Housing and Community Development

This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Residential Knowledge Community and CRAN Custom Residential Architects Network .
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We architects are known as free-thinkers, but where do we stand when it comes to supporting the "Occupy..." movements?  It would seem that few if any of us are in the 1%, but many more of us rely on business and corporate connections that link firmly into the 1%.  Are we remaining silent because we fear the reaction of our 1% clients?  If we are responsible for the aesthetic future of our culture, what are our thoughts about the trend of consolidation of wealth into a tiny portion of potential clients.  What aesthetic future does our culture have as the gap between haves and have-nots widens?

In the residential market, design projects are scarse.  My analysis?  For 40 years I've been drawing my clients from the top 10% of earners.  The 1% was always there, but I had another 9% of upper middle-class earners who were willing to invest in their homes because this was at least as good as an investment as any other, and if you hired a good architect and stayed in your home for a while, you could leverage your investment and make a reasonable profit.  This is no longer the case.  Home values have declined, banks are not lending and the job security of these potential clients is risky at best.  Does this spell the end of residential architecture as I have practiced it for a lifetime?

Personally, I do not support the consolidation of wealth and power, because I do not support the lifestyle and values of the wealthy and powerful.  Ours is becoming a culture led by fears rather than visions.  The 1%s percieved needs are not sustainable on a residential, business, corporate or governmental scale, and cannot be justified in terms of the distribution of resources for the future of the planet.  There is a lot of talk about "green" everything in our community, and at the core, the "Occupy..." movement is about as green as we can get, but nary a comment about political activitism on this forum. 

I'm supporting the occupiers and I've already closed my B of A accounts and transferred all my funds to a local credit union.  I haven't shopped in a big box store or a mall in years.  I live in a solar-powered Airstream trailer (off the grid) and have encouraged my residential clients to need and build less and enjoy life more.  The sector of "acceptible" silence is narrowing.  Are we going to be part of the solution, or remain a silent part of the problem?  

Your comments? 

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David Ludwig
Sausalito CA
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Hi David,
Congratulations and thanks for moving your money!  Our professional organization itself doesn't seem to get it yet.  I've received a couple of AIA co-branded credit card offers lately, offered by guess who - - Bank of America!  Deeply ironic and offensive.

I sent this letter to AIA HQ and to Kyle McAdams, AIA Marketing Director (kylemcadams@aia.org), but have received no response:

Summary:

BofA+AIA?

Details:

Dear Colleagues, I've been receiving AIA-co-branded credit card offers lately. Please reconsider the deal you've entered into with Bank of America, and discontinue it.  It ill-serves the membership for several reasons: 1.  It puts us in bed with the Bank of America, one of the corporations behind the mortgage crisis that destroyed the livelihoods of so many of us.  BofA is no friend to our profession; we shouldn't be partnering with them.  Find a good community-development credit union to partner with instead, such as the Cooperative Federal Credit Union of Syracuse, NY (http://www.cooperativefederal.org).  They issue credit cards too, and plow their deposits back into the community instead of bloated profits and offshore accounts. 2.  The benefit for gasoline purchases is inappropriate and counter-productive.  We need to be encouraging less gasoline use, not more.  Why not instead encourage the purchase of Metro fare cards, local produce and green building materials? 3.  The interest rate sucks (17%-24%!).  Does the AIA really want to expose its members to usurious interest rates and take on punishing debt?  Again, community-development credit unions (there must be at least one such in DC) offer much better rates. For these reasons, this BofA/AIA credit card arrangement seems particularly tone-deaf as marketing for the AIA.  Please scuttle it. Sincerely, Don Argus AIA 2411 E Calhoun Street Seattle, WA 98112

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Donald Argus AIA
Seattle WA
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I agree with your point of view . Moreover, as former President Clinton said " it is the economy, stupid!" I should say this time "It is the poverty, stupid!"  I have written an article about it in the CNU site that I would kindly like to suggest: 

http://www.cnu.org/cnu-salons/2011/10/new-country-within-old-country


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leonardo faingold
architect
leonardo faingold architect
buenos aires

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We will miss your participation here then because I assume you will also discontinue use of a computer, software, and search engines (Google) because the developers of all these products are probably in that 1% you speak of. Accumulation of wealth is not the problem. The existence of evil is the problem. The middle class will mistreat each other just as bad as the 1%.

