SAH Letter Opposing Closure of Architectural Association Publications

At its annual fall meeting on November 18, 2017, the SAH Board of Directors voted unanimously to support the continuation of the Architectural Association's Publications Department following the AA's cost-cutting plans to make its entire publication and exhibitions departments redundant. The SAH Board sent a letter to AA President David Porter denouncing the decision.

The statement reads as follows:

The Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians notes with alarm the plan to make the staff of AA Publications Department redundant and cease publishing the excellent book programme and transformative journal AA Files. As scholars and teachers who rely on the publications of the AA, widely regarded as the most intellectually vibrant issued by any school of architecture today, we urge you to reconsider this decision.

The preeminent standing of the AA in the discipline of architecture has long hinged upon its superb publications, which convey the mission, accomplishments, and legacy of the school far beyond Bedford Square. For this reason, on November 18, 2017, at its annual Fall Board Meeting in Chicago, the Directors of the Society endorsed by unanimous vote a resolution in support of the continuation of the AA Publications Department.