Kindergarten Charts - essay 2
Background
The two components
we have in place -- school plus internship -- prepares a candidate for
independent practice. In my experience, the current divorce that exists
between the academic world and the world of practice does not contribute
positively to this effort, to the detriment of all of us. Before we can
ask what can we do better, we have to answer the question, what are we
doing? Good decisions require more than good judgement, they also require
an accurate understanding of what is.
A sufficient architectural education will do more than simply equip students
for their internship or merely prepare them to meet the minimum qualifications
for licensure; we all agree that an education worthy of the name certainly
has other dimensions. However, because a degree from an accredited institution
is prerequisite for anyone seeking to practice architecture, preparation
for practice is a necessary (not sufficient) component of the curriculum
for any place that seeks or advertises accreditation. This is a reasonable
axis upon which to measure their work; certainly not the only one. Anyone
is free to teach anything whatsoever in an unaccredited program. If preparation
for practice is something that occurs exclusively during internship, why
require that an applicant for the ARE hold a degree from an accredited
institution? If you don't want to prepare people for practice you don't
need to be accredited. If a program is accredited, it is reasonable to
expect it to prepare people for practice. Lip service would be a good
first step.
The NAAB has an interesting description of the history of accreditation
at their website here.
The following quote is taken from a version of the page prior to its current
state:
"The origin of architectural accreditation can be traced to the initial establishment in 1897 of an architectural registration act in Illinois. The law was moved through the Illinois State Legislature by Dankmar Adler, of the Chicago architectural firm Adler and Sullivan, and Nathan Ricker, head of the architecture program at the University of Illinois, and was modeled after the state's existing regulatory system in medicine and law. The Illinois board gave its first architecture exam in 1898, and by 1902 Ricker was able to convince the board to adopt a rule stating that any graduate of an approved four-year curriculum in architecture was qualified to take the registration exam. The subsequent 1903 Illinois board action to recognize diplomas from Cornell, Columbia, and Harvard universities, M.I.T., and the University of Pennsylvania firmly established the need for some national system to determine equivalency among programs."
Interestingly, it was three years earlier in 1893 when Louis Sullivan
discovered that Frank Lloyd Wright was moonlighting and Wright left Adler
and Sullivan. In 1897 Frank Lloyd Wright was in the early days of his
practice in Oak Park. Frank Lloyd Wright did not attend architecture school,
he did not ever graduate from a school of any kind. 1897 was the year
Olgivanna was born and Wright was 30, inventing the Prairie Style. There
were no cars or airplanes in Chicago.
This next quote comes from from this
document.
"The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) is the sole agency authorized to accredit professional degree programs in architecture in the United States. Since most US state registration boards require any applicant for licensure to have graduated from a NAAB-accredited program, obtaining such a degree is an essential aspect of preparing for the professional practice of architecture. While graduation from a NAAB-accredited program does not assure registration, the accrediting process is intended to verify that each accredited program substantially meets those standards that, as a whole, comprise an appropriate education for an architect. The mission of the NAAB is leadership in, and the establishment of, educational quality assurance standards to enhance the value, relevance, and effectiveness of the architectural profession."
My education at Cooper Union in the early 1980s was well-seasoned with
the perspectives of experienced practitioners, whose stories and experiences
form an integral part of the lore that welded me in to this wonderful
tribe we call architects. Theory was the primary focus of the curriculum
I experienced, but it was theory that hungered for physical manifestation
the way that love thirsts for fulfillment in expression. John Hejduk was
a theorist, and a poet, and a great educator, and many other things, but
he was first of all an architect. He brought in poets and painters to
enrich our education, but when I count up the practitioners on the faculty
they numbered over 80% of the total. Today the national average is 44%.
The 1,837 faculty members who are practitioners in this country (such
a fragile little number in a country of 300,000,000 people) are doing
heroic work.
Accredited architecture programs graduate about 7,000 people each year.
Annually there are approximately 4,000 newly-licensed architects. There
are 112,650 licensed architects in the country.
Assuming an
architect's career lasts 30 years, this indicates an absolute growth rate
of minus 6% for the profession (not adjusted for anything -- not for population
growth (currently 1%), economic growth (currently 3%), construction industry
growth (about 1%), nothing). That little yellow canary over there is being
awfully quiet. I'd like to hear it sing again.
I drew those diagrams because I wanted to see them, and no one else had
drawn them first. Unfortunately, they are incomplete, and I have had to
suspend work on them until I am given access to more information. When
the map is finished, it will speak for itself. A substantial number of
years worth of data is essential to a clear understanding of the conditions
we find ourselves within.
We need to see a picture that accurately portrays the existing situation
before engaging in any discussion regarding curriculum, standards, or
faculty qualifications, or any conclusions regarding the IDP -- the data
will speak for itself. It would be wonderful to eliminate the ignorance
that clouds this debate this would be the first step to find consensus
and move forward productively. I expect all parties in this discussion
to be united in opposition to our current ignorance.
These statistics aren't Las Vegas odds; each number behind the charts
at represents individuals making choices that determine the direction
of their lives. But these statistics are indicators, they are manifestations
of deeper patterns. And we are entitled to know what those patterns are
so we can improve them, and know where we stand in relation to them. I've
enjoyed seeing some of my prejudices shattered in the course of my examination
of this slice of data. I've also been frightened to learn that some of
my preconceptions were far too charitable. This study is confined to a
single issue in architectural education -- mapping the path to licensure.
I need help to complete it.
September 2008