I do understand the point you are trying to make though.

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Richard Jenkins
Principal
Jenkins Architecture
Raleigh NC
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If you thought our pool of clients was small before the crash, the rich people we chase as clients are going to become fewer and further between, just wealthier. I love how everyone focuses on the wealthy and none of the focus is on the other 99%. None of my clients are in the top 5%, as most are in the top 10-30%. I work for clients making as little as $30k a year and it saved my business. You can work for regular people too if you learn how to taylor your services to exactly what they need and no more. We obsess with trying to soak each client for every service known to man and thus automatically disqualify ourselves from working for those with less means, but a passion for good design none the less. All they need is a good idea and a permit. It's better to do your part than to give up the opportunity for not doing it all.

Small business has always hired more Americans (American being the operative word) than giant corporations or or 1%ers. The average Fortune500 company fired thousands of employees over the last two years and on average gave their CEOs a 28% pay raise AT THE SAME TIME! Clearly, all of these people didn't have to lose jobs and if you can't recognize this as a direct transfer of wealth from middle class paychecks to a 1%er paycheck, then you're too polarized. The greed is so out of control that our entire system is broken, yet we keep making excuses for those with massive tax advantages as being superior businessmen and we shouldn't be hateful of their success (achieved through cheating). If my small business paid 17%(or less) in tax rather than 31%, I'd be a better businessman too.

Personally, I believe it's about time Americans rose up. Are many of these people misguided? Sure! Shouldn't they be angry at DC? You bet! Obama may have made some good decisions and some bad ones, but it is entirely petty not to recognize the real problem, Congress! I hope everyone one of them loses their jobs. What a disservice and an embarrassment they have been to this country in an historic time of need. The history books will not be kind. I would be more critical of Obama if his political enemies haven't been gloating about getting 98% of their way using technicalities like the filibuster. He hasn't been able to fill all of his cabinet positions because of filibusters. Will he be the first president to leave office without filling all of his cabinet positions? Gloating about getting your way all the time and then claiming these are his policies that are failing is a bit disingenuous. I would prefer to see his tax plan actually get enacted before we claim it's a failure. We're still on Bush's tax plan and I believe 10 years of it's failure to pay the bills is enough, so I'm thinking this is what's currently failing. Put Obama's name on it too, but don't call this strategy a solution while changing the name back again.

The Government, Wall Street, and the Banks are to blame for the housing crash. The foreclosures happened because property values were allowed to double in many places in less than a decade while Bush went to War with Labor. In CA in 2000 the average price of a house was $175k and by 2005 it was $350k??? This is a time period when we outsourced 5 million factory jobs, permanently destroying manufacturing across America, while also allowing Latinos to freely migrate into the US and take most of the construction jobs with no consequence to them or the employer. Now we have an entire generation of Americans that haven't been learning construction trades. Everyone just skips over why the property values spiked and just accepted this as if it were like legitimate a Stock Market gain, so we say our houses lost value when the reality is the Wrath of the Free Market simply brought them back to where they should have been all along.

Our appraisal system is broken. It's subjectivity allowed for massive amounts of fraud to occur, but that's just the scape goat. The bank loan will be based on the appraisal, so it is very important for everyone that these values are as accurate as possible. Our current system averages the sales prices of 3 or more similar houses in the same area. For an actual example, in my neighborhood most builders sell the same exact houses for about $600k. The builder I work with sells the same sized houses, but unique, for closer to $750k. All of our competitors get to use our comp which brings their value up from their actual sales figure. Because we're the only ones selling close to $750k, our value gets pulled down by everyone else selling at $600k. Think about this. One sale can improve the value of an entire community of competitors. Values should rise proportionately to the actual sales, not for everyone because of one successful sale. Our values spiked here, mostly because of this flaw in the system and less because of the common scape goat, fraud. The system needs to be fixed to prevent sudden price surges and reward those who sell the most expensive house rather than penalize them. It's a race to the bottom and quite simply the reason residential Architecture is mostly horrific. Ultimately, this is also the reason most of the houses are not being designed by us. Why spend more money to make something more desirable if you make more money spending less to make something less desirable? Isn't it our job to make things more desirable? If you think your work is worth the price it sells for, I'm afraid the appraiser and bank are not going to give you credit for your sales history when lending for the next project. You and your competitors will be averaged. Appraisal Reform will fix our property value problem as well as our profession.

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Eric Rawlings AIA
Owner
Rawlings Design, Inc.
Decatur GA
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Hello David,

Have architects been responsible for the aesthetic culture in residential architecture for more than the top 10% at all in the past 50 years?  

Regarding your last paragraph, I am also looking to switch from BoA to a credit union and have been meaning to ask this question on here for some time:

Is there a credit union for architects?

Searches on google and AIA's website tell me nothing.  What is the credit union you joined?  

Best,
Andrew
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Andrew Mikhael AIA
Andrew Mikhael Architect
Englewood NJ
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I think this AIA Position Statement applies. Of course, it doesn't require your AIA component to actively demonstrate on your behalf, but it does say that your component should support your civic engagement in the community, and not pass any rule that says you cannot be actively engaged.

AIA Public Policy Position Statement #1: Civic Engagement

"The AIA believes that society and the profession benefit from civically engaged architects, and components shall actively support members who wish to become civically engaged. Components shall not adopt policies that could prohibit civically engaged members from participating in component activities except to the degree such policies are required by applicable laws or regulations."

I think every member should acquaint themselves with the totality of AIA's Public Policies. If you don't agree with what they say or think they should say more, then you should work to change them, add to them, redact a few, whatever.

then, instead of debating this on KnowledgeNet and expecting "someone" at the Institute to pick up on your idea as being so important that they will drop everything they are doing to focus on your particular issue, you should take the lead and develop a position statement and move it forward from your local component to the state component and on to the national Board via your regional Director, or alternately put a resolution to that effect on the agenda at the national convention if you think you can gather enough support for your issue.

Then you should press the Board to assure that the AIA's annual budget truly reflects the policies it already adopts through the implementation of a truly responsive strategic plan (Board function) and operating plan (CEO/Staff function).

Just remember that our organization does have limited resources and must choose our battles wisely. I suggest a more "architect-centric" agenda for anyone getting involved in the political arena, as indicated by the following policies as these are the ones that AIA has already said it supports.

http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aias078764.pdf

1. Civic Engagement
6. Architectural Practice - Definition
7. Design of Structures for Human Habitation or Use
13. Use of the Title Architect and its Derivatives
15. Enforcement of Licensing Laws
16. Interstate Reciprocity and International Practice
22. Building Codes and Standards
23. Building Permits
24. Copyright Protection
25. Legal Form of Practice
26. Project Delivery
27. Qualifications Based Selection
28. Affordable Health Insurance and Care
29. Tax and Regulatory System
30. Tort Reform
32. Civil Rights
33. Diversity
35. Accessible Environment
36. Housing
37. Livable Communities
38. Historic Preservation
39. Design Excellence in Publicly Funded Projects

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David Del Vecchio AIA
Architect
David Del Vecchio, Architect, LLC
Cranford NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-21-2011 10:05
From: Andrew Mikhael
Subject: Should architects support local "Occupy" movements

Hello David,

Have architects been responsible for the aesthetic culture in residential architecture for more than the top 10% at all in the past 50 years?  

Regarding your last paragraph, I am also looking to switch from BoA to a credit union and have been meaning to ask this question on here for some time:

Is there a credit union for architects?

Searches on google and AIA's website tell me nothing.  What is the credit union you joined?  

Best,
Andrew
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Andrew Mikhael AIA
Andrew Mikhael Architect
Englewood NJ
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David, you ve struck a chord with me.  I am in total sympathy with those willing to demonstrate Against Wall Street.  As single practitioner my clients have been not only the local residential and business community, but a few national retail clients  The local construction was so booming 5-6 years ago, but the warning signs were there.  Home building was not for home owners but investors .  In my part of Florida we befitted both from mortgages to Latin and Caribbean immigrants of questionable qualifications and the elderly anglos escaping the Miami Megalopolis.  I see too much developer greed perpetuating residential communities largely for investors.  Oh, I know it drives the market.  But, just like we have fairly strict permitting and regulation of construction practices, I ve come to the opinion we need stricter land development rules.  And, right now, if it drove the price of housing up, would that be a bad thing?

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Dan Davis AIA
Port St. Lucie FL
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