Chris Beck, a member of IAM Architecture Workers United (AWU) and former employee at Bernheimer Architecture, has published a book titled The Labor of Architecture: Creativity, Design, and the Possibility of a New Class Consciousness through Monthly Review Press. The book addresses how creativity, labor, and class identity intersect within the architecture profession and examines how unionization efforts among architects may influence the field.
Beck played a key role in organizing Bernheimer Architecture to become the first private-sector architecture firm to unionize in over a century. He credits his experience with the IAM Union as an important influence on his writing. “A lot of it came out of the work with the IAM and organizing Bernheimer,” said Beck. “Part of the book recounts that story—how we started organizing, what we achieved in our collective bargaining agreement—but it also asks a bigger question: What took so long for architecture to get here? We have unionized teachers, nurses, engineers—so why not architects?”
Drawing from his time teaching at The New School’s Parsons School of Design and coursework in philosophy, history, and economics, Beck connected architectural practice to larger social and labor movements. “Architecture isn’t very good at thinking about labor and economics,” said Beck. “Taking those classes gave me a better way to talk about the relationship between creativity, class, and inequality and how we can build a more conscious and collective future for designers and architects.”
The Labor of Architecture questions assumptions about privilege in architecture by positioning architects as part of the broader working class. Beck noted that many professionals are underpaid despite advanced degrees. “It’s not uncommon to graduate with a master’s degree and make $60,000 a year while working 50 or 60 hours a week,” Beck said. “There’s this idea of status and privilege that keeps people going—but that same mindset makes it harder to recognize that we’re workers, too.”
Currently consulting with IAM Union organizers through AWU, Beck continues to support union expansion across more firms nationwide. He highlighted education as essential for worker empowerment: “Worker education is really where I want to focus,” Beck said. “I had the privilege to study and write about this, but most people don’t get that opportunity. We need more spaces for working people to step back, reflect, and connect what they do every day to the bigger picture.”
The Labor of Architecture is now available from Monthly Review Press as well as independent bookstores. Beck will discuss his work at Red Emma’s Bookstore in Baltimore on November 6 alongside unionized artists from Maryland Institute College of Art.
