I try not to have this little blog be a mere reposting of other's content or the latest eye-candy images of buildings (archi-porn), but rather to try to add something, maybe feeble, to the dialog about making, architecture and place.  However, occasionally a really interesting article or topic comes to my attention and begs for attention.  Such is the case with Salon.com's Art in Crisis piece by Scott Timberg highlighting the truly dreadful state of architecture as a profession over the last few years. Living in Boulder and having low overhead and a punishing work-schedule has insulated me from much of the economic disaster of the last number of years.  This is the fifth year of M. Gerwing Architects and I have been truly blessed with enough good clients and intriguing projects to both keep my spirits up and keep the doors open during the worst possible time to start an architecture practice since the Great Depression.  But I know that I am the exception and even in my fortune I am only a project or two away from dissolution.

I have written in past about the recession and its impacts on architects, especially the lost generation of younger architects.  In doing so I have been incredibly frustrated and incensed that the American Institute for Architects does not track unemployment in our own profession.  Timberg calls it right when he accuses the AIA of polly-anna-ish optimism at best and downright incompetence in my opinion.

At the risk of being the kill-joy, I urge you to read the best piece of the recession and the plight of architects and architecture, Scott Timberg's Art in Crisis.

(image from the same article, John Nazca, Reuters)