Join SAH/SCC for a presentation by Aaron Cayer, PhD, author of the new book, Incorporating Architects: How American Architecture Became a Practice of Empire (University of California Press, 2025).
By the end of the 20th century, US architecture and engineering firms held more capital than entire countries, employed more people than were housed in most cities, and rented offices in more nations than comprised the UN. Within them, architects were designing urban systems, including the multinational infrastructures, legal codes, and financial mechanisms on which those systems came to depend. However, despite the extraordinary power of these architects, their histories remain concealed and shrouded in myth—by design, argues Cayer.
This forensic analysis traces a history of architects at one such firm, AECOM, as they assembled their own multinational corporation and embedded themselves in the operations of American empire after World War II, shielding themselves from the instabilities of a postwar political economy. Incorporating Architects reveals how architects, through their businesses more than their drawings or buildings, modulated the political economy, gripped the reins of their profession, and “produced the global injustices that define our neoliberal present.”
Cayer is currently an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona. His past positions include Assistant Professor of Architecture History (2018-2023) at the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque), and a Senior Research Associate at cityLAB-UCLA (2012-2017), where he led multi-year research projects about the history and future of office work.
Cayer is trained as both a historian and an architect. He received his PhD in Architecture History from UCLA as well as undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Norwich University (Northfield, VT). In 2025, Cayer was awarded an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship.
Authors on Architecture: Cayer on Incorporating Architects—Sunday, June 28, 2026; 1-2:30 PM Pacific. Tickets required, $5. Pay via PayPal; or mail in order form with check. Zoom link sent upon registration.
