Archinect - News

NCARB releases new 16-point Competency Standard for Architects

2024-10-03T16:08:00-04:00

A new framework for establishing competency-based qualifications as the initial basis for architectural licensure in the United States was released today by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

The new NCARB Competency Standard for Architects outlines 16 key competencies that are imperative at the point of initial licensure in order to ensure the public’s health, safety, and overall welfare.

NCARB says it will make updates to its existing programs over the next two years to align with the new standard, which likewise provides a "flexible foundation" for the development of future licensure programs. This, in turn, is supposed to allow NCARB to build more accessible pathways to licensure without compromises to the ardent professional standards that are needed to protect the public.

The organization's President, Kenneth R. Van Tine, says the new standard will "shape the architecture profession for years to come and ensure that the path to licensure is accessible...

Two new documentaries shed light on the life of children of star architects at the Architecture and Design Film Festival

2024-09-24T11:07:00-04:00

According to Kyle Bergman, the founder and director of the Architecture and Design Film Festival, “Kids who grow up with architects as parents mostly fall into two groups. Some want to become architects and some want to run away, to get as far away from architecture as possible. But then there’s this middle ground, people who are intrigued by what their parents do but want to do their own thing.” That third group is where the future documentarians come from, Bergman said.

Christopher Hawthorne writes in preview for this month's Architecture and Design Film Festival in New York, where Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown's son Jim will premiere his gleaning biographical treatment Stardust: The Story of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. Nathaniel Kahn’s equally elucidatory My Architect has been hugely popular, even garnering an Academy Award nomination. Another documentary about the life of Israeli architect Ada Karmi-Melamede made by her daughter Yael (who gave up a career in architecture to pursue filmmaking) closes the festival.

The four-day event begins tomorrow, September 25th, and runs through Saturday, September 28th. The full schedule of screenings can be found here.

NCARB Workforce Readiness Report outlines key skills suggestions for entry-level architects

2024-09-09T15:59:00-04:00

The latest NCARB Workforce Readiness Report for 2024 has outlined a list of imperatives called key knowledge, skills, and abilities (or KSAs) for students of architecture to gain prior to their entering the professional ranks over the next few years.

Leaning on the input of thousands of current entry-level professionals, the survey outlined the following areas as being most critical to the success of young designers working in the architectural field:

Target: Technical Proficiency

Learn as much and as many BIM design programs (2D and 3D) as you can. Demonstrating proficiency in industry-standard design software can lead to many different opportunities as students move away from the relatively more creative confines of academic coursework and into offices that may require them to focus on a specific project component or unfamiliar typology.
Develop an ease at deciphering and assembling technical drawings, construction documents, etc. in addition to their correct applications in AEC....

Architects would do well to apply lessons from philosophy in the age of AI, says Nayef Al-Rodhan

2024-07-01T17:39:00-04:00

New AI architecture tools will, in the short term, make good design affordable and accessible. But AI will still fall short when it comes to understanding human nature as well our emotional and dignity needs. Dignity means much more than just the absence of humiliation. It also requires recognition, manifested through nine critical human needs: reason, security, human rights, accountability, transparency, justice, opportunity, innovation, and inclusiveness.

"Looking to the future, tomorrow’s architects will need to be equipped with transdisciplinary tools such as Neuro-Techno-Philosophy, a framework I have introduced to understand the AI-neuroscience-philosophy nexus underpinning our society today," Oxford University's Nayef Al-Rodhan argues in a new treatise on the uses of academic philosophy in today's AI-driven design field. "Doing so will help ensure that the buildings of the future are in tune with our neurobiological predilections, neurobehavioral needs, aspirations and values for collective peace and prosperity."

Architecture is at a critical juncture as disruptive technology is remaking the industry wholesale. A litany of issues (housing justice, etc.) worldwide nonetheless commands its attention. As Foucault famously said in the 1970s, society "must be defended."

