AIArchitect

by AIA Director of Education Catherine Roussel, AIA

As evident in the “Transforming Design Education” article, AIA members and related professionals—both educators and practitioners—are working together to design the change between the professional curriculum of fall 2009 and the professional curriculum of today. There is more than one answer to this question.

On the one hand we are asking about changes that can be implemented immediately and on the other hand we are thinking longer term. The changes that are made to the NAAB requirements for accreditation in 2008 will affect schools and students through 2015 and longer into the future.

You can refer to the results of the Oak Park conference on integrated practice and consider some ideas from the Pomona conference on Sustainability in Architecture and Higher Education on what we could do differently:

"It is time to reevaluate the studio custom in most schools of starting with small and simple projects and advancing to ever larger and more complex ones. Usually, as students become more capable, the projects become proportionally more comprehensive and difficult. The result is that students often become progressively more skillful at making diagrams of shape and layout with increasing degrees of showiness, but not always with a