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A SOLUTION OF ARCHITECTS Contributors

Bradley W. Johnson Some of our collective nouns are everyday terms—herd of deer, flock Steven K. Dickens, AIA, LEED AP
(“Not Roughing It” and “Triumphal
of sheep, school of fish, and pack of wolves are just a few examples.
Arc”), is senior associate with Eric
Other, less-common collective nouns are amusingly evocative, such
as a bellowing of bullfinches, bask of crocodiles, murder of crows,
Colbert & Associates.
convocation of eagles, busyness of ferrets, exaltation of larks, parliament
of owls, unkindness of ravens, or a crash of rhinoceroses. Elizabeth Donoff (“Domestic Order”)
There are also humorous collective nouns for people, including is an editor and writer based in
occupations or professions, such as shuffle of bureaucrats, pratfall of Washington DC. Previously, she was
clowns, rash of dermatologists, formation of geologists, argumentation with Architectural Lighting magazine and
of historians (the title of a book by Jodi Taylor), disputation of lawyers, served as its editor-in-chief until 2017.
confusion of philosophers, and complex of psychologists.
There doesn’t seem to be a consensus collective noun for architects. Quite a few candidates Deane Madsen, Assoc. AIA (“Gable
have been proffered; among the cleverest is parti of architects, which refers to the central idea Stitch” and “Market Rates”), is a writer
in an architectural design. One of our magazine’s writers, Ronald O’Rourke, suggests the term and architectural photographer based in
spectacle of architects, referring to both their distinctive eyewear, and the idea of a visually Washington, DC, and founder of the
striking display, which can refer to either the architects or their buildings. informal architectural appreciation
society Brutalist DC.
Welcome! G. Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA

(“Machine for Living” and “View to a
Thrill”), is an independent curator and
writer, as well as senior curator at the
Terms like these provide lighthearted examples of how names or labels can evoke images National Building Museum. He is the
and shape thinking. But there are more serious examples of this, as well. In developing our editor of ARCHITECTUREDC.
Architecture Month programming related to the 50th anniversary of the assassination of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we set aside the term riots, the word long used to describe what Ronald O’Rourke (“Cooking (with)
happened, and instead used the tern uprisings. In the first hours after word spread of King’s Light” and “Home for a While”) is a
assassination, activists in Shaw wanted storeowners to close their shops out of respect for regular contributor to ARCHITECTUREDC.
King as they had done after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination five years earlier. We His father, Jack O'Rourke, was an
can’t condone the looting, property damage, and loss of life that subsequently occurred, but architect in San Francisco for more
uprisings conveys more of a sense of what led to the events of that period. than four decades.
That was a half-century ago, but challenging social issues are with us today. As one
example, I’ve been watching my colleagues across the country respond to the #MeToo
Correction
movement by having their AIA chapters, like ours, work harder than ever to rid the
architecture profession of both gender bias and sexual harassment.
As another example, in this annual residential issue of the magazine, you’ll see a In the article about the Duke Ellington
collection of beautiful new projects. Several are high-end residences, but there is also an School of the Arts in the Spring issue,
article about a new short-term family housing building currently under construction in the floor of the atrium should have been
Washington’s Southwest area. Buildings like that one represent one effort to address the described as terrazzo, not tile.
complex and increasingly urgent problem of housing affordability and homelessness in
Washington and surrounding communities. John Burke, AIA, of Studio Twenty Seven
Architecture, in his interview for that article, noted: “The District lost half of its low-cost rental
housing stock and 72% of its low-value homes between 2000 and 2010. The median rent for
a one-bedroom apartment increased by half, and the median home value nearly doubled.
Meanwhile, household incomes for the poorest 40% of DC residents did not increase; in
2010, one in five DC households spent more than half of their income on housing.”
The point we hope to get across is that architects aren’t just designers of beautiful
buildings—they are also powerful engines for addressing and solving difficult social issues.
Architects are working hard to do that, but as Burke pointed out in his interview, there is a
lot more work to be done. So perhaps there is another candidate for the collective noun for
the profession—a solution of architects.
As always, we love to hear from you, so please drop us a note when you can.

Mary Fitch, AICP, Hon. AIA
Publisher
mfitch@aiadc.com

WELCOME 5