Architecture and the Public Good

“Tom Spector combines an insider’s seasoned perspective on practice with the academic’s critical insight. Skillfully navigating among philosophy, economics and professional concerns, he is unflinchingly forthright on architecture’s internal shortcomings. This provocative diagnosis identifies opportunities for change and asserts a clearer claim for the ethical public value of our work.” — Graham Owen, Associate Professor, Tulane University, Editor, Architecture, Ethics and Globalization “Since The Ethical Architect of 2001 Spector has emerged as amongst the foremost thinkers about the multiple moral dilemmas facing the architectural profession. This book, raising important philosophical issues for all students of the subject, in the eloquent and masterly way to which we have become accustomed, deserves the widest readership.” — Nicholas Ray, Emeritus Reader in Architecture, University of Cambridge, Emeritus Fellow, Jesus College, Cambridge and Visiting Professor, University of Liverpool School of Architecture “Tackling some perennial paradoxes of the architecture profession, Tom Spector excavates the field’s ingrained assumptions about class, patriarchy, and power. By countering the status quos of neoliberal architectural practice, he asserts new performance specifications for the profession founded on principled and sustained commitment to a revivified public realm. —George Barnett Johnston, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology