Evening star., 1934-10-20
ARCHITECT HITS
us. BUREAUCRACY
Head of American Institute
Charges 1t Threatens
Profession.

Government bureaucracy threat
ems to demoralize the architectural
profession" Ralph Walker, president
of the New York Chapter of the
American Institute of Architects,
charges in a letter sent to all candi-
dates to Congress in New York State.
Mr.. Walker declares that in carrying
out the public buildings program the
Treasury Department Is destroying
the private practice OF architects by
forcing them to accept temporary
employment in Washington under a
bureaucratic regime"
Mr.. Walker protests the failure
of the Treasury Department to keep
its promise that the design of all
buildings costing over $4,000 would
be intrusted to private architects"
working in their own localities. In
stead, he says, architects are COM
PEELED to divorce themselves from
their Offices and homes and to work
on a salary basis as members of the
large staff which is being built up
in the Office of the supervising archi-
tect in Washington.
Officers Are Eliminated.
When this employment ceases, ac-
cording to Mr.. Walker, the architect
finds himself in worse circumstances
than ever The Government, he
points out, is becoming an agency
in the elimination of the architec-
tural Offices which have made
American architecture the foremost
in the world today" There is evi-
dence, he says, that the bureaucratic
principle is being extended to the
entire construction industry by other
departments of the Government.
Throughout the country there is
a growing concern over the increas-
ing invasion of private business by
the Federal Government and the
rapid growth of the bureau to effect
this" says Mr.. Walkers letter.
Along with others, the archi-
tectural profession is becoming more
and more apprehensive of the way
in which bureaucracy is encroaching
on the field of their work. A climax
has been reached in the recent order
of the Treasury Department that pri-
vate architects are no longer to be
commissioned for the work on the
public buildings program OF the de-
partment, but that this work is to be
done by the supervising architects
Office of the Procurement Division.
Intimations "Refuted."
"When the public works program
was inaugurated architects believed,
and were encouraged to believe. that
their services would be brought into
play, since the program was de-
signed to provide work for the entire
construction industry, upon the func-
tioning of which it is generally agreed
recovery now rests. At the beginning
of the year the Treasury Department
promised that private architects
would be commissioned to handle all
projects costing over 100000.
The order of June 29, 1884, refutes
all this, and the supervising archi-
tect's Office has been steadily increas-
ing its forces to handle the enor-
mously increasing volume of work.
Draughtsmen, engineers and tech
nicians have been brought to Wash
ington and enlarged quarters pro-
vided in which to house these work.
ers. Architects in private practice
have been asked to come to Wash
ington and accept temporary posi-
tions on salary basis, to design the
buildings and supervise the aug
mented forces of the supervising
architects Office"
Responsible officials of the Treas
ury Department have intimated that
this procedure applies only to build
ings costing under 0,000, adds Mr..
Walker, who presents a list of SO
projects proceeding under the new
order which, he claims, "refutes"
these intimations. All of these prof.
ects invole more than $4,000, some
running as high as $1,500,000.
Claims Work Is Speeded.
1.-THE Treasury Department" Mr..
Walker continues, "in justifying this
procedure states: BY so doing the
Government availS itself of the skill
and experience of the designer and
his knowledge of local conditions,
and, at the same time, greatly ex-
pedites the completion of the draw
ingS by affording the architects the
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