Archinect - News

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 criticizes SCOTUS decision limiting EPA regulation of carbon emissions

2022-07-05T12:57:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects has released a statement criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that restricts the EPA’s authority to mandate carbon emissions reductions. The ruling, which decided the case West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, is described by the AIA as a “setback in the climate crisis fight.”

The decision rules that significant new regulations by the EPA require congressional approval and was decided along ideological lines with six conservative justices in favor, and three liberal justices against. While the case stemmed from the question of how the EPA could regulate coal-fired power plants, the decision may have knock-on effects for future federal climate initiatives.

“That's a very big deal because they're not going to get it from Congress because Congress is essentially dysfunctional,” Harvard law professor Richard Lazarus told NPR. “This could not have...

Supreme Court rejects entrepreneur's First Amendment case that architecture is free speech

2022-03-25T10:34:00-04:00

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear the case of a Florida entrepreneur who claimed that his First Amendment rights were violated when plans for his proposed mansion were rejected by officials in Palm Beach.

The case centered on telecommunications entrepreneur Donald Burns, who applied to authorities in Palm Beach in 2014 to demolish an existing 10,000-square-foot traditional oceanfront home to be replaced by a more contemporary 20,000-square-foot mansion. However, the plans were rejected by Palm Beach’s Architectural Review Commission who decided the proposal did not achieve “comprehensive cohesiveness” and was too radical a departure from surrounding properties.

Burns appealed the decision to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the decision violated his First Amendment rights. The court ruled against Burns in a 2-1 decision, rejecting his argument that the design of the house constituted his own expressive conduct. “A reasonable observer would view Burns’ n...

Justice Stephen Breyer will continue to serve on the Pritzker Prize jury after Supreme Court retirement

2022-01-31T11:59:00-05:00

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer may be leaving the nation’s top court, but his days of making high-profile decisions are not over yet. Breyer will reportedly remain one of the jurors of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, regarded as the highest honor in the field.

The 83-year-old Breyer has served on the Pritzker Prize jury since 2011. He reportedly became interested in the discipline after having first-hand involvement in the selection of architects for the then-new Moakley Courthouse in Boston as part of his responsibilities as Chief Judge of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals.

Breyer’s architectural activities may be limited to the Pritzker jury, which he chaired for the 2019 and 2020 competitions, but his tastes and opinions in areas of public design are rather well known. His reputation as a philosopher has extended over into his Pritzker-judging activities as well, according to Yale SoA Dean Deborah Berke, who said she and the prize’s seven other jury members deeply value his astute and original observations.

“He has a very, very keen eye, not only for buildings but also for their context, their community, and within the building itself its composition and materiality. He sees works of architecture holistically,” the recent Topaz ...

Supreme Court rules that building codes cannot be copyrighted

2020-04-28T17:40:00-04:00

In a split decision with wide-ranging implications, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that states are not allowed to copyright their building codes or the annotations that provide guidance for those regulations.

The New York Times reports that the 5-4 ruling, transcended the typical liberal-conservative split of the court in articulating a broader reading of existing judicial guidance establishing that laws and legislative work cannot be copyrighted.

The decision could help make these codes more widely available for users, including architects, and might help advance the proliferation of design assistance services that use automated processes to plug building codes into Building Information Models and other design review software.

In the decision, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, states, “If everything short of statutes and opinions were copyrightable, then states would be free to offer a whole range of premium legal works for those who can affo...

Is criminalizing homelessness "cruel and unusual punishment"? The Supreme Court could soon decide

2019-08-05T13:41:00-04:00

A year ago, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told Boise that it’s unconstitutional to stop the homeless from sleeping in public spaces if there’s not enough shelter available for them. Now Boise wants the U.S. Supreme Court to have a look at that decision.

A recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece takes a look at the ongoing legal battle regarding whether criminalizing homelessness constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" under the United States Constitution.

Two constitutional lawyers, Theane Evangelis and Theodore B. Olson, discuss the arguments against the recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison.

A recent Curbed report provides a more nuanced look at the issue. In its 2018 rule, the 9th Circuit Court found that “the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.”

