A list
Correspondence reminded me of a list that circulated for a while, chronicling the bad behavior of architects east and west. This was at #metoo’s height. A prominent architect had been called out in the papers, and a friend of mine was being put through the ringer by our university because she complained formally about her dissertation advisor.
I read the list, which was full of surprises. A male colleague was hitting on the young men in his studio. An editor we both knew shared this practice. A researcher I knew had apparently made a habit of insulting his female assistants while also hitting on them. “Is this still going on?” I wondered.
The mores and practices of the architecture workplace shifted over the course of my career. When I joined one big firm as a modelmaker at 24, some of the partners were fairly obviously bedding their secretaries in Mad Man fashion. That behavior was beyond the pale when I rejoined it in the late 1980s, but in fact the pale was still a moving line, depending on who stepped over it. At least one prominent architect in the firm was “a lawsuit waiting to happen,” I recall. He was eventually pushed out, but not for that.
When my friend’s complaint against her Ph.D. advisor was upheld, I heard from another friend, a Ph.D. candidate two decades before, who had had the identical experience, complained, was threatened with a lawsuit, and was left to dangle in the wind by the faculty. Had he been fired back then, his behavior exposed, perhaps it wouldn’t have repeated. The worst of these guys are serial offenders. Left unchecked, they’ll just do it again. The namesake firm of the headline guy let a young woman intern go to his house, knowing who he was. When my friend made her complaint several years ago, a replay of the earlier one, those running the College — my alma mater — did zip until she got herself on the front page of the Thursday Style Section of the Times. I have power, too, she reminded them. It shouldn’t take such measures. Not at all.
Caroline James is one of the activists behind the movement to honor Denise Scott Brown, passed over when the Pritzker Prize jury gave her late husband its award. Branded a “disruptor,” James was banned by Harvard GSD — she has to be accompanied there by someone affiliated with the place, a weirdly Saudi kind of ban, like having to travel with your brother. (Even the Saudis have dropped this, so it’s amazing to find the GSD being so retarditaire.)
While James’s situation isn’t about #metoo per se, it’s related in that #metoo is about the abuse of power. Failing to act is part of it. When officials ignore the issues in play, don’t want to hear it, they continue — issues like a woman’s right to work unmolested, have her achievements recognized, or have her health problems taken seriously. Vulnerable others have their own versions of this. Institutions and laws exist so that human beings can get on with their lives. Power in this context is bound up with responsibility — to respect every other, to be fair and humane. When we see that power abused, we have to act.
A list isn’t the best way to deal with this, but it appeared and it should prompt a serious query. If you’re on it and the behavior noted is accurate, then stop. If your faculty, colleagues, or donors are on it, then it’s time to ask questions. Blaming the messenger, by the way, is no longer an option. Stop doing that.
