What’s in a name: Want to call yourself an Architect?
This is the second post dedicated to all the emotion and confusion surrounding the word architect. In all fairness, I could have used the person I singled out in the first post as the non-architect instead of Carlos for this post. The results would be pretty much the same. But I wrote this article first and I also know Carlos, so there’s some added personal touches that I find poignant.
Quiz Time!
Who’s more of an architect? Carlos Jiménez or Jared Banks?
Round 1
Carlos has designed countless beautiful buildings all around the world. He was on the Pritzker Architecture Prize jury for 10 years (2001-2011). He’s won tons of architecture awards. He’s taught countless students over the years, training them to become architects as well. Two out of Jared’s ten architecture studios at Rice University were taught (wonderfully) by Carlos.
Jared has been in the industry about a decade. He doesn’t have anything with his name on it (unless you count three temporary mini-golf holes, a cabin in Minnesota that was mostly his design, and a handful of projects where he was the ghost designer). Oh and he really doesn’t do anything but write about architecture these days. Though he’s working on that. Or says he is.
Winner – Carlos
Round 2
Carlos isn’t licensed. Jared is licensed in Minnesota.**
Winner – Jared
Round 3
Jared can call himself an architect. Carlos can’t.
Winner – Jared
Round 4
Check out the projects tab on Carlos’ website. Carlos has done some beautiful work. Now check out the projects tab on Jared’s website. Oh wait. It doesn’t exist. <sad face>
Winner – Carlos
Round 5
Seriously. Who’s the real architect here?
Winner – ?
What a strange profession we belong to. Carlos is a great professor and future architects would be lucky to have him for a semester, if not two. Learning from him helps qualify a student to get licensed as an architect. But he himself isn’t licensed. So he can train you to be something he’s not? But wait. It gets more confusing. Carlos is not licensed and only has a BArch. Most architecture schools want you to have an Masters Degree if you’re going to teach these days (I’ll rant about that another day). But here’s someone with a BArch and no license, who’s training future architects. Look at his bio on his Studio’s website. Oh yeah, that’s right. It’s not his architecture firm. It’s his studio. And while his site talks about the qualities and benefits of architecture, nowhere does the website misuse the word architect/architectural, as far as I can tell. I don’t know if that gets him off the hook from a legal standpoint, but that line of thought is outside the questions I want to discuss in this post.
You know what? Carlos is a great guy who has dedicated his life to no only designing buildings but training others to design buildings. I think there’s a name for that, but I can’t remember it.
Bonus Round
A lot of the focus of who is or isn’t an architect tends to revolve around the design of buildings. That’s a pretty narrow focus. I know a lot of great architects (and unlicensed people working in the field of architecture) who don’t rank design of buildings as the number one concern in their professional career. Regardless of if you are licensed or not, what kind of architect are you?
I hated that my title for years was intern. So I became the BIM Manager and subverted the issue. I also worked hard to get licensed. But the story is more complicated than that. Subscribe to my blog to read more about the tricky world of being an Architect in the 21st century: Shoegnome on Facebook, Twitter, and the RSS feed.
**I was a licensed architect in Minnesota from 2009 to 2016, but in 2016 decided to drop my Minnesota license since I live in and am now licensed in Washington State.
Patrick May
Great example of the diversity of designers and design solutions. It is obvious that Carlos is a great designer, seemingly a competent and valuable teacher, but not an Architect. I think a lot of architects could look at contributions of design professionals who do not hold a license more objectively; it seems a lot of design is criticized or discredited based on its source. I think a lot of good comes from licensure, but a lot of good ideas are contributed by unlicensed designers, consultants, interns, etc.
In Carlos’ case, is he working with an Architect of Record on most of his larger projects? Does he get by with a project engineer stamping submittals? What’s his process?
Jared Banks
My understanding of his process is that the large projects either involve an architect of record or they had an architect on staff within the firm working with them. So whenever required there was someone licensed involved.
And of course a lot of the projects are houses that don’t require a licensed architect or are competition entries that went nowhere.
That also raises a good point. A designer that then teams up with architects… does that hurt anyone? They aren’t claiming to be something they are not. And work still goes to licensed professionals. Perhaps the only people left out in the cold are licensed architects who think their job is just to design pretty shit. We all know there’s more to it than that. But if those guys get run out of town, I have no problem with that.
Patrick May
I think the most frustrating thing is when a license gives a designer the ability (and some consider) the right to design ugly shit. It would be awesome if every building designed by an architect had some aesthetic value to it, but that is clearly not the case. There are so many buildings created from the origins of the AIA that clearly fall within the scope of requiring a licensed professional that are total crap.
Thats not to say the percentage of our built environment conceived by non-architects is any better, just that maybe there should be more aesthetic skill requirements put on the ARE. Life safety is the most critical part of a building, but thats not where the ideas need to come from and certainly not where they stop.
Patrick May
Architizer backing me up:
http://architizer.com/blog/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-postmodernism/
Jared Banks
and once again I wish I had a like button on my comments.
B. Aaron Parker
Thanks for writing this, Jared. You’re so right.
Texas is more entrepreneurial, laissez faire and libertarian, so arguably, it’s easier to practice there at the scale Jimenez has been working. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the parameters of regulation and licensure. Perhaps the problem with traditional professions (law, medicine, architecture, engineering and clergy) is that they should not be businesses.
There’s an old saw that I’m sure you know that speaks to the generally abysmal quality of the built environment and architectural quality on the street. “The “B” students work for the “C” students, and the “A” students teach.”
Perhaps the solution in the new age is develop/design/build. Autonomy and control and reward.
Jared Banks
Aaron, what a pleasant surprise! Yes I remember discussing that old adage with you a billion and a half years ago. 🙂 I haven’t thought about that in awhile. I definitely think you’re on to something with a new solution being needed and a re-evaluation of autonomy, control, and reward. I’m also intrigued by the idea that the traditional professions should not be businesses. I don’t know what that would look like, but I really like the idea.
Jeremiah Gammond
Love this series of posts Jared. I’d like to extend the conversation to architectural technologists, which I am. In the province of Ontario, the AATO has usurped the title by having an act passed in parliament. So those individuals that graduate from a college of architectural technology and work in the architecture profession as technologists can’t call themselves an “architectural technologist” because it’s a protected term. The OAA (Ontario Association of Architects) faces the same battle as do you in the US. They are the only body in Ontario that can issue licenses for architects (same for the other provinces and US states.) Luckily, they’ve started a program licensing technologists as well and are exempt from the AATO Act, and I’ve become a member. So, after 15 years of training, education, and experience, I can finally call myself an architectural technologist and not feel guilty about it. yay!
I have a short blog entry on my website talking about the various designer types (my only one….I’ll get on writing some more!)
Jared Banks
Jeremiah, thanks. And you need to self-promote! Here’s a link to your post:
Every Building has an Architect(ural Technologist…)
Great post by the way. Would you be open to resharing it as a guest post on Shoegnome? It fits so well into this whole topic.
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Pagkratis Thomas
Ok..As usual Jared does flag a query of comparison, which I totally accept. Now, starting to really speak my thoughts loud, there is a part in every “training” and trainee architect which has some really worth mentioning, not only factors of a process making but also on an end product “architect-package”. Before going to details I ll go over the factors, time – era, market prognosis, personal taste and talent and we all can add quite a few.
I totally disagree with the working rights of a BSc and MSc guy being leveled in some “cases”, most countries by the law protect that right and make proper qualification. No the best thing you can get from a BSc guy is some additional research papers on the field and that is all, for me at least. After that point a BSc or DLA guy being also a tutor is insane, because most universities and students of architecture go for the MSc at least nowdays. Such a tutor cannot be the same with an MSc tutor and a candidate MSc student. The BSc tutor has not less knowledge sometimes, but weaker and slower “knowledge reflections” and of course less up to date procedural experience even on the MSc subjects. He doesn’t belong there, he is only taught how to become an MSc tutor and for free.
I think what most of us on this page need to make clear and discuss more loud and clear, is our personal procedural statement of the 21st century Architectural. An idealistic hunch that lead us to make the decision to join an MSc program to have such degree.
Honestly for my truth, I signify the hunch and the mentioned above factors. The era only, I mean “time this age” cannot be the same from everyone because I has personal criteria how everyone imagines the future, derives from the student working path also, but at the end there is the desire and will for specialization.
And now being totally sarcastic, I wonder, were those guys with BSc or DLA the reason of an MSc?
Plus they can copy all they want, because for me that is my MSc justification and recognition. As the greek philosopher Plato has the theory that the world that we are living is the world of ideas, regardless anything else.I say my idea is spread-my idea is realized.
Dave Olufs
I’m not an architect but last night, I slept in a Holiday Inn…
Jared Banks
I once drove a car fast on a Texas highway… I got a speeding ticket, but I felt like a race car driver. 😉
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