On November 9, the day after the election, some 89,000 licensed architects and AIA members received an email from Robert Ivy, the organization’s CEO. The letter’s second sentence optimistically notes the $500 billion that President-elect Trump pledged during the campaign to spend on infrastructure. “We stand ready to work with him and with the incoming 115th Congress,” begins the third. (The full letter is below.)1

By last week’s end, Ivy had a full-blown mutiny on his hand. The editorial board for The Architect’s Newspaper, writing in high dudgeon, posted a response condemning the AIA’s “conciliatory note” and the “tone, character, and appropriateness of Ivy’s memorandum.” The Newspaper passed along almost two-dozen co-signing statements, from top practitioners such as Florian Idenburg (of SO-IL) and Nader Tehrani (of NADAAA) to institutional and academic leaders in design. At least one architect has resigned his membershipwith the organization.

Marlon Blackwell—whose Fayetteville, Arkansas–based firm, Marlon Blackwell Architects, was named the top design firm in the country for 2016 by Architectmagazine—describes Ivy’s statement as “too little, too soon.”

“I don’t even know what [Trump] means when he’s talking about infrastructure. I understand it as roads and schools, things of that nature,” Blackwell says. “What if it turns out what he’s talking about is walls and detention centers?” ... A number of issues raised by the Trump campaign contradict core beliefs held by many architects—and Ivy’s letter failed to address those points. First among them is climate change: What President-elect Trump has described as a hoax is one of the AIA’s most urgent policy priorities. The organization has asked its members and firms to commit to the AIA 2030 Commitment, a set of reporting standards for building-energy performance. The AIA’s own Committee on the Environment issued a letter, if not directly disagreeing with Ivy, then making its own priorities known.

On narrow policy issues, there may be room for agreement between architects and the Republican Party—on tax reform or tort reform, for example. But the AIA’s public policies and position statements include commandments on civil rights and diversity that do not appear to be in alignment with the GOP’s victorious president-elect.

Whatever else it accomplishes, Ivy’s letter elides those differences.

  • 1. The AIA and its 89,000 members are committed to working with President-elect Trump to address the issues our country faces, particularly strengthening the nation’s aging infrastructure. During the campaign, President-elect Trump called for committing at least $500 billion to infrastructure spending over five years. We stand ready to work with him and with the incoming 115th Congress to ensure that investments in schools, hospitals and other public infrastructure continue to be a major priority.

    We also congratulate members of the new 115th Congress on their election. We urge both the incoming Trump Administration and the new Congress to work toward enhancing the design and construction sector’s role as a major catalyst for job creation throughout the American economy.

    This has been a hard-fought, contentious election process. It is now time for all of us to work together to advance policies that help our country move forward.