In his keynote presentation May 15 at the AIA 2008 National Convention in Boston, Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, spoke of the nexus of that idea. (Many think that Jimmy Carter founded Habitat, he said. In actuality, it was Fuller who recruited the former president in 1984 to join the effort.)
He also shared a challenge particularly for AIA members.
Continue reading "We the People Give Every Child a Chance" »
Jane Jacobs died two years ago last week, but if she’d lived, and visited me in my neighborhood in Washington, D.C., I’d like to think she might have written a book about it.
I moved to Columbia Heights, smack dab in the geographic center of the District of Columbia, last fall as I was reading Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities. For me, these two events are indelibly twinned, impossible to stop from informing each other. As I got further and further into the book, it seemed that the Jacobian dramas spelled out so plainly in Death and Life were being reenacted outside my front stoop just for my benefit.
As the country slips through the current downturn, thoughts turn to the worst. "What if I get laid off?"
The AIArchitect team would like your input as we prepare to freshen up the newsletter for the rest of the year. Based on your requests to date, we are writing shorter articles in four areas: News, Business, Practice, and Design, We cover four major strategic areas of concern for the AIA—sustainability, diversity, integrated practice, and emerging professionals—on a rotating basis. We have the weekly Doer’s Profile, poll, and we’ve beefed up our blogs.
Around here, rain storms, a slowly gestating wall of humidity, and the odd perfect 70-degree day or two have announced the beginning of lawn mowing season (also known as spring) in Washington. The two-and-a-half-story rowhouse I live in leaves me acquitted of this duty, and for that I’m glad, but I didn’t realize the (non)decision to live in a house without a lawn had a moral and sustainability component until I heard of Fritz Haeg.
