By now you’re likely aware of the lawsuit filed against the founders and board members of defunct nonprofit Architecture for Humanity (AFH). In my position as Executive Director of the Open Architecture Collaborative (OAC), and as someone whose career and organization grew out of AFH, I’m often asked ­– both before and since this news broke—about the OAC’s relationship to AFH.

The Open Architecture Collaborative finds many of its ideological roots at Architecture for Humanity. But the Open Architecture Collaborative is unequivocally an independent organization, a California LLC and Public Benefactor Corporation, and is pursuing our own 501(c)3 federal nonprofit status. For this reason, the lawsuit filed against AFH’s founders and board members will in no way affect the OAC.....Continue Reading

Architecture for Humanity Founders and Board Members sued $3M for alleged mismanagement of funds reported in Architectural Record. Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit organisation, suddenly closed down its facilities last year because of bankruptcy. On june 10, a court-appointed trustee filed a compliant against the founders of AFH, Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr, both paid employees and 10 members of the board of directors, who served as volunteers. The board members of the organisation consisted of many tech experts, architects and entrepreneurs, including the former head of the American Institute of Architects Clark Manus and architect Toshiko Mori.

According to the lawsuit, the AFH “completely disregarded the ‘restricted’ and ‘unrestricted’ nature of the funds and began a wholesale looting of the ‘restricted’ funds and used them to pay executive and staff salaries, promotional expenses, and other overhead items.” Moreover, AFH continued to solicit donations and misappropriate funds, despite cautionary reports from its auditor and lawyer, the lawsuit alleges, mentioned in Architectural Record.

Top image: Garrett Jacobs, image via screenshot from Youtube.

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