Chris Beck, a member of IAM Architecture Workers United (AWU) and former employee at Bernheimer Architecture, has released his first book titled “The Labor of Architecture: Creativity, Design, and the Possibility of a New Class Consciousness” through Monthly Review Press. The book examines how creativity, labor, and class identity intersect in the architecture industry and considers how unionization could reshape the profession.
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 central to developing the 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, Beck drew on his teaching background at The New School’s Parsons School of Design and courses he took in philosophy, history, and economics. These experiences helped him relate architecture to broader 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 perceptions that architecture is mainly for privileged individuals by highlighting that many architects are part of the working class—often underpaid or overworked despite their passion for design. “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 to help expand union efforts within other firms nationwide. He stresses worker education as essential for progress in the field. “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 from Monthly Review Press as well as independent bookstores. Beck will discuss his book at an event at Red Emma’s Bookstore in Baltimore on November 6 alongside unionized artists from Maryland Institute College of Art.
