In the late 80’s or early 90’s, it seemed to me that architects went to jail at a pretty good pace. i think that that was richard pryor’s occupation in his movie ‘Moving’. a few years later, a friend of mine worked for an architectural firm and the next thing you know, they were all in the slammer, my friend excepted. so, i suspect that there is some common, illegal temptation in the architect biz which sets prosecutors in motion, but i can’t figure out what it is. my friend wasn’t that good a friend for me to ask him. any ideas?
Um, what kind of crimes were they convicted of? Or is that what you’re asking?
I believe he’s asking if there was some sort of … architectual crime wave sweeping the nation during hte late 80’s, early 90’s, and if so, what was it?
Bribery or kickbacks? (to land a lucrative city/county/state building contract)
Political influence? (illegal campaign contributions for said contacts)
Liablility if a structure (or portion thereof) collapses and injures/kills someone, with part or all of the blame being on the design?
methinks that screech-owl has it on the bribery or kickbacks thing. it seems that whole firms end up in the tank for something, so i guess that it’s the bribery biz. i just drew a blank on why they go to jail en masse. thanks
One can only hope that there have been a spate of laws punishing ugly architecture.
Kickbacks in private businesses are very, very difficult to prove.
Architects can get in serious trouble for putting their seal on drawings for buildings that later turn out to be unsafe. When an architect puts on his seals, he is certifying that the drawings meets all local building and safety codes. This may not sound like a big deal, but you should realize those codes were put into place in order to protect people. Bad drawings could lead to unsafe and dangerous conditions in the building (like fire hazards, or insufficient load-bearing capability).
didn’t mike brady (brady bunch) almost go to jail becaue a building he designed collapsed on the christmas reunion special?
Maybe they were flying buttresses without a pilot’s license.
…HA
I thought this was going to be a riddle, akin to:
Why did the chicken walk across the road? :o
Why, why, WHY do I insist on reading this damn forum while eating… Damn, what a mess.