New Organization Seeks to End Exploitation of Architects

"Architecture has a big problem, and its name is labor," observes Samuel Medina. "Everyone in the profession knows it, and yet no one wants to talk about it. In a fierce industry where overwork and undervalued labor are elevated as virtues, those architects—particularly younger architects fresh out of school—who are moved to speak up are quickly dissuaded from doing so. The message is simple: forget your social life; make do with your meager wage; pay your dues."

"But why do things have to be this way?" he asks. Medina speaks with The Architecture Lobby, "an organization of architectural workers and advocates that is seeking to restructure the profession from within." They're starting this ambitious effort with a national survey designed to study the relationship between architectural workers and their firms.