Architect receives two-year ban after reportedly performing Nazi salute and making antisemitic comments

An architect has been banned from practicing his trade for at least two years after reportedly performing a Nazi salute and making antisemitic comments.

The Architect Registration Board (ARB) made the decision to ban Justin Rooney after it found him guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct”. 

The ARB’s investigation concerns complaints made by Mr Rooney’s fellow staff members during his time at GRID Architects Ltd, London (GRID) in November 2021, where he was hired as a temporary architect. 

In one incident that occurred on Mr Rooney’s last day at GRID, during an interview arranged to discuss his conduct at work, he reportedly said that he was antisemitic and that “he hadn’t realised” he had “joined a practice of f****** Jews” and that he had been placed within the office “with f****** Jewish freaks”.

Leaving the office, Mr Rooney allegedly told a fellow member of staff: “F*** off, you Jewish c***” and “Die, Jewish c***.”

Mr Rooney was also accused of saying that there was a “need to be alert around Jewish people” as “they were likely to use and mistreat people” as well as expressing a desire for his children not to be taught by Jews.

Additionally, Mr Rooney wa said to have performed Nazi salutes on more than one occasion. 

While Mr Rooney did not attend the ARB Professional Conduct Committee’s (PCC) hearing, he submitted a letter in his defence in which he wrote: “I’ve been the subject of something of a targeted campaign by a certain section of the people in the architecture and construction industry for a few years now and this experience has made me quite intolerant. 

“Please note I am decidedly not a racist. How my tolerance has been worn down over the years culminating with my experience in GRID is not something I believe should be the source of a formal proceedings of a consumer protecting professional body as the ARB.”

The PCC has said that in two years, Mr Rooney can apply to become a registered architect again. However, he will have to “seek to demonstrate that is fit to be registered in the light of the concerns found established in these proceedings”.

In 2020, the ARB removed an architect following an investigation into his claims that Judaism is a “cult” and Jews should be banned from “important public office”.