Professionalization and the social goals of architects: A history of the federation of architects, engineers, chemists, and technicians

This chapter is an account of a unique period in the annals of the architectural profession in the United States: the participation of architects in a national trade union during the Depression and war years. It attempts to explain the anomaly of a professional trade union by examining its contemporary social and political context and by locating it within the profession‘s own rich tradition of involvement in social issues. This history then serves as the vehicle for discussing the relationship between professional and social goals in architecture in more recent times. In each instance, the observations bear on the profession nationally but are focused on New York City, home of the most active union local in the 1930s and of the largest chapter of the profession‘s anti-nuclear organization in the 1980s.