SW Oregon Architect v2.0

You’ve probably noticed that SW Oregon Architect has a new look. I hadn’t changed my blog’s appearance since its debut 2½ years ago. That’s an eternity in blog years. It was time for a change.

I prefer simplicity and legibility, so I’ve arranged the page components and selected the font style and colors accordingly. My emphasis will always be on my blog’s content, so I’m keeping things uncluttered with a minimal use of widgets and no advertising. Though the bones of the layout belong to one of Blogger’s standard templates (called “Awesome”), there is plenty of customization possible. I even used one of the standard iStockphoto background images offered with the Blogger Template Designer.

Other changes:

• I dropped Life Without Buildings from my blog roll. As I wrote in my June 6 post, one of the criteria for inclusion on my list is that a blog must post with regularity. The most recent Life Without Buildings post was on March 17.
• I moved the RSS web feed links closer to the top of my blog layout, “above the fold” in newspaper parlance, so that they’re easy to find.
• I consolidated some of the labels to reduce the size of that list.
• I removed the AIA-SWO monthly program sponsor widget. I'm no longer in charge of finding sponsors and consequently am not always aware of who the sponsor is in advance of each chapter meeting.

Ultimately, I’d like to learn more about how to increase traffic to my site. However, I always intended SW Oregon Architect to be read by a small and focused audience. This gives my blog a purpose and distinguishes it from the countless other blogs about architecture out there in the blogging universe.

This will be the last meta-blogging (blogging about blogging) post for the foreseeable future. Most readers of blogs are not bloggers themselves, so it stands to reason that they are not amused, entertained, or informed by a stream of blog entries about blogging. I simply felt it was necessary to acknowledge the obvious changes to my blog and explain my reasons for making them.(1)

I welcome any comments that you may have about my blog’s new appearance. Let me know how I can further improve SW Oregon Architect so that you’ll want to come back regularly.

(1) Jeff Atwood compiled a list of thirteen blogging clichés on his blog, Coding Horror, effectively a set of rules for what not to do with your blog; the number 10 cliché was “Blogging about Blogging.” Ironically, Jeff’s list of clichés stands as an example of what not to do: his cliché number 12 is “Top (n) Lists.”

Emergent Urbanism

The Emergent Urbanism Network is a very interesting web portal intended to serve the online community of planners, designers, builders, thinkers and others who are enthusiastic about urbanism. It was created by Mathieu Helie, a Canadian urbanist with a Masters degree in Urban Planning from Université Paris/Panthéon-Sorbonne and Institut d’Urbanisme de Paris, and a B.A. in Economics and Computer Science from Concordia University.

Helie has engineered the Network to be a social media portal for an online community of planners, designers, builders, thinkers and others who are enthusiastic about urbanism. Any member may post nodes or vote on them. The best nodes selected by the community float up to the top of their channel before decaying away to be replaced by new nodes. This makes the network at once a forum, portal, community, and social network.

Helie’s thesis is that previous websites on the subject of urbanism have relied on the central planning model of editors choosing what does or does not deserve attention. The Emergent Urbanism Network recognizes that urban complexity is generated from the bottom up, not by top-down planners, and relies on its members to decide what is relevant by providing a simple and clear process through which the network is grown.

The morphology of the Emergent Urbanism Network is thus consistent with Helie’s interest in the sciences of emergence and complexity, which together have given rise to a new paradigm that has triggered a revolution in mathematics, physics, biology and architecture. His blog, Emergent Urbanism, provides succinct definitions of emergence, complexity, and urbanism, which I have excerpted here:

"What is emergence?
Emergence is the creation of systems of greater dimension than the elements that create it, sometimes also called self-organization, through the application of localized rules of action. The most elementary emergent systems are the binary, one-dimensional cellular automata studied by Stephen Wolfram that create complex fractals when shown in two dimensions. Emergence is also behind all forms of multicellular life, the cells of a plant or an animal following the instructions coded in their DNA to organize themselves into a much bigger organism. Those organisms will then also create emergent structures by following simple rules of action, like the termite cathedrals often used as an icon for emergence. Emergence is also behind human societies, from the invisible hand of economics (invisible because it is a dimension greater than any one of us) to the astonishing growth of the Internet and later of Wikipedia.

"Studying the rules that enable emergence will allow us to build the systems to deal with the complexity of the universe.

