Architects at SHoP Annouce Intent to Unionize

December 27, 2021 Pansy Schulman Order Reprints No Comments

On December 21st, architects at New York-based firm ShoP announced plans to unionize, a ground-breaking step for the field. In a statement released by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), a group of architects at SHoP announced the formation of “Architectural Workers United,” a group of New York City-based architects seeking to unionize their workplaces. If their action is successful, SHoP architects will be the only union in a private American architecture firm. The International Union of Architects (UIA) has existed since 1958, but according to Architectural Workers United there has not been a tangible unionizing effort on the part of private architects in the U.S. since the 1940s.

Architects at SHoP cited grueling work hours with middling pay and the poor work-life balance demanded by the firm as reasons for this action: “These conditions have become detrimental to our lives and in extension the lives of our families,” organizers wrote in a letter to SHoP partners, noting that this work culture “[is] the product of larger systemic issues within the discipline of architecture and [is] in no way unique to SHoP.” Organizers told The New York Times that roughly half of eligible employees have formally pledged support for the union, but firm partners have yet to say if they will recognize the organization. Neither SHoP nor Architectural Workers United have yet responded to a request for comment by RECORD.

SHoP is a mid-sized firm with 135 employees, and is known for its innovative work, most recently for Uber’s Headquarters in San Francisco. “It is significant that SHoP is the first firm to make this step,” architect Peggy Deamer told RECORD. Deamer is a Yale professor and a founder of The Architecture Lobby (TAL), an organization “advocating for the value of architecture in the general public and for architectural work within the discipline,” according to its website. “[SHoP] is highly identified as a ‘design’ firm that does these big shiny projects,” says Maya Porath, an associate architect at Belmont Freeman Architects and National Organizer for TAL, of the recent news, “It's remarkable in terms of them setting the tone.”

Firm unionization has been central to the mission of The Architecture Lobby since its formation in 2013, but architecture has proven to be a particularly difficult field in which to organize. Architects often hesitate to see themselves as workers, the organization has noted, a mindset that sees entry-level professionals more willing to accept the prestige the profession offers in the place of adequate monetary benefits. “There are persistent myths that architecture is a calling or vocation that is worth enduring oppressive conditions in school or in the workplace,” says Porath, “[The Architecture Lobby] provides space for workers to come together and build relationships outside of existing institutions, in defiance of the existing ideas of professionalism, and hierarchy, and power.”

Deamer confirmed that the organization was actively involved in SHoP’s unionization efforts and that at least one other New York firm has been targeted by organizers, but she declined to name the firm due to the delicate nature of organizing: “At a certain point,” she told RECORD via email, “The unionization group had to stop reporting to the Lobby membership at large [regarding] direct negotiations [with firms] because of the need for secrecy.”

ShoP’s unionization is unfolding in the context of a greater labor movement as workers’ issues from all sectors have been exacerbated by the economic disruption and demands of the pandemic. Over the past year, workers at Amazon, and more recently Kellogg’s and Starbucks, have been increasingly vocal about poor working conditions and successful in organizing labor at the ground-level. In the white-collar arena, this year has seen a wave of protest against industry standards, from journalists at Conde Nast to graduate student workers at Columbia University. The pandemic put particular stress on architects working remotely, Deamer notes, who were expected to maintain their previous output. Porath saw many colleagues struggle as their work intruded even more into their home lives and mentioned seeing increases in unpaid overtime.

Equity in architecture has become a major issue, but the topic of labor conditions has trailed behind recent efforts at diversity and inclusion. However, ShoP is not the first major firm to begin to make strides toward better working conditions. Earlier this month, the London-based Zaha Hadid Architects announced its transition to an employee-owned studio. “Younger generations of architects are demanding our profession become more accessible and egalitarian,” said a studio statement, “We can now reinvest all profits back into the business, into our people, equipment and facilities to the benefit of all our employees.” SHoP announced last year that they were also shifting to an employee-owned business model, but equity shares have yet to be allocated, and employees expressed to the Times that they felt this shift was inadequate to remediate the working conditions at the firm.

The union organizing announcement has sparked a wave of support and debate online. One former ShoP employee, Tyler Goss, described his experience at the firm in a Twitter thread: “When I started at ShoP in 2005, I made $36K. Over the next 4 years I received small incremental raises while ... working an average of 47 hours a week … and consistently working weekends for months on end, making an effective average wage of about $19/hr, all while being billed out at between $90-150/hr.” He quit the firm after four years. Goss’s experience echoes the concerns voiced to the Times by current employees, who reported working an average of about 50 hours a week, a number which would easily rise to 60-70 hours during deadline periods.

Goss, along with several other architects, academics, and organizers, participated in an informal 90-minute panel hosted by architectural designer Michael Schwartz on Twitter the evening following the publication of the Times article. Participants mentioned how SHoP has, from its inception, positioned itself on the progressive side of the field, making the egregious conditions reported by employees to the Times particularly striking. “They were going to be a different kind of firm,” said Goss, “It was one of those places where… from the very outset, said this is a family, a team.”

Speakers agreed that change in the architectural world would come from the bottom-up, but many echoed Porath’s observation about the difficulties of organizing architectural labor. “Architecture is related to the broader labor movement and the broader specter of capital in a way most other arts are not,” said Kate Wagner, an architecture critic and journalist (The New Republic, Baffler), “There’s a great amount of power and potential in that but only when architects see themselves as workers and not as temporarily embarrassed firm-owners.” She added, “When [architectural workers] realize that they have more in common with Starbucks baristas than with Norman Foster, it’s going be a very big day for architecture.”

Deamer said her work on behalf of The Architecture Lobby has been met “largely with silence,” on the part of the American Institute for Architects and the profession at large. Yale Professor Philip Bernstein, who expressed his doubts to the Times that SHoP’s organization will be successful or “good for the profession in the long run,” expanded on his views to RECORD, saying that the justified criticism of architectural practice lies deeper than unionization can address. Architects, he argues, should target the larger economic structure that leads firms to underprice their labor. “I am completely sympathetic to the folks at the Architecture Lobby and at SHoP—they are raising critical questions about the nature of architecture practice,” he said in an email, “I’m just not sure the single answer they offer will truly solve the problem.”

But as the AIA noted in a recent dispatch on architectural billings, firms have reported difficulties with staffing and labor shortages – a situation that could tip the scales in favor of architectural workers seeking better compensation and an improved office culture.

“I really hope that [SHoP] inspires additional workers to see that this is possible,” says Porath of the potential momentum of an architectural labor movement. “This is a way to build collective power in the workplace so that workers can get a seat at the table and gain some control over their own working conditions.” Currently, Architectural Workers United is seeking support and signatures for their union via a petition on their website.