Demands and Organization of The Architecture Lobby

The Architecture Lobby's Demands for Architectural Workers' Rights

1. Enforce labor laws that prohibit unpaid internships, unpaid overtime;refuse unpaid competitions.

 

2. Reject fees based on percentage of construction or hourly fees andinstead calculate value based on the money we save our clients or gain
them.

 

3. Stop peddling a product–buildings–and focus on the unique value architects help realize through spatial services.

 

4. Enforce wage transparency across the discipline.

 

5. Establish a union for architects, designers, academics, and interns in architecture and design.

 

6. Demystify the architect as solo creative genius; no honors for architects who don’t acknowledge their staff.

 

7. Licensure upon completion of degree.

 

8. Change professional architecture organizations to advocate for the living conditions of architects.

 

9. Implement democratic alternatives to the free market system of development.

 

10. Support research about labor rights in architecture.

 

The Architecture Lobby is organized as a decentralized network of Chapters around the country. The Chapters are comprised by Lobby members forming diverse groups of architectural students, young, mid-career, and senior professionals, firm owners, design journalists, and academics, and are led by rotating Chapter Stewards. The activities of the Lobby are supported by an Organizing Committee, with annually-elected officers for Content, Communication, Finance, Organization, Research, Design, and Secretary.National-scale projects are discussed and decided in the Lobby Organizing Committee and in national member’s meetings (which happen over the web). Chapters will typically engage with these projects and are also encouraged to self-organize projects and events of specific concerns to their locality and their chapter membership. As a non-profit corporation, , the Lobby is governed by aBoard of Directors who are elected by the dues-paying members of the Lobby. There will be a future proposal for a set of procedures to elect Board members as their terms expire. The Architecture Lobby, Inc. Current Board of Directors.

 

1. Ben Martinson

2. Nancy Levinson
3. Sean Flynn
4. Marianela D'Aprile
5. Robert Gonzalez
6. Erik Forman
7. Kadambari Baxi
8. Billy Fleming
9. Justine Clark
10. Neeraj Bhatia
11. National Organizer: Maya Porath
12. Content Coordinator: Sean Higgins
13. Financial Coordinator: Elaina Berkowitz

The Lobby organizes a strategic plan every year for the development and growth of the organization. Download the most recent here: 2017 Architecture Lobby

The Architecture Lobby, Inc. is an organization of architectural workers advocating for the value of architecture in the general public and for architectural work within the discipline. It believes that the work architects do – aesthetic,technical, social, organizational, environmental, administrative, fiduciary – needs structural change to be more rewarding and more socially relevant. As long as architecture tolerates abusive practices in the office and the construction site, it cannot insist on its role in and for the public good.The Architecture Initiative, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization dedicated to supporting the educational activities of the Lobby. Through public forums and other educational projects, the Initiative educates architectural students and thegeneral public about the value of architecture and design in our communities, as
well as workers’ rights within the field of architecture.If you would like to make a donation in support of The Architecture Initiative,please follow the button below marked. Your tax-deductible gift will help the Architecture Initiative carry out its educational mission to promote the value of architecture and design in the community and the value of work in the field of architecture through public forums and other educational projects.