"What is complexity?
Complexity is the physical fact of problems existing at multiple scales simultaneously. Complex systems solve these problems by adopting geometric structures that have structure at multiple scales simultaneously, that is to say fractal geometry. The pioneer of fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot, was able to identify fractals everywhere in nature, resolving the complexity of physical chaos by creating complex ordering of mountains, rivers and coasts. The architectural scientist Christopher Alexander elaborated on the link between fractal geometry and life by defining the theory of centres, which are parts or features that are distinguishable from the whole and cooperate with the whole to survive in the complexity of the universe. Because centers are themselves made of centers, they fit the recursive definition of fractals. Most important of all, complex structures can only be made through generative processes that draw from a previous step, repeated infinitely. The science of complexity is thus focused on discovering how things are produced, their final form being far too complex for one mind to fully grasp.

"What is urbanism?
Since the dawn of civilization, humans have made cities to support their societies. These cities, although they have been the source of progress, have never been fully understood, relying on traditions and trial-and-error processes for their growth. The reason for this is because they occur in the emergent dimension, and later attempts to plan them and bring them under the control of a central planner have resulted not in ordered cities, but disordered emergence. Today the phenomenon of suburban sprawl is being fought on multiple fronts, all meeting little success, while the disasters of million-people shantytowns have become accepted as normal. These are the outcome of a bad scientific choice, of applying linear sciences to urbanism.

"Urbanity is the cooperation and mutual-support of large numbers of people in close proximity. It is inevitably emergent, and to understand the science of emergence is the key to inventing the first fully emergent urbanism, capable of resolving all the complexities of a 21st century, sustainable city."

I was drawn to Mathieu Helie’s blog and the Emergent Urbanism Network because of my own budding interest in emergence and complexity. That interest arose from casual curiosity about the subjects, further stirred by my contact with Alder Stone Fuller and his (now closed) Euglena Academy. Several of my previous posts (here, here, and here) hint at my appreciation of the concepts of systems sciences, including self-organization, emergence, and the nature of complex systems. Helie’s presentation to the Complex Systems Laboratory of the University of Montreal entitled Urban Complexity in the Practice of Urbanism is an easily digested primer on the topic.

Fractal geometry

I’ve added a link to the Emergent Urbanism Network to my Sites of Interest list on the sidebar. Mathieu Helie’s hope is that the Network will acquire a life of its own and that the early structure its members provide to the network will shape its future. I’m keen on seeing how the Network will take form. It is a community, a virtual analog of a real-world urban structure. Check it out and consider joining others like me who share an interest in urban complexity and emergence.

June AIA-SWO Chapter Meeting Recap

The recently completed John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes is a lightning rod in the escalating debate that has pitted athletics against academics on the University of Oregon campus. The building’s expense, over-the-top luxury, and exclusivity further contribute to the perception of many faculty and students that the priorities of the University and its well-heeled donors are misplaced, particularly since Oregon has slipped to 46th in the nation for per capita public spending on higher education. Given this backdrop, it’s no surprise that the exceptional architecture of the Jaqua Center is itself controversial.

The controversy is why I eagerly anticipated the June AIA-SWO chapter meeting. I wanted to understand the motivations that led to a non-contextual response fraught with symbolism, intended or otherwise. Our speaker, Robert Snyder of ZGF Architects, conducted tours of the Jaqua Center and described the project’s design process. As project architect, Robert provided an insider’s perspective that enhanced my understanding of the building and its genesis.(1)

Robert Snyder of ZGF Architects leads a tour of the Jaqua Center (my photo)

Particularly noteworthy was the extent of the client’s involvement in the design of the Jaqua Center. Like many others, I assumed that Nike founder Phil Knight was the project’s primary patron and overseer. In fact, it was Knight’s confidant and Nike special assistant Howard Slusher who played the commanding role in shaping and approving design decisions for the building. He asked for and the Department of Athletics received a place where “learning is cool.” He worked closely with ZGF and its team on the concept of a “library in a garden” and the selection of the Center’s prominent site along Franklin Boulevard. The project bears Slusher's stamp and not Phil Knight's.(2)

ZGF rewarded Slusher’s confidence with a masterfully detailed, state-of-the-art academic services building for the University’s 520 student athletes. The Center’s first-class amenities include a 114-seat auditorium (the Harrington 3 Auditorium), 35 tutor rooms, 25 faculty/advising offices, a conference room, a flexible classroom, a computer lab, a graphics lab, 3D teaching labs, a library, a student lounge, a tutor lounge, a staff lounge, study carrels for all freshmen athletes, and dedicated parking. The facility is unrivaled among its NCAA Division 1-A peers.

