“What kind of world would we live in if doctors prevented the independent practice of registered nurse practitioners” because they perform some similar services without having received precisely the same training? With that rhetorical question, organizations representing interior designers demanded that a letter from six state chapters of the AIA to the national AIA about interior designers be retracted. That letter -- signed by the presidents of the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida and California chapters -- questioned the motives and qualifications of interior designers who, it said, “are seeking to infringe on the practice of architecture” and urged the national AIA to take a hard line against any expansion of interior designers’ rights.
The tension between architects (the great majority of whom are men) and interior designers (the great majority of whom are women) has simmered for decades. Currently, the AIA opposes “practice or title regulation of individuals or groups other than architects and engineers for the design of buildings.” But two events last summer brought the issue to a boil. On July 1, NCARB, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, retired a 20-year-old resolution in opposition to interior design licensure and regulation. A few days later, the North Carolina legislature passed a sweeping bill that gives interior designers the right to stamp, or put their seal on, drawings in most cases. Those two events “have reignited concerns of similar legislation being “pursued across the country,” according to the August letter from the six AIA chapters. “We must question if this national campaign by interior design organizations is truly motivated by the same ethical and professional values that we work to uphold and advance at the AIA.”
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