During a recent city council meeting in Pullman, councilor Megan Guido gave a presentation about her work with a group looking at housing on the Palouse. According to one of her slides, an additional 10,062 units will be needed by 2040, a daunting task by any measure but one made all the more so by the fact that the problem is not only about supply but affordability as well. Between the average salary in Pullman and the average price of a home, there is a major gap, leaving many without a viable option to own.
Guido’s attention to housing is critical but stunningly leaves architects out. In her group there are real estate agents and there are community leaders, all wonderful and upstanding citizens of the world, but not a single architect. Strange would be a kind way to describe the oversight, not least because housing lies at the center of the architectural project, as ethics, a source of beauty, equality and more.
No matter how big architects may get, they all must contend with the problem of the house, if not as practitioners then at least as budding architects in school. A quick look at the American Institute of Architects will tell you as much. In a letter to the secretary if the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the organization made it clear its “commitment to protecting the healthy and safety and welfare of the public” and more specifically its support for “federal initiatives that promote equitable housing opportunities for Americans in need, parti.