Jaqua Center: View toward southeast from Agate Street (my photo)

Architecturally speaking, the Jaqua Center is a coolly elegant exercise in minimalist abstraction, an exquisite, 3-story, 40,000 square foot glass cube. Its undifferentiated facades of remarkably flat, clear glass respond, chameleon-like, to the subtleties of the changing light at different times of the day. The reflecting pool that surrounds the Center furthers the impression of an ethereal, dematerializing pavilion.

The glass and stainless steel scrim sandwich (my photo)

The building’s envelope is actually a ventilated double skin. The façade comprises two layers of glass separated by a 5-foot gap. Between the planes of glass is a scrim of stainless steel mesh. The double skin is a thermal blanket that insulates during cold weather and helps to cool (via stack-effect ventilation) when it is warm. The layered facade is also an effective noise insulator: the din of heavy traffic along Franklin Boulevard is barely perceptible inside the building.

Social hour in the University of Oregon's John E. Jaqua Center for Student Athletes (photo by Paul Dustrud, AIA)

The interior spaces of the Jaqua Center are light-filled, dynamic, and hip. Tributes to athletes who excelled on the field of competition, in the classroom, and beyond adorn the floor and walls of a spacious, 3-story atrium. These embellishments include etched oak blocks celebrating the achievements of former student athletes ("A Few Who Just Did It") and a huge Albert Einstein mosaic made from hundreds of pictures of faculty, classroom activities, sporting events, and campus scenery.

Other graphic features include:

• 
  
  A stairwell containing the names of over 5,000 letter winners who graduated from the University of Oregon between 1945 and 2010
• 
  
  The Distinguished Professor Wall in the Harrington 3 Auditorium, a backlit, water jet-cut frieze bearing the names of notable professors
• 
  
  Etched caricatures of Phil and Penny Knight on the mirrors of the women’s and men’s second-floor restrooms, respectively (creepy!)
• 
  
  The Coaches Intake Grate, an air intake at the south entrance that includes the names of all the head coaches from the beginning of the University of Oregon’s history of athletic competition

(L-R) Kristina Lang, Jean Duffett, Michael Fifield, me, and Paul Edlund (photo by Paul Dustrud, AIA)

Robert Snyder commented on the opportunity afforded by a sympathetic and generous client to reach deep into the well of inspiration to create a singular piece of architecture. ZGF was able to thoroughly explore the integration of craft, messages, and storytelling into the design of the Jaqua Center. Robert noted that the extraordinary level of craftsmanship evident in the building was largely the product of Willamette Valley artisans. The bar was set very high, but in Robert's opinion everyone involved with the project exceeded expectations.

Fireplace seating next to Allan Bros. "Camp 13" coffee shop (photo by Paul Dustrud, AIA)

As 2010 AIA-SWO President Michael Fifield observed, Robert’s presentation was an occasion to consider a variety of issues regarding campus design, the role of object buildings in the landscape versus regionalism and/or more contextual responses. There are lessons here that are applicable to other projects in the city and on the University of Oregon campus.

Michael takes exception to the fact that the Jaqua Center (together with the Matthew Knight Arena) will henceforth occupy one of the few prominent “gateway” sites announcing the presence of the University of Oregon. He has no quarrel with ZGF over the internal logic of the design itself; like me, he admires the Center as a piece of architecture on its own terms. His issue is with whether it adequately fulfills the obligations of a University building sited at a crucial threshold between the campus and the surrounding city.(3)

A rapt audience listens to ZGF's Robert Snyder in the Harrington 3 Room (photo by Paul Dustrud, AIA)

ZGF clearly envisioned the Jaqua Center as an object building, a freestanding pavilion cloistered in a garden. The Center pays no heed to the campus morphology; genuflection is not in its DNA. Its response to its immediate context is to pretend it does not exist. The building is aloof, indifferent to its surroundings. Worse yet, the design of the Jaqua Center suggests that its patron and design team were unsympathetic to another context: the sociocultural dynamic of the athletics versus academics debate.