Architects Bruce Becker and William J. Lenihan appointed to U.S. Commission of Fine Arts

2024-06-17T14:47:00-04:00

Earlier last month, President Biden’s appointment of architects Bruce Redman Becker and William J. Lenihan to serve on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) was announced in Washington, D.C. The new appointments serve as replacements for James McCrery and Duncan Stroik following the culmination of their service to the 114-year-old body, which provides important design guidance for all new federal government projects in the capital.

Becker is the President of Westport, Connecticut's Becker + Becker, a 74-year-old firm known most recently for their award-winning redesign of Marcel Breuer's famous Pirelli Tire Building in New Haven. Lenihan is a principal at the Delaware/Philadelphia-based Tevebaugh Architecture. The pair join Billie Tsien, Justin Garrett Moore, HGA principal Peter Cook, and Lisa E. Delplace as other serving CFA members.

In memoriam — those we lost in 2023

2023-12-23T08:00:00-05:00

The death of an architect offers the opportunity to reflect on past icons while narrating their careers through architecture with the thoughts of their peers and a list of achievements in tow. Looking back, we recount lives in the field all too often simplified into being preeminent or respected with their outputs, like the state of architecture, being too far spread and impermanent to ever adequately explain.

In 2022, we saw the passing of many foundational figures in the industry. This year, we add more familiar names as we remember their work and legacy as part of our annual Year in Review rundown.

Below are some of the influential architects, landscape architects, and industry leaders we lost in 2023.

Jean-Louis Cohen (1949–2023)

Jean-Louis Cohen, 1949–2023. Image: Mandanarch via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In August, the passing of the beloved French theorist and architectural historian was shared widely as past students and other admirers remembered fondly what his writin...

Architectural job market expected to increase 5% by 2032, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says

2023-10-09T18:38:00-04:00

A new report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted a period of growth of job seekers in the architectural field, providing a possible sign of hope for the labor market at a time when economic downturn and the rise of artificial intelligence have spurred fears of an employment crisis in the industry within the next decade.

Data that was released in last week’s Economic Outlook Report predicts a 5% increase in the number of architects employed in the overall economy by the year 2032. A total of 8,200 jobs will be added per year over that timespan on average, according to the report. The figures indicate a faster job growth rate for architects versus other occupations in the country. The Bureau says the demand stems mostly from a need to replace workers who will either retire or exit the architectural workforce entirely.

During that time, the total number of architects working in the United States is expected to grow from 123,700 to 129,700. That’s more than the 119,90...

In memoriam — those we lost in 2022

2022-12-26T08:00:00-05:00

Each year, the industry loses a host of leading figures whose careers as practitioners, educators, theorists, and writers have brought architecture and design to the place it occupies today. Annual remembrances are a valuable means of examining the luminaries and thought leaders who gifted us with award-winning architecture, groundbreaking intellectual dialogue, and social achievements. This year’s list was no exception.

Below is a summary of the prominent figures we said goodbye to in 2022.

Ricardo Bofill (1939–2022)

Ricardo Bofill

Known for the optimism and complexity of his detail-oriented designs, Bofill’s work was shaped early on by the changing political landscape of his native country before evolving in scale, materials usage, and vernacular inspiration by the dawn of the new Millennium that would bare some of his best-received buildings. Walden 7, La Fábrica, La Muralla Roja, and his 1997 design for the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya were among the projects that cemented his...

Art Gensler, architect, businessman, and founder of the largest architecture firm in the world, has passed away

2021-05-10T22:15:00-04:00

M. Arthur Gensler Jr., the founder of Gensler, has passed away at the age of 85. He was a talented architect who turned his humble San Francisco practice into the largest architecture firm in the world with 50 locations across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and the Americas. Gensler founded the practice in 1965 and has worked on several remarkable projects along with running one of the most successful architecture firms for the past 65 years.

According to the SF Chronicle, Gensler was battling lung disease for the last 18 months and passed away in his sleep. Gensler's son David shared with Sam Whiting of the SF Chronicle, "he had a real passion for San Francisco and the Bay Area. My dad was a regular guy, respectful and friendly and never pompous. He loved serving clients through the power of design."

Born in New York, Gensler studied at Cornell University and received his B.Arch in 1958. In a conversation with Gensler Principal Maddy Burke-Vigeland, he attributed archit...

The Architecture Lobby launches a virtual summer program tackling capitalism, labor, and practice within architecture

2021-04-27T13:23:00-04:00

Advocates of social and structural change within architecture and professional practice, the Architecture Lobby has announced the launch of a new online summer program that will address three themes: capitalism, labor, and collective practice.

The Architecture Beyond Capitalism (ABC School), invites students, faculty, practitioners, and members of various publics in all parts of the world to "interrogate the structures and systems of power." Starting on Saturday, June 19, 2021, each theme will be discussed and broken down into a 2-hr live session every Saturday for six weeks. The Architecture Lobby adds, "each theme has two components: debates stimulated by lessons from people whose work is central to the week's theme and salons for discussing the outcomes of design assignments pertinent to that theme."

Image courtesy of The Architecture Lobby

During a time of much-needed reform and the dismantling of inequitable work ethics, the Architecture Lobby has been champions of change withi...

Architects Patricia Urquiola, Kengo Kuma, and five other designers participate in new miniature home series called 'The Village'

2021-04-02T15:46:00-04:00

Tuscan-based product and design studio Salvatori created a series that "captures the essence of home" through miniatures titled The Village. Joined by Kengo Kuma, Yabu Pushelberg, and Patricia Urquiola, to name a few, the mini-series invited each architect and designer to develop a "series of whimsical imaginary houses, each designed to address important and fundamental themes of contemporary living."

Starting this past March, famed Spanish architect and curator Patricia Urquiola unveiled the collection's first series. Her contribution to The Village series is a set of small stone homes titled Kore. Urquiola shared during Salvatori's collection release, the series was "a reflection on domestic spaces, something that is more important than ever today. Home has become the center of our lives, our town or city, our habitat. We have all become domestic navigators, trying to orient ourselves to these new latitudes, ways of living."

Kore collection developed by Patricia Urquiola for The V...

Construction Leadership Council proposes a 2-year plan for the construction industry to "reinvent" itself

2020-06-05T18:12:00-04:00

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) recently announced new measures they aim to achieve after the COVID-19 pandemic ceases.

CLC has published its "Roadmap to Recovery" plan, which it intends to execute in three phases in order to help the construction industry "reinvent itself within to years."

To bounce back from the effects of the coronavirus lockdown, the CLC presents the following phases:

Restart: Increasing output, maximizing employment, and minimizing disruption (0 – 3 months)
Reset: Driving demand, increasing productivity, and strengthening capability in the supply chain (3 – 12 months)
Reinvent: Transforming the industry, delivering better value, collaboration, and partnership (12 – 24 months).

According to a statement from the CLC and it's assigned COVID-19 task force, the Roadmap goals focus on the "retention of key skills and employment of the maximum number of people possible by getting the industry back to work wherever it is safe to do so."

...

Six distinguished architects and designers reflect on their first projects

2019-08-09T12:39:00-04:00

Taking a retrospective look at the careers of various architects and designers can provide us with an opportunity to see where each got started and how much of their careers have shifted over time.

In this vein, The Guardian recently connected with six architects and designers to ask them about their first commissioned works. In the article, writer Nell Card collects narratives from each visionary to create a succinct survey of this important early work.

Featured below are select images of the inaugural commissioned works of British architects and designers Norman Foster, Thomas Heatherwick, Kate Macintosh, Asif Khan, Mary Duggan and David Chipperfield.

Norman Foster's Amenity centre and passenger terminal for Norwegian shipping company Fred.Olsen & Co. (1969-1970)

Cross section of Amenity center and passenger terminal by Norman Foster (c. 1969–70). Image courtesy of Birkin Haward

Thomas Heatherwick's window display for Harvey Nichols department store during London Fashion Week (199...

Meet Gerhardt Fjuck, the architect behind the world's ugliest buildings

2019-08-03T15:43:00-04:00

What does an architect look like? How would this architect act or sound? Comedian Arturo Castro skillfully portrays a fictional "visionary architect" in his humorous sketch series, Alternatino.

