Advocates for Architecture Summary
With a mob of black clad individuals large enough to make the lay person think someone really important just died, over 260 architects from all over the state of Texas came together at the Capitol building for the first annual Advocates for Architecture day. Buses packed with participants from both Dallas and Houston left in the wee hours of the morning to trek to Austin, as well as hundreds of other architects making their own way. The goal was help affect policy in the state legislatures by way of individual architects speaking directly with their own representatives. While the Texas Society of Architects has an excellent lobbying machine in their own right, there is a distinct difference between a hired lobbyist talking to a representative and one of that representative’s own constituents discussing the issues that effect them. Utilizing the hashtag #archday, participants tracked and commented on the event throughout the day via twitter.
TSA did an excellent job organizing the event. The morning began with coffee (many of us had been up since 4am, mind and there was no wonder the conference center had trouble keeping up) and a quick seminar to brief those of us attending as to the current state of the issues. We talked about what bills had been drafting, which were pending, and what had been proposed in the past. We were each then assigned meeting times with either the representatives or members of their staff for later that afternoon. I live in Rowlett, and my representatives are Senator Bob Deuell , M.D. of District 2, and Representative Joe Driver of District 113, each of who’s staff I met with. Many of use worked in pairs or groups and I was fortunately partnered with Fred Cawyer, AIA. Many architects in the Dallas area know Fred as he is one of the more notable Registered Accessibility Specialists doing plan reviews on many of our projects. I was very thankful to be paired with Fred because his political and communication skills are far in excess of my own. I am by far more comfortable modeling and designing than I am conversing and negotiating.
There are several legislative issues that Texas architects have concerns about as they head into this new legislative session. No one is under the delusion that the next year holds anything but difficult decisions to be made, especially in relation to budgetary policies, but our goal is make sure no cost saving measures make it to law that become end-run around taxes, crippling our profession.
Honestly, architecture is a profession that epitomizes the role that small businesses play in the backbone of our economy. The vast majority of architecture firms are ten people or less, and over the course of this economic downturn, architecture has suffered staggering unemployment figures. Over 25% of our professionals have found themselves without employment in Texas alone, and national averages are much higher.
The good news is, however, I think we see that turning. My firm alone has hired or contracted several new employees since July, representing about a 30% increase in our size. This is exactly the story that I see as the foundation of our economic recovery, and we would like to see policies that create an opportunistic environment for fostering businesses to grow and thrive.
At this point, I think we see the light ahead, and are well prepared to forge our own path of recovery, but we need to ensure that lawmakers prevent any upcoming legislation that may hinder this path. Any proposals that would impose a professional tax or increase fees within our industry would put an untenable financial burden on the profession, and impair the competitiveness of Texas architects across the nation. Any legislation that would reduce our professional scope, stray from qualification based selections, or standardization of architectural designs would both hamper our recovery and rob the public of the quality of design that promotes their health, safety and welfare.
In the end, we architects love what we do. It is our passion to create incredible places and spaces in which people live, create and recreate. We simply need lawmaker support to help us continue to enhance the lives of people through the built environment.