The Jaqua Center is burdened with unfortunate symbolism. It speaks an architectural language foreign to the rest of the campus. The building is at once undeniably beautiful and redolent with arrogance. Its elevation on a raised (albeit squat) plinth sets apart a realm of the sacred (an athletics acropolis) from that of the profane (the messy vitality and mundane concerns of the rest of the University). It’s too easy to read the reflecting pool as a moat that further isolates and protects the Center from the hoi polloi. No wonder many on campus are at times resentful of the largesse lavished by Nike upon the privileged student-athlete caste.

What was ZGF thinking? This is a fair question to ask. It’s clear that the design choices were deliberate and made without apology.

Penny Knight looks on as you wash your hands in the men's restroom (my photo)

In an opinion piece published in the Register Guard at the time of the Jaqua Center’s opening, Otto Poticha, FAIA lamented the gnashing of teeth over the building’s benefactor, its excesses, and its purpose:

"A comparison could be made to the efforts of the Medici family, the church, the monarchy and the early industrialists. They shared their creativity, influence and resources to give the world some of the best art, architecture and sculpture ever made. They supported the artists and set the bar high for future generations.

"Those who didn’t support religion, power or industrial development could argue that the uses of those palaces, offices and cathedrals were excessive and inappropriate. But these gifts mattered, and what we learned from them and experienced from them mattered more than who inhabited them.

"If these benefactors and artists had listened to critics or feared controversy, what a loss to the world it would have been."

I love Otto but I’m not sure that I can agree with him. I find it difficult to divorce a project from the culture within which it arose, no matter how commendable its architecture might be. I can make a case that the Medici family, the church, the monarchy, and early industrialists had little reason to fear controversy because they possessed the wealth and power to suppress criticism. Is great architecture truly so if it was achieved at the expense of those under the thumb of its patrons?

Today’s Medici – the Phil Knights and Howard Slushers of the world – cannot so easily avoid the scrutiny of stakeholders, whose numbers often extend well beyond a project’s direct beneficiaries. Incessant criticism during the design process may indeed frustrate or discourage clients and their architects from pursuing excellence. Regardless, successful navigation of the gantlet of obstacles that any substantial project must confront is a necessary prerequisite to greatness. A future computation of the Jaqua Center’s success will always take into account its proud flouting of campus conventions and the rancor of its critics.

Jaqua Center: South elevation (my photo)

If it’s not apparent already, I have mixed feelings about the project. Being a huge Duck fan, I am happy to see Oregon’s student athletes receive the facilities and support necessary to help them excel both in the classroom and on the competitive field. Robert Snyder and the rest of the ZGF design team have crafted a gem.(4) We’re fortunate to have it here in Eugene as an inspired example of architecture. On the other hand, the John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes betrays a lack of sensitivity that assures it a place at the center of the athletics versus academics tussle.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

I wasn’t the only AIA-SWO member that wanted to learn more about the Jaqua Center: 80 members and associates attended the June meeting. Once again, Michael Fifield hit a home run by organizing a provocative, design-focused program for which there was an enthusiastic audience.

Continuing the UO athletics theme, the July AIA-SWO chapter meeting will take place at PK Park, the new home of the resurrected Ducks baseball team. The July 14 event – a home game for the Eugene Emeralds, PK Park’s co-tenants – is our annual joint picnic with members of the Willamette Valley Chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute and the Willamette Valley Section of the American Society of Landscape Architects. I hope to see you all there. Play ball!

(1) Eugene Sandoval was ZGF’s partner in charge of design for the Jaqua Center. He is widely regarded as one of contemporary Portland’s foremost design talents.

(2) Further evidence of Howard Slusher’s influence upon the design: Slusher reportedly visited Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City and was immediately enamored of the elegantly detailed, transparent cube designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. Lo and behold, ZGF subsequently drew up plans for a geometrically precise, iconic glass cube.

(3) Michael was chair of the University’s Campus Planning Committee when the project’s proponents first advanced the idea of placing the Jaqua Center where it stands today. Michael objected to the absence of effective mechanisms in the Campus Plan to govern and shape the design of the Agate Street gateway to the University at Franklin Boulevard.

(4) In addition to the Jaqua Center, Robert described several other current or recently-completed ZGF projects. These were the Indigo Tower in Portland, the Port of Portland headquarters, and The Cascade, a mixed-use development in Salt Lake City.

