Tyler McKenzie - Prompt 1

As Stated in NCARB's 2011-2012 Rules of Conduct:

"NCARB Mission: The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards protects the public health, safety, and welfare by leading the regulation of the practice of architecture through the development and application of standards for licensure and credentialing of architects. Core Values NCARB believes in: • Leadership – Proactive, creative thinking, and decisive actions. • Accountability – Consistent, equitable, and responsible performance. • Transparency – Clear and accessible rules, policies, procedures, governance, and communication. • Integrity – Honest, impartial, and well-reasoned action. • Collaboration – Working together toward common goals. • Excellence – Professional, expert, courteous, respectful, and responsive service. NCARB is a nonprofit corporation comprising the legally constituted architectural registration boards of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as its members."

Select one of the core values listed above, and ask your Mentor to provide an example or case study from his/her practice in which one of these core values has been CHALLENGED.

My principal shared with me an instance of when her leadership and accountability was challenged by an over-eager client. As she tells it, about a year ago she was working with a client on a renovation to an existing building for the new headquarters of the owner’s business. The client was losing money by not being in the building yet and had already gotten in trouble for doing work on the building before receiving a building permit. Throughout the process of creating the working drawings for submittal for the building permit my principal was pressured to rush and overlook things that the client had already started doing in the building. Knowing that she was responsible for the consistent, equitable performance of the renovation, my principal stood firm in condemning the owner's work on the building and refused to overlook the things being done. She also refused to continue working on the drawings until the owner agreed to stop work on the building. She was also proactive in talking to her attorney and writing into the contract that the liability for any work done not to the specifications shown on her drawings fell on the owner because she did not fully trust that he would stop working on the building before the building permit was issued.

Looking through the core values listed on the NCARB Rules of Conduct I could see a scenario in which an architect’s integrity could be compromised in practice on a regular basis. Architects have a responsibility to promote the well-being and safety of the general public, but at the same time architecture is a business where the architect must satisfy the client in order to make a living. When a client’s goals do not take the general public’s well-being and safety into account the architect is forced to make a choice and all too often chooses wrong. We can look to myriad examples of a building being built too cheaply or out of context for it’s site and discern that the architect had to make the decision to satisfy the client rather than satisfy their moral obligation to the public it design it differently.