While some architects at the firm’s home office in Oslo belong to the Norwegian national union for design professionals, Snøhetta’s U.S. employees would form only the second unionized architecture firm in the country.
Grappling with low wages and a high cost of living, academic workers across the University of California system staged a six-week strike that ranked as the largest of its kind in U.S. history.
Following the failed organizing effort at SHoP last winter, the Brooklyn-based firm made history early this month when employees formed the country’s first private sector architecture union.
While young architectural workers fight for better working conditions, firm owners like Sauvé address pervasive issues of architectural practice on a smaller scale.
Architectural Workers United has announced that they are withdrawing their petition to unionize the New York-based architecture firm SHoP, but at least six other firms in the city are reported to be organizing.