Backyard Architect

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    Trust Me, I’m an (Unlicensed) Architect

    If you don't have an architectural license, it's illegal to call yourself an architect or perform architectural services—but people still do. How widespread is this problem, and who's policing it?

    11 MIN READ
    James Madison Jackson Jackson served two years in a Texas prison for theft and is currently awaiting trial for writing worthless checks in North Carolina. But his “gateway crime” was the unlicensed practice of architecture. Once employed as an architect by Dallas firm Gromatzky Dupree & Associates (he was dismissed when they discovered that he wasn’t licensed, despite his claims to the contrary), Jackson has received felony indictments for illegal practice in both Texas and South Carolina. More recently, operating various construction businesses, he racked up liens totaling more than $1 million—not to mention criminal charges and a trail of angry victims.

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