Chris Beck, a member of IAM Architecture Workers United (AWU) and former employee at Bernheimer Architecture, has released his first book, “The Labor of Architecture: Creativity, Design, and the Possibility of a New Class Consciousness,” published by Monthly Review Press. The book examines how unionization is affecting the architecture profession and addresses issues of creativity, labor, and class identity within 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 involvement 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?”
In developing his ideas for the book, Beck drew from his experience teaching at The New School’s Parsons School of Design. Courses he took there in philosophy, history, and economics helped him connect architectural work 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 book challenges common perceptions that architecture is mainly a privileged profession. Instead, Beck places architects among other working-class professions whose members often face long hours and relatively low pay compared to their educational backgrounds. “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.”
Beck remains active with Architecture Workers United by consulting with IAM Union organizers as they try to expand unionization efforts across more firms nationwide. He highlights education as essential for workers in understanding their place within broader labor movements: “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 available now through Monthly Review Press and independent bookstores. Beck will discuss his work during an event at Red Emma’s Bookstore in Baltimore on November 6 alongside unionized artists from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
