Earlier this year, in an effort to develop a more pronounced culture of pro bono service within the profession, Public Architecture launched a national campaign called the "1% Solution," challenging architecture firms to dedicate a minimum of one percent of their billable hours to pro bono service. The 1% Solution focuses on firms in recognition of the fact that their policies and practices are key to the ability and willingness of individual employees to undertake pro bono work. addresses professional obligation and the practical considerations of pro bono design.

One percent of the standard 2,080-hour work year equals twenty hours annually, which represents a modest, but not trivial, individual contribution to the public good. If all members of the architecture profession were to contribute twenty hours per year, the aggregate contribution would approach 5,000,000 hours – the equivalent of a 2,500-person firm working full-time for the public good. Everybody benefits from good design, but all too often nonprofit organizations and communities-in-need cannot afford professional design services, or do not realize they have access to such services on a pro bono basis. Most architecture firms have no formal way to manage requests for pro bono work or to receive recognition for such work comparable to that bestowed on fee-based projects. Architects also face significant liability issues with both paid and unpaid accounts. As a result, pro bono assignments are typically "catch-as-catch-can" work, slipped between paying projects for a lack of formal mechanisms supporting or recognizing such design work.

While many architects are already generous with their time, the profession as a whole has never encouraged pro bono service as a fundamental obligation of professional standing – or as an integral component of a healthy business model. What could be a mutually beneficial arrangement for the public and the profession has been neglected or overlooked unnecessarily.