ABSTRACT
The question posed here is: what best accounts for prevailing pat terns of architectural activity in urban places in the United States and changes in that activity between 1970 and 1980? Specifically, the extent of architectural activity in 1980 (indicated by the number of architects per capita for the largest 125 U.S. metropolitan places) is explained by conditions in those places in 1970 and changes in con ditions between 1970 and 1980, controlling for the numbers of ar chitects per capita in 1970. In addition, comparisons of changes in architectural activity with changes in the distribution of cultural in stitutions and in artists' labor market patterns permit some infer ences about markets for culture, broadly defined.
