Chris Beck, a member of IAM Architecture Workers United (AWU) and former employee at Bernheimer Architecture, has published his first book titled “The Labor of Architecture: Creativity, Design, and the Possibility of a New Class Consciousness.” The book is available through Monthly Review Press and explores the role of labor and class identity within the architecture industry. It discusses how recent union movements among architects could bring changes to the profession.
Beck played a key role in organizing Bernheimer Architecture, which became the first private-sector architecture firm to unionize in over a century. He stated that his involvement with IAM Union was central to developing his book. “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?”
While writing the book, Beck used his experience teaching at The New School’s Parsons School of Design. There he took classes in philosophy, history, and economics that helped him relate 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 book disputes common views about architecture as an exclusive field for those with privilege. Instead, it presents architects as part of the broader working class who often face low pay despite long hours.
“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 seek to expand unionization efforts nationwide. He underlined worker education as an ongoing priority: “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” can be purchased through Monthly Review Press or independent bookstores. Beck will discuss his book at an event on November 6 at Red Emma’s Bookstore in Baltimore alongside unionized artists from Maryland Institute College of Art.
