Were they involved on the project? Are you sure the project is yours? It takes a lot of actors to put up an architectural production. We all tend to oversell our involvement in everything we do.

It is a small project that I, solely designed. This is not a case of a past employee overstepping their bounds on a project that they worked on in my office. This is unambiguous - one firm putting an image of a project that another firm designed.

That's funny. I don't understand the mental state needed to just blatantly pass others work as own. Dumb.

You seem like a well written lad; send them a cease and desist letter asap. Chances are their other projects are swiped as well. Is the thief licensed? They could be getting themselves in a world of hurt.

The irony is that I only went on their website because I had lost a (large house) project to them about a year ago and wanted to see if they had any images of what they had done. While going thru their portfolio, I stumbled upon my project.

So there is a possibility that he could have gotten the large house project, in part due to showing my work (if he shows this image in his portfolio to potential clients).

What is even more shocking than someone doing this, is that his firm is one of he top firms in the area.

wow tyvek, seems like you could conceivably argue for damages beyond copyright.

be sure to pdf those pages of their site asap.

I would use this information to ensure they stop being 'one of the top firms in the area'. It's hard enough to compete on a level playing field.

Print to PDF of infringing pages is a must do. Good thinking there jeffe.

The question is did the other firm step in and rehab your design? Did you see the project through completion?

Who is the architect of record?

You could have designed it but the client could have taken the design to another firm for construction.

UG: No, there is zero ambiguity. I saw it thru to construction. I am personally friends with the caretaker on the estate (which is how I got the project) and he also has the (very talented) landscape architect's work on his website as well.

Years ago, he renovated the kitchen in this house and now he somehow obtained images of the entire property and is marketing it as his own. My project was an outbuilding in the landscape and the images cannot possibly be construed, even in the broadest sense, as part of his work. I could see if the main house was in the background, then I could at least give him the benefit of the doubt and say it is a context shot (but even this is a huge stretch), but the photograph of my project is the outbuilding sitting at the end of an orchard.

happens every day

If he's an AIA member, file an ethics complaint against his sorry ass. If the story is as you state, he's in violation of the Canon of Ethics.

why aren't you mentioning names?

tyvek: I'm sorry to hear this. I know it happens a lot, but the feeling of sickness in the pit of your stomach makes it so much worse than just whatever financial ramifications it might have. Ugh, people are so shitty.

What my good friend did when it happened to him - a guy in another state essentially stole his entire website including layout, images, and text - even a personal story about how his childhood experiences in buildings! - is called the guy on the cell phone number on his site at 8pm (when he discovered it) and threatened legal action unless the guy took the images and everything down immediately. My friend stayed on the phone with this pr*ick and watched the website come down. He was calm but clearly had the upper hand both legally and ethically. The other guy caved, obviously.

When it happened to my husband, a similar situation, he sent an angry email and got one back in response. Very unsatisfying, even though eventually the stolen work was taken down. I think the phone call is direct and frankly, if you're the stealer, terrifying.

A call to AIA, licensing board, BBB etc. can all be threats OR actual actions you follow through on, too. Good luck.

Our firm has had had a couple of experiences with this - in one case another 'architectural designer' showed our project on their website as their own, and in another case a higher profile architect literally copied our work. We wrote to the designer and they removed the images immediately. In looking into what cold be done about the copying architect, we found that we would need to win a copyright infringement action before the AIA would consider it an ethics issue.

Reminds me of something that happened while I was an undergrad.

One of my temporary roommates at the time decided he really needed a good grade in our sophomore studio, so he decided to "borrow" a friends project from the year before, assuming the professors wouldn't remember it.

Unfortunately for him, this friend of his also donated a copy of his sophomore portfolio to the school as an example, and every sophomore in the school at the time was just starting their portfolios, so we were all looking through the school's examples. So eventually once student noticed that both projects were *exactly* identical (he didn't even bother changing anything).

Long story short, he got expelled from the architecture program while everyone else in the studio just had to wonder how he could be so dumb.

i know of a few principals around these parts who are very quick to take offense and believe that another firm is misrepresenting itself when in fact it is simply a matter of a consultant showing its work on a project, but not crediting the owner of the prime contract. i've also seen the same sort of offense taken when a designer on staff takes credit for a project as lead designer without sufficiently crediting the principal. on projects with large project teams and multiple consultants, it's usually almost impossible for one party or another to take credit for "the design." tyvek's case sounds a bit more cut and dry, but quite often, i think an architect's ego prevents him or her from seeing that authorship in this profession is often very difficult to distinguish.

dear architects...

AIA, BBB, and copyright laws all very interesting but...you need to kick them in the balls hard.

post a full page add in the local newspaper with the house and qouting the caretaker about how well you did the project.

then mail flyers to all their clients.

don't say how dishonest they are just make it obvious to everyone that gives them money. i'd be nervous as a client if I saw my architect was lying to me.

then figure out what construction sites are active and call OSHA and building department to report minor infractions of the law.

As a serious question, what is the best way to make a record of someone else's website showing how they are using your work?

Someone above said pdfs - as a screen grab? Is there some other way to archive a web page, or are pdfs the best?

I had a client that told people he designed their masonry work. Hilarious!

You could send them and cease and desist letter from your attorney.

Yes print to PDF it should show the web address and date at bottom

"So, anybody here had someone take credit for their work?"

This is the MO of all the taskmasters of contemporary facist corporate America.

Of course, architects are followers so they'll naturally mimic the behavior of their corporate masters.

Gehry is the archetype for contemporary architects who take credit where credit is not at in the least due.

In fact, you might say that plagarism and taking credit where credit is not due is the MO of all "good" contemporary corporate bureacracies such as the AIA and NCARB and the IRS and the FED and etc. etc. etc.

Welcome to America, post death roll.

I read in the news today that Facebook is a hairs width from patenting the use of the word "Face".

There is a common denominator underneath this rip tide of insanity. Its not allowed to be named, however, in the name of all that is deemed politically correct (to keep the truth silenced), I will refrain from mentioning it here.

By the way, one might start to guess at the common denominator if one were to analyze the characteristics of what Gehry and the founder of Facebook and successfully identify the one, chief characteristic they have in common.

Also, the banks are all run by folks who share this same denominator (hint: Bernanke, Greenspan).

Coincidence? I think you'd have to be insane to not connect the dots with a little common sense.

...and yes, a lot of inhabitants of cyberspace (and archinect) are not necessarily playing with a full deck...and that is exactly what I like about it...free speech.

Not for long if the "you know who's" get their way at the FCC.

Is this guy back again? Oh lordy.

Just exactly what an interesting topic needs. Blatant antisemitism...

Wow, I wouldn't have believed that such blatant, ignorant anti-semitism still existed if I hadn't read it for myself. The great thing about free speech is that it gives people a chance to reveal their own idiocy.

And fascist has two "c"s, you bigoted prick. Want don't you go back to the 16th century and leave the rest of us alone.

I would have a little fun with the guy ...maybe call him up acting as a potential client and say ..I really like the xxx project on your website ...then ask specific questions about square footage and how involved he was ..be creative and try to get him in as many lies as possible ..then tell him who you are and threaten to take legal action

Maybe you can even record the conversation ..then send the pdf and conversation to the local news

I once saw an article in the paper about a contractor copying an architects exact design

Yup. I once found a school furniture project I worked on with a partner published in a major magazine with no reference to myself. It listed her contact details for purchasing and lead people to her website where there was also no mention of me.

Good times.