I agree with pretty much everything he's saying, especially this part:

6. Please Don’t Contribute Negativity Without Taking Positive Action

The profession of architecture gets thrown under the bus all the time. There is no shortage of bad news or problems in architecture. It doesn’t help that Architects are trained and given college degrees in sniffing out problems or recognizing how things could be always better.

I bolded the last bit because that's something we architects need to be self-reflective about. As a group of humans we are taught to always dig deeply into a situation and imagine things different and better. Which means we should be proactive (it also means, I'm afraid, that we can be terrible and exhausting romantic partners, friends, and parents, as we tend towards control-freakishness.)

Donna, I'm assuming you'd take issue with this statement given some of your previous comments in threads that turn critical of AIA:

"Most importantly, stop letting architects from another generation bully you into thinking you must have an architecture license and that expensive AIA membership, because you really don’t need it — IF they’re not aligned with what you want to accomplish in your life. I have zero patience with this “You’re either with us or against us” approach to inspiring Young Architects toward licensing."

I changed the emphasis from his original paragraph where he emphasizes the last sentence. While I acknowledge the main focus is most likely on the license part, the AIA part also stood out.

Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but you'd advocate for young architects to join in order to change the alignment of the AIA from the inside rather than wait for AIA to align itself, right?

Great article!  

Of course I advocate for architects to join the AIA. IMO, it's the best way to network locally, not for clients, but to understand the lay of the land in your community.

But it's not for everyone. If I can risk sounding a little arch: some people are smart enough to see how AIA can benefit them, and some people try it and don't find it useful, so more power to them if they don't take advantage of that resource.

As for the license, why *wouldn't* you cross that finish line if you could? But for some, many, young graduates it doesn't matter.

I also don't think that young people should wait for change to come from the aia and NCARB. They have zero police power.  Young people who see it in their interest to deregulate the general term "architect" should lobby for a bill that does so.  It would receive political support in most states.  

I am meeting a lot of young designers lately who are not remotely interested in pursing licensure because it means they have to fit into a box that is not going to suit them or their practice going forward. The process is a waste of energy best spent doing what they are interested in achieving.

A lot of those same people are shaping the future of the architecture profession, which is more interesting. I wouldn't categorize them as negative at all however. They just dont care about the AIA or RIBA/ARB. I'm not sure when this became a thing, but the latest Venice Biennale really is pointing in a different direction for practice that is definitely legitimate. We might be seeing more of this choice in the future.

My husband didn't get his teacher's license either. He started a school instead. HE'S UNLICENSED!!! How ever will the children learn? I don't know, but they do. 

There is too much indoctrination in architecture. I guess it worked when the world wasnt globalized, things moved slower, there were actual mentors in the field that had some patience, and there were ladders up in the industry. 

I'd like to think that young ppl nowadays see thur most of the hogs wash in the architecture industry. It's actually pretty easy to. Low paying wages, high cost schooling and looonnng, little to no social/monetary mobility, mundane day in and day out work....

What is remarkable is that there are several instances of unlicensed architects and unlicensed landscape architects becoming so successful they hire licensed individuals to take care of the paperwork, basically. I know of one landscaping business owner in Georgia who hired two MLAs. The business owner was a high-school dropout.

^  Another example of why ordinary middle or working class students shouldn't go into insane levels of debt chasing the fancy Ivy credential.  There just isn't as much of a one-on-one relationship between prestigious education and success as the academy would have you believe.

Ya, one of the contractors that I work with started his design build company at 23...he is now about 38 and owns a 4 million dollar house, owns 2 teslas, boats, etc...the idea that you should wait for your elders to bless you before becoming an entrepreneur is dumb.  the key to success is starting on your path young. 

Yeah - one of the developers I work with started his company when he was in his 20s - basically worked from nothing except a few million dollars and a handful of urban commercial properties that his father left him.  You can't wait around for your elders to tell you what to do with your real estate portfolio.  now he's living the american dream.