In the June issue of The Architect’s Newspaper, executive editor Jack Murphy interviewed Pascale Sablan, CEO of Adjaye Associates and president of NOMA. Following the publication of this story, AN received feedback from readers (and contributors) about the article. Murphy mentioned the exchange in his editor’s note in the July/August issue, where these two written responses included below were also published.
AN is interested in hearing from our readers. Have a comment about AN’s coverage or a tip for a story AN should investigate? Email us: editors@archpaper.com.
Undermining DEI
Presenting the office of Sir David Adjaye, a starchitect accused of misconduct, as the way “FORWARD!” for diversity, equity, and inclusion, demonstrates that The Architect’s Newspaper misunderstands where wealth and power are located relative to other identifiers such as race. The paper’s uncritical show of support for Adjaye Associates CEO, Pascale Sablan, risks further disenfranchising the community of people who have suffered deeply in architecture offices by reinforcing a truth that many of us are acutely aware of: Survivors of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and/or toxic work environments are too often met with little to no industry support. If they choose to speak about their experiences, they may be forced to defend themselves from crisis management teams and high-priced lawyers, who exploit malfunctioning, patriarchal justice systems as well as manipulated or poorly informed public opinion. By insensitively sacrificing safety and care for vulnerable survivors more broadly, the frame of this article undermines the very purpose of the diversity, equity, and inclusion project.
Erandi de Silva
Accra, Ghana
A Critical Lapse of Judgment
There are times to “do it for the clicks” and there are times—rarer and rarer in our media landscape—to not. The Architect’s Newspaper’s interview with Pascale Sablan, architect and CEO of Adjaye Associates’s New York office, should have been a hard pass. The decision on the part of AN editors to not only conduct the interview but also run it with the surprisingly glowing headline “People, Projects & Changing the World” represents a critical lapse of judgment.
Sablan comes off as a dynamic and driven leader, however in her comments regarding her own personal interactions with Adjaye she minimizes the experiences of his three victims. For survivors of rape and abuse, this invalidating tactic, which deflects the blame back to the victim’s lack of “due diligence,” is triggering. The editors ran a rather deferential interview without any sort of “trigger warning” to readers, instead choosing to describe the office vibe and upcoming project openings.
It has been just over a year since the Financial Times published allegations against David Adjaye, an incredibly short amount of time. My point isn’t about making sure someone who has been canceled stays canceled, it is about how the architectural press willingly participates in resurrecting a reputation and in doing so forgoes the responsibility of protecting survivors of sexual misconduct.
Mimi Zeiger
Pasadena, California