The United States Supreme Court could examine the 9th Circuit's decision as soon as this Fall.

Supreme Court: Transgender students can use bathroom of choice

2019-05-31T13:28:00-04:00

The Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand a lower court’s ruling that said transgender students in an eastern Pennsylvania school district can use locker rooms and restrooms that match their gender identity.

The United States Supreme Court declined to review a previous decision from the Third Circuit Court in Doe v. Boyertown School District that had upheld the school district's policy of allowing transgender students to use their bathroom of choice.

View of a gender-neutral bathroom at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. Image: Wikimedia user Ted Eytan

The Supreme Court has yet to hear a case that directly addresses the rights of transgender individuals.

Justice Stephen Breyer to take over for Murcutt as Chair of the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury

2018-08-16T14:50:00-04:00

Following Glenn Murcutt's retirement as the most recent chair, the Hyatt Foundation has announced that Justice Stephen Breyer will become the new head of the Pritzker Prize's seven-member jury. The U.S. Supreme Court Justice, who celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday, has sat on the panel that awards architecture’s greatest honor since 2011.

Though he never studied architecture, Breyer played a key role in advising the design and construction for the federal courthouse in Boston led by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. He also wrote the foreword to the book "Celebrating the Courthouse: A Guide for Architects, Their Clients, and the Public."

This made him a good choice to serve on the panel back in 2011, when the Prtizker's chairman at the time was hoping to expand the breadth of its jurors' experience. His new role is also not without precedent; Lord Peter Palumbo, a British property developer and art collector, served as chair from 2005 to 2016.

“It is with great pleasure that we design...

Fair Housing Act ruling now vulnerable with Justice Kennedy’s retirement

2018-06-28T15:49:00-04:00

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the most important decision on fair housing in a generation. He’ll almost certainly get to see it overturned in his lifetime. When Kennedy announced his long-rumored retirement on Wednesday, he shined a spotlight on the tenuous political balance of the U.S. Supreme Court. Famously a swing vote, Kennedy sided with the court’s four liberal justices on defining decisions on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, the death penalty, and other hot-button social issues.

The "disparate impact" ruling of the Fair Housing Act is now being reconsidered by HUD. This could lead to the department repealing altogether, despite the fact that the Supreme Court already affirmed its constitutionality. Justice Kennedy's legacy of further integrating society is vulnerable to be overruled under Trump.

Architects can now be held liable for building defects, rules California Supreme Court

2014-08-21T19:23:00-04:00

California’s Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the principal architects for a condominium project may be sued directly by a condominium homeowners association for design defects. [...] The decision held that even though, on most projects, the developer has the final say on design choices, the architect can’t escape liability to the end user. This decision is likely to give homeowners associations another target in defect cases.

The Architecture Of Abortion: How Providers Build Their Own Buffer Zones

2014-07-03T13:19:00-04:00

If women can’t always rely on legislation to support their cause, could they rely on architects? [...] Brown says it’s time for the design community to take a stand on women’s reproductive rights. “Architects have to become more politically engaged in our built environment.” To that end, Brown is helping organize a design competition that will rethink a privacy fence for Mississippi’s only abortion clinic.

Previously:

Debating abortion rights and free speech on the sidewalk

2014-06-26T12:39:00-04:00

The Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down a Massachusetts law that barred protests near abortion clinics. The law, enacted in 2007, created 35-foot buffer zones around entrances to abortion clinics. State officials said the law was a response to a history of harassment and violence at abortion clinics in Massachusetts, including a shooting rampage at two facilities in 1994. The law was challenged on First Amendment grounds by opponents of abortion

Massachusett's 35-foot buffer zone was initially enacted as a defensive mechanism, responding to a history of harassments and violence around clinics' entrances. The law had previously barred anyone from entering a fixed buffer zone around entrances to reproductive health care facilities (excepting those simply passing through, clinic employees, or those intentionally going in and out of the building). Plaintiffs in the recent Supreme Court case effectively argued that those exceptions were biased towards supporters of abortion rights.

More on the architecture of abortion clinics.