Further

Ken Kesey’s bus Further (photo by Joe Mabel)

As readers of SW Oregon Architect are aware, AIA-Southwestern Oregon is hosting the 2010 AIA Northwest & Pacific Region Conference here in Eugene. Toward that end, the 2010 Conference marketing committee, led by Barbara Harris, has been working hard assembling a promotional campaign. That effort includes a series of email “blasts” to targeted audiences. With online registration opening on June 15, the committee is directing the next blast to all AIA members and associates throughout the Region. The following is my draft of that message. Read on:

The 2010 AIA Northwest & Pacific Region Conference is sure to tickle your imagination and stimulate your intellect. Turn on, tune in, but don’t drop out: Join us October 13-16 in Eugene, Oregon and share our Emerald Vision.

We’ve organized an outstanding lineup of nationally-prominent speakers and local luminaries who will address the prospects for architecture in the decades to come. We’ll ask big questions and summon even bigger answers.

We’ll submit architecture to the acid test of relevance in an era of shifting paradigms and transformative technologies. An Emerald Vision will be a can’t-miss program with balance and depth.

We’ll take you further than you’ve ever been as we explore the future of architecture, design excellence, and genius loci, the underlying spirit of place. Come on board; this is a trip you won’t forget.

We promise psychedelically-brilliant fall foliage, innovative thinking, and hospitality. And here’s a great notion: Attend our conference and conveniently acquire all 18 of your annually required AIA learning units (including HSW and SD credits).

An Emerald Vision will draw heavily upon the contributions of the future generation of design leadership throughout the Region. We plan to highlight the University of Oregon in several ways. We’re arranging alumni get-togethers, and time with professors and students. We’ll spend almost all of Saturday, October 16 on campus. We timed the conference to fit the academic calendar.

We’re also offering a series of optional tours, with visits to Eugene projects by Morphosis, TVA & Ellerbe Becket, ZGF, and others, with an excursion further afield to Frank Lloyd Wright's Gordon House and Alvar Aalto's Mt. Angel Abbey Library. Don’t miss the bus! Guarantee your seat for tours to the Gordon House and Mt. Angel Abbey Library by signing up before Wednesday, June 30.

Make your 2010 Region Conference plans today. Register online at http://www.emeraldvision2010.com/.

Blog Reboot

Stasis isn’t necessarily a good thing in the online universe, so I figured it was time for some changes to SW Oregon Architect. Eventually, I’d like to create a custom template for my blog, with its own distinctive look, rather than relying upon one of Blogger’s standard offerings (the template I’ve been using – “TicTac” – is serviceable but hardly unique). Baby steps first though: I recently added bookmarking and sharing functions so that my individual posts can be shared via social media. My next move is to edit my list of favorite blogs.

I don’t want an endless list of blog links, so I’m adding some new sites but dropping others at the same time. My goal is to always provide a sampling of what I consider to be among the best blogs about architecture (and other topics).

To be included on my blog list, a blog should:

• Be well-written
• Post with some regularity and frequency (not only once every six months)
• Address subjects of interest to readers of SW Oregon Architect
• Not simply be a clearinghouse for links to other online resources

Here are four new blogs I’ve added to my blog roll:

                                                      
ArchDaily – http://www.archdaily.com/
ArchDaily was founded in March 2008 with the goal of delivering news of interest to architects around the world as soon as it is happening. The blog quickly established itself as one of the leading architectural websites in the world due to its editorial staff’s meticulous understanding of what its audience is really looking for: the best architecture around the world, as soon as possible.

BUILDblog – http://blog.buildllc.com/
BUILDblog is a discussion of modern Northwest design from the perspective of Andrew van Leeuwen, one of the partners of BUILD LLC. BUILD LLC is a self-proclaimed “Industrious Architecture” company based in Seattle that is committed to an integration of the design and construction processes. The blog is chock-full of insights about the firm’s design and construction processes, its partiality to contemporary expressions of modernism, and general observations about architecture.

Design Intelligence Blog – http://www.di.net/blog/
The DesignIntelligence Blog is a complement to the Design Futures Council’s bi-monthly report on the future of architecture, design, and real estate, delivering original research, insightful commentary, and instructive best practices. Architects rely on DesignIntelligence to deliver insight about emerging trends and management practices, allowing them to make their organization a better managed, more financially successful enterprise.(1)

Life of an Architect – http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/
Life of an Architect is an entertaining blog written by Dallas, TX architect Bob Borson. He started his blog on January 14, 2010 to learn the technology behind how people are starting to communicate with one another electronically. He claims to not have a list of burning issues or a controversial social agenda to promote but is simply “a regular guy” (except that he puts his pants on both legs at once “because it’s just faster that way”).

