NDSA), which will give architecture students the same relief from crushing student loan debt, which is already granted young lawyers, doctors and others – in return for community service.

"Indeed, enthusiasm for such legislation knows no bounds on the campuses of architecture schools and elsewhere among the emerging professionals community. One young architect, Evan Litvin of Philadelphia, has launched an online petition that enlists the support of architects nationwide for speedy passage of the NDSA. The link to that petition can be found here."

Pave offers an interesting new option for funding an education

2013-07-22T15:10:00-04:00

Daniel Toole is a 28-year-old architect in Seattle who plans to attend Harvard’s master’s program in urban design. But instead of paying his way with graduate student loans, he is trying to raise money by selling a slice of his future earnings to investors.

He needs $80,000, even after scholarships and grants. Mr. Toole wants to finance a big chunk of that through a new company called Pave, which connects people like him with “backers.” If he reaches his goal and raises $30,000 from Pave investors, he will pay them 7 percent of his projected annual salary for 10 years.

“If I decide to go into the Peace Corps or do something like work for a major firm that didn’t pay well for the first couple years out of school, the percentage of total income would be quite a bit lower than standard 10-year loan paybacks,” said Mr. Toole, who has commitments for nearly $11,000 so far.

The program comes with other perks: the investors, who clearly want to see their human investments succeed, often double as mentors.

“This is me reaching out and seeing if I can get access to people who can guide me through my career and push me around through their own networks,” Mr. Toole added. “I need solid financial mentorship. I am not great with money, and ...

Architects Support Students' Call for Pro Bono Work in Exchange for Loan Relief

2012-04-25T18:24:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) today called for Congress to pass legislation that includes architecture school graduates in the same programs that offer other graduates loan debt assistance if they donate their services to their communities and elsewhere.

The AIA/AIAS initiative comes as both President Obama this past weekend and likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney today urged Congress to head off a scheduled increase in student loan interest rates this July.

Also today, the AIAS released a survey of almost 600 architect school graduates showing that graduating architecture students carry a much higher amount of undergraduate student debt - $40,000 on average – than the national student loan debt average of $25,000. AIAS members will visit Capitol Hill in July to lobby lawmakers on these issues.

“There are numerous opportunities for young talented architects to use their skills to help rebuild our nation’s communities,” said AIA President Jeff Potter, FAIA. “Yet, more and more young architects are leaving the profession because they cannot afford to remain; this brain-drain will have major implications for our communities and the construction industry in the years ahead.”

“The AIA and AIAS are not asking for a ...

Obama only 8 years out of student loan debt #dontdoublemyrate

2012-04-24T20:07:00-04:00

For the first eight years of our marriage, [Michelle and I] were paying more in student loans than what we were paying for our mortgage. So we know what this is about. And we were lucky to land good jobs with a steady income. But we only finished paying off our student loans—check this out, all right, I’m the President of the United States—we only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago.

#dontdoublemyrate

Dept. of Education breaks down Stockton mans door [for wife's defaulted student loans]

2011-06-08T16:37:57-04:00

"They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids," Wright said. Wright said he later went to the mayor and Stockton Police Department, but the City of Stockton had nothing to do with Wright's search warrant. The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife's defaulted student loans. "They busted down my door for this," Wright said. "It wasn't even me."