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JustDesign


The JustDesign campaign in late 2018 originally sought to give certification to architecture offices that have exemplary labor practice. It was intended to let would-be employees know how offices treated their workers, not just what designs the office produced. Surveys with six criteria for good labor practices were sent out to employees, and from there, recommended firm owners were interviewed as a follow up. Because not enough exemplary firms materialized, certification was no longer logical and the firms that did make it were written up as case studies, published on our website and in Archinect. In 2020, TAL sought a grant from the Graham Foundation for a relaunch of JustDesign (JustDesign2). It was awarded a grant in December 2020. Various factors led to the demise of that second effort — potential lawsuit from Just, another nonprofit insisting on a name change; the original grant applicants leaving the Lobby — and a request was made to change the goal of the grant to support broader worker issues, to which the Graham Foundation agreed in September 2021. In consultation with the TAL Organizing Committee and TAL membership at large, that broadening distilled into What’s your story? in May 2022.

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  • Member Mobilization

    Our Member Mobilization form allows members to anonymously acknowledge our individual capacities and inclinations towards collective action. We review and reflect on our collective strengths and boundaries to inform and direct the statements we make, education we offer, resources we compile, and the actions we endorse. This form is encrypted and password protected. Members should […]

  • Maya Lin, SCAPE, Pratt, Alternative Building Industry Collective, and The Architecture Lobby partake in Climate Week NYC

    Maya Lin, SCAPE, Pratt, Alternative Building Industry Collective, and The Architecture Lobby partake in Climate Week NYC

    Daniel Roche The Architect’s Newspaper September 19, 2023 Excerpt: “A group of architects holding a sign that read “ARCHITECTS AGAINST FOSSIL FUELS” took to the streets last Sunday in Manhattan in one of many happenings that kicked off Climate Week NYC: an event that brings together thousands of protesters; leaders in business, government, the climate sector; […]

  • Workers at Sage and Coombe Architects Unionize

    Workers at Sage and Coombe Architects Unionize

    Madeleine d’Angelo Architect Magazine September 14, 2023 Excerpt: “Today, workers at the New York–based firm Sage and Coombe Architects announced the successful formation of a union—the second private architecture firm in the United States to do so. Employees within the studio’s bargaining unit, now officially the SCA Union, began exploring the process a little over […]