So, upon which blogs am I dropping the axe? Regrettably, two of the casualties are associated with the AIA – AIA Archiblog (http://blog.aia.org/aiarchitect/), and the AIA Northwest & Pacific Region Blog (http://aianwp.blogspot.com/) – both of which appear to be dormant. A third is the blog of the University of Oregon’s American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) chapter (http://ufolio.uoregon.edu/aias/), which likewise appears to be inactive. The UO AIAS group itself has been busier than it has been in years (see my posts here, here, and here) but attending to the blog has not been one of its priorities.

The fourth and last of the blogs that will no longer be on my list is Euglena Blog (http://www.euglenablog.com/), now titled Alder Stone 3. I consider Alder Stone Fuller a friend. He operated the independent Euglena Academy in Eugene from 2001 until this spring, teaching college-level courses about systems science, complexity, and climate change. He has just closed the Academy to pursue personal and professional opportunities that are taking him to Portland, Maine. Euglena may take a new form but it will no longer be here with us in Eugene.(2)

Alder Stone Fuller

I’ll continue to shake things up every now and then depending upon what I find enjoyable to read. I don’t figure to ever have an exhaustive listing – just a select number of blogs that complement each other.(3) If you know of a blog that you think I need to see, point me in its direction. Chances are good I’ll add it to my list.

(1) DesignIntelligence does not appear to publish new posts very frequently, which violates one of my criteria for inclusion on my list. Nevertheless, I find the blog interesting. Eventually, we'll see if I keep it among my favorites if the schedule of its postings is too sporadic.

(2) I plan on continuing to follow Alder and his work online. He’s started up a couple of new websites, including http://alderstone.webs.com/. He’s eager to move on to discover what life has planned for him next. I expect Alder will always seek out new challenges – learning, adapting, and teaching – because he is restless, a nomad at heart.

(3) Both A Daily Dose of Architecture (found on my Blog List in the sidebar at right) and ArchiBlog (one of my Sites of Interest) contain extensive lists of links to hundreds of blogs about architecture. Check them out if you have an appetite (and endless free time) for the architectural blogosphere.

Joint Statement on Architectural Internships

Kaarin Knudson, Associate AIA, of Rowell Brokaw Architects brought to my attention a statement issued jointly by the AIA, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and the American Institute of Architecture Students on the subject of paid versus unpaid internship positions.

As a past adjunct faculty member at the University of Oregon's Department of Architecture, she has often been asked by students for advice regarding the prospect of internships with firms. Kaarin says that many of them have approached their search for internship positions with the concern that asking for pay (even a nominal amount) would disqualify them from consideration. Accordingly, she believes the joint statement is meaningful, not because it changes the reality of the current economy and what students face because of it, but because it communicates that our profession has ethical expectations that interns will be paid.

Kaarin is surprised by the fact that many students have almost been apologetic about hoping to be paid. That's a terrible precedent with terrible implications (particularly for students with limited resources).

Here’s the joint AIA/ACSA/AIAS statement on architectural internships:

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the American Institute of Architects, and the American Institute of Architecture Students recognize that architects are bound by law and ethics to pay interns, and strongly advocate for the appropriate compensation of architectural students and interns. Because of current economic transformations, some architects have both solicited and accepted the services and labor of interns without pay. We strongly urge architectural firms and other for-profit employers to respect the law and comply with the ethical standards of our profession, and we strongly encourage interns to refuse to accept employment without pay, and to notify the Department of Labor in cases where employers propose such an arrangement. For more information on labor laws and professional ethics, please see the AIA Code of Ethics and the U.S. Labor Department standards under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The ACSA, AIA, and AIAS further support architects, students, and recent graduates doing pro-bono work. We recognize the distinction between unpaid work for profit-making employers, and unpaid work for non-profit organizations, communities in need, and volunteer activities, which allows participants to determine their own hours and degree of involvement. The AIA has established guidelines for services that are provided on a Pro Bono basis. They can be found on under the member section of aia.org.