Archinect - News

New AIA report investigates bias in the architecture profession

2021-12-08T17:29:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects has partnered with the University of California Hastings College of the Law to release a new report that details the impacts of bias in architecture.

The study covers the experiences, perceptions, and opinions of women, people of color, and other historically underrepresented demographic groups in the field. It examines how bias plays out in architecture, how it impacts workplace processes, and how it affects outcome measures. As stated in the institute's announcement: “AIA’s goal in conducting the study is to build awareness in firms of bias to help architects recognize and address issues that may be occurring in firms.”

The report also offers strategies and resources that can help firms address bias in the workplace. These tools, as detailed by the AIA, are the same ones that businesses use to solve any major problem: evidence, goals, and metrics. Specifically, the AIA calls on the implementation of “Bias Interrupters,” which are adjustments ...

NOMA leadership echos the need to 'fight all systems of bias, oppression, and prejudice' following the guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial

2021-04-26T17:37:00-04:00

On Wednesday, April 20th, the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd brought a ripple effect of response and emotion across the nation. While this verdict is a step, it is not a "static pivot," explained by NOMA's current President Jason Pugh and former NOMA President Kimberly Dowdell. As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to spark awareness and action, architecture schools, firms, and organizations across the nation responded with support to stand with the Black community and to demand racial justice within the industry.

After hearing the trial results, it led me to reflect on the statements and plans from the architecture community shared in 2020. Since last year, what tangible results have occurred since architects, firms, and institutions addressed the need to dismantle systemic racism and white supremacy? While steps towards anti-racism are a daily affair, how deep can these statements and reform plans go before we see a change?

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The tuition to income ratio is very concerning for all, and terrifying for the Black community

2020-10-09T13:46:00-04:00

Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski of WAI Think Tank have released some very troubling new data as part of their ongoing work studying structural racism in architecture. Part of their research has tracked the cost of tuition, along with other related typical expenses with student living, with the median household income in a number of cities across the US.

In Manhattan, for example, the annual tuition at Columbia GSAPP, in the M.Arch program, costs over $61k, with additional related expenses adding up to nearly $100k. Meanwhile, the median white household income is around $86k and the median Black household income is only $28k.

Archinect Sessions #158: A Conversation with Nathalie Frankowski and Cruz Garcia of WAI Architecture Think Tank

The "Anti-Liberation Paywall", part of their larger Manual of Anti-Racist Architectural Pedagogy, describes this problem in detail, and discusses the role of academic institutions as instruments of settler-colonial legacies, displacing infrastruct...

Sarah Whiting outlines six point plan for addressing structural racism at Harvard GSD

2020-06-15T17:59:00-04:00

Following advocacy efforts from the African American Student Union (AASU) and AfricaGSD at Harvard University, Harvard GSD Dean Sarah Whiting has unveiled a list of steps the school will take as it works to address institutional failures on issues of anti-racism and racial equality.

In the aftermath of the nationwide protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement that have prioritized a renewed focus on dismantling racist policies and practices across the country, student activists with AASU and AfricaGSD published a 13 point memo demanding that Harvard GSD "actively institutionalize anti-racism and acknowledge that pedagogy has a cultural obligation." The letter asks GSD to "restructure all courses at the GSD to include Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) voices," hire more Black faculty, staff, and administrators, reform how the school curates its guest critic panels and lecture series, and retrain its staff to understand racial dynamics in the United States, amo...