Question

Why was it important for architecture to become a specialized, professional career in the late 1800s?

Answer 1

Architecture was an activity that anyone with some kind of experience on the subject could practice until it became a licensed profession in 1857

The creation of the American Institute of Architects(AIA) in on February 23 of the same year, by Henry Dudley, Richard Morris Hunt, Henry Babcock -among others- "procured the practical perfection of its members". The main purpose was to establish Architecture as a profession,

Among the first schools of Architecture in America in the late 1860's and the beginning of the 1870's, we find the MIT in Boston, Cornell University in New York and the University of Chicago.

Answer 2

It was important for architecture to become a specialized, professional career in the late 1800´s for various reasons. A few of those was that during the 1800´s, there was new heights reached in construction technology. For one, plumbing, elevators, steel beams, central heating and electric systems were better, as well as ventilation systems, which added to the new constructions. The first institution dedicated to organizing the architectural field was the American Institute of Architects (AIA), founded in 1857; it started there and then, the definition of laws and standards for the profession. For economical, as well as functional and legal reasons, buildings had to be stronger and more sophisticated which led to a need for professionally trained architects capable of solving problems based on real facts and not just guessing. Being in a time where abundance of technology for building higher skyscrapers was high, the logical reason was to take advantage of it. Hence, the need for more professional architects during the late 1800´s to build more and higher buildings.