The new series airing on Comedy Central illustrates a self-absorbed, pretentious "genius." From the round-framed glasses to his grandiose rhetoric, Castro's take on the fictional visionary Gerhardt Fjuck is indeed comical. Why? Because sadly, this portrayal is not far off from many vapid and semi-altruistic architects of the 21st century.

Image still taken from Comedy Central sketch comedy series Alternatino starring Arturo Castro. © Comedy Central

When watching the four-minute comedy sketch, it causes one to laugh and pinpoint which architects Castro used to inspire this "virtuoso." The comedian's brilliantly overdramatized parody aptly captures the essence of those famed architects we all love to hate and hate to love.

"When you enter a Gerhardt environment, I want you to feel something. I ...

Is architecture still in a state of denial?

2019-08-02T17:57:00-04:00

In his book Four Walls and a Roof – The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession, Reinier de Graaf paints an honest picture of what it is like to work as an architect today. De Graaf, who is a partner at OMA and director of AMO, the office’s think tank, provides engaging stories about the banal, everyday reality of working for an acclaimed firm.

When pursuing a life of architecture, it's hard not to become jaded by the peculiarities of the profession. A career path not for the faint of heart: architects often dream of using their skills to "change the world." However, as mystical and alluring the profession may appear to be, architects like Reiner de Graaf have expressed strong perspectives on the profession.

Reiner de Graaf speaking during his Strelka Talk. Image still courtesy of Strelka Institute

A partner at OMA and director of the firm's think tank AMO, de Graaf sheds some light on the profession in his book Four Walls and a Roof - The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession. Two years after its publish date, do de Graaf's assertions about the profession still remain true? Having re-read his article and interview coverage by fellow Archinect senior editor Orhan Ayyüce, it begs me to question: Has this sense of denial grown stronger? Have newly licensed architects taken on this method of thinking?

Luxury housing at Holl...

According to NCARB, the number of Architects in the U.S. has increased

2019-06-07T10:13:00-04:00

According to the upcoming July 2019 issue of NCARB by the Numbers, there are now over 115,000 licensed practitioners across the 55 U.S. jurisdictions. And with 5,000 individuals completing their final core licensure requirement in 2018 and almost 41,000 candidates actively working toward licensure, the architecture pipeline remains strong.

Since 2018, the percentage of licensed architects in the U.S. has increased by 2%. NCARB has collected data from its 55 Member Boards in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Image courtesy of NCARB

"The number of architects has risen over 13 percent in the last decade, while the total U.S. population has only risen 7 percent, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Compared to the population, there is now roughly one architect for every 2,800 people in the United States. [...] number of candidates completing their final core requirement for licensure dipped to almost 5,000 in 2018. However, this number still remains the second highest on record."

Image courtesy of NCARB

Starchitects and emerging designers make it on the 2018 list of London's most influential people

2018-10-12T19:46:00-04:00

The 2018 edition of the annual The Progress 1000: London's most influential people list has been released, and among the myriad of categories from the worlds of politics, entertainment, art, philanthropy, sports, technology, or science, there is (phew) also a list of architects who made the most significant impact on London.

Donning the cover pic, and listed first, is Eva Franch i Gilabert, the new, and first female, director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture, immediately followed by some of the (expected) biggest names in British architecture, such as David Chipperfield, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, David Adjaye, Amanda Levete, Thomas Heatherwick, and Patrik Schumacher.

Refreshing to see are names of architects who have been consistently putting out solid work and are now getting the wider recognition they deserve, including Frida Escobedo, the youngest architect yet to be invited to design the Serpentine Gallery’s summer pavilion, Deborah Saunt and David ...

Can you guess how many architects there are in each state?

2017-04-28T12:22:00-04:00

The National Council of Architecture Registration Boards (NCARB) has tallied up the number of architects practicing in the United States, as well as each individual state. According to their 2016 survey, there are 109,748 architects in the U.S. It’s a drop from the previous year, although pretty minimal (0.4%).

The survey also shows that more and more architects are licensed in multiple states (a 3% increase since 2015). Another finding is that the rate of new architects appears steady, with more than 41,400 candidates taking the Architectural Registration Examination and/or reporting Architectural Experience Program hours.

“Our data confirms that the economy is generating strong demand for initial and reciprocal licensees,” states NCARB CEO Michael J. Armstrong. “We’re also seeing continued growth in the number of architects who hold an NCARB Certi cate, which facilitates reciprocal licensure across the United States and in several countries.”

So how many architects are there in each ...

Society of Architectural Historians Presents Public Seminar at Chicago Conference

2015-03-10T13:29:00-04:00

Leading scholars from around the world will convene in Chicago, April 15–19, to present new research on the history of the built environment at the 68th Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians. But the conference isn’t just for academics. SAH aims to engage two important audiences—conference attendees and the local community—with public programs such as the SAH Chicago Seminar.

The SAH Chicago Seminar, “Magnitudes of Change: Local Sites and Global Concerns in Chicago’s Built Environment,” will take place Saturday, April 18th, at The Gratz Center at Fourth Presbyterian Church. Hear from local architects, historians, and policy makers as they discuss the history and future of Chicago’s waterways and neighborhoods. Harvard University professor Charles Waldheim will give the keynote address "Reading Chicago's Landscape as Urbanism." Alison Fisher, Harold and Margot Schiff Assistant Curator of Architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago, will moderate ...

Winners of the Tiny Modernism 'designer shirt' giveaway battle it out with architectural heavyweights

2014-12-09T13:52:00-05:00

We're excited to announce the three lucky winners of Archinect's giveaway contest in collaboration with Tiny Modernism.

In order to win one of the adorable architectural toddler t-shirts and baby onesies, we had asked you to tell us which dream combination of any four architects would adorn your shirt.

REM & NORMAN & RENZO & JEAN, TADAO & KENZO & SHIGERU & TOYO and ZAHA & FRANK & DANIEL & THOM kids t-shirts by Tiny Modernism.

The responses in the comment section were smart and plentiful, and we surely had a tough time picking our favorites. Upon heated deliberation, and a few deflated egos, we've finally settled on this list of winners:

CMPickard: Denise & Anne & Jeanne & Kazuyo
pencrush: Louis & Marcel & Peter & Wolf
b3tadine[sutures]: Peter & Michael & Charles & John & Richard [Sorry, had to do NY 5]

Congrats to you three (we'll be in touch with you shortly), and thanks to everyone that participated in the giveaway!

...

Win a Tiny Modernism 'designer shirt' for your future architects

2014-12-02T11:29:00-05:00

With the holiday season now officially upon us, the annual gift shopping panic has quickly picked up steam — and knowing how notoriously hard architects and designers are to shop for, doesn't make things any easier.

One of our favorite gift ideas 'tis season are the adorable architectural toddler t-shirts and baby onesies by LA-based label Tiny Modernism.

The simple screen-print designs are based on the fact that babies love nothing more than their mommy and showing off their preferred genre of architecture: Rem & Norman & Renzo & Jean on Monday, Zaha & Frank & Daniel & Thom on Tuesday, and maybe Gropius' Bauhaus building on Wednesday. How about a little black Tadao & Kenzo & Shigeru & Toyo for a Friday night out on the town?

You simply can't start early enough with the architectural education of future designers, and admittedly — channeling parents' need for self expression through their children's outfits never looked so good.

Visit tinymodernism.com for more and use your chance to w...

Kathryn Gustafson wins 8th Obayashi Prize

2014-11-21T21:41:00-05:00

Landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson of Seattle-based Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and London's Gustafson Porter recently received the eighth annual Obayashi Prize in Tokyo. Established by the Obayashi Foundation, the prize is awarded to a recipient whose work is in tune with the Foundation's mission of supporting interdisciplinary design research in relation to cities and urbanism.

Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC by GUSTAFSON GUTHRIE NICHOL

Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial in Hyde Park, London UK by GUSTAFSON PORTER

Find out more on Bustler.

America's Leading Design Cities

2014-07-09T19:35:00-04:00

Architects are the highest paid group of designers, and they are also generally the most highly educated. Architects employed in firms earned median hourly wages of $35.30, while their self-employed counterparts earned $22.90. But, when looking in terms of concentration, the nation’s leading clusters for architects may not be what you think.

Shedding its Fusty Architectural Past, Philly Welcomes Nordic Starchitect Snøhetta

2013-03-28T19:40:00-04:00

The latest evidence of Philadelphia’s architectural comeback? The Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta is coming to town for a project at Temple University. “We have a fantastic tradition of quality architeture and urbanism in Philadelphia, but we do go through low ebbs in that tradition,” says Harris Steinberg, the executive director of PennPraxis, the clinical arm of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design.

The Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta has designed some of the most notable buildings and public spaces in the world over the last 15 years. The new Oslo Opera House. Egypt’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina. A reconfigured Times Square in New York, and a massive expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Next up? Temple University’s library, on a still-gritty stretch of Broad Street between Montgomery and Norris in North Philadelphia. Snøhetta director and co-founder Craig Dykers is delivering a lecture on campus next week, sharing some of his firm’s work with Temple students and a general audience of designers, architects and urbanists.

Dykers might shed some light on Snøhetta’s early stage thinking for the library project, but design work has not yet begun, so don’t expect any renderings.

Even so, Dykers is likely to address a full house. The Oslo-based firm, which was featured in a glowing 5,400-word New Yorker profile in January, is very much in vogue. Plenty of its...

Tackling Concerns of Independent Workers

2013-03-24T19:07:00-04:00

Today, the Freelancers Union is one of the nation’s fastest-growing labor organizations, with more than 200,000 members, over half of them in New York State. Ms. Horowitz, who has never lacked audacity, says she expects to expand the organization to one million members within three years. For some perspective, the United Automobile Workers union currently has 380,000 members.

Perhaps, architect interns, and those contract workers, will look to adding their numbers to this collective, instead of waiting for venal institutions - you know who you are - to make substantive changes to the way that things work.

The ABC of Architects ~ this is so great!

2013-01-08T14:37:00-05:00

This work is an alphabetical list of the most important architects with their best known building. A lot of them have been left out with grief because we only need one for each letter and we done an effort to have differents nationalities.

The Blind Design Paradox

2013-01-07T00:33:00-05:00

Those outside the design industry may often wonder what makes for good architectural design. Most laypeople would say good design is aesthetically pleasing and unique, but their assessment would likely end there.

The Midwestern Maybeck

2012-02-07T05:46:00-05:00

A dandy bedecked in flashy all-white outfits and a pince-nez, chain-smoking custom-made cigarettes that he ordered from a New York manufacturer in lots of 10,000... an early devotee of the motorcar, president of the local Automobile Club, and a notably fast and reckless driver... He paid his rent in gold coins, before moving to an opulently furnished, Oriental-themed downtown Kansas City apartment/studio building of his own design.

Why is Louis Curtiss so much less celebrated than Bernard Maybeck?

On Places, Keith Eggener examines the career of the Kansas City architect, "designer of some of the earliest buildings in the world to employ caisson foundations, rolled steel columns and glass curtain-walls," who nonetheless remains a relatively obscure figure, well outside the canon of architectural history.

a,DOT INTRODUCING THE 52 ARTISTS!

2011-09-01T17:14:28-04:00

Chicago Women in Architecture is excited to announce the 52 artists that will be featured in the “architects.DOING OTHER THINGS” exhibition organized by CWA as part of Chicago Artists Month 2011, the sixteenth annual celebration of Chicago’s vibrant visual art community presented by the Chicago Department of Tourism and Culture. For more information, visit www.chicagoartistsmonth.org

Opening night is October 6th so be sure to mark your calenders!

And be on the lookout for upcoming posts as we introduce the women behind the artful work of architect | artists, a talented network as diverse as Chicago's neighborhoods.

FYI, poster design is a collaboration between Mindy Viamontes and Myself.