Architecture should Eschew Obfuscation

A great website was brought to my attention today, Stairway to Architecture. The author of this site is a licensed architect and practitioner of over 30 years and is concerned with the state of the internships and architectural licensing in the US today. He raises questions that everyone should be asking and which in any other professionally regulated field are easily obtainable, yet in architecture they are obfuscated under layers of bureaucratic records. The diagrams he has created showing architecture schools and the relationship between new admissions admissions to graduates and ARE pass rates are staggering. I feel lucky to have gone to a Torch Institution instead of a Pennant or Funnel. In addition he has a great plea for the better treatment and education of intern-architects by their employers. His rally against Headphones in the work place is something to be read and digested. I can understand the need to block out co-workers who do not know how to work in a communal environment or the need to listen to something while performing a rote task such as copying shop drawing comments, but I tend to agree with him that headphones isolate the wearer and help to create a lack of unity and camaraderie amongst the office staff.

If you read this site without knowing the background of its author, it could easily be mistaken for the idealist ranting of an young architect struggling along the path to licensing. But, with his experience there is a legitimacy to his arguments. Much like this letter on BUILD Blog which really responds to the issues a young architect faces when the set out on their own, I hope that all Architects licensed and otherwise read Stairway to Architecture to better understand the view from the still idealistic and ambitious un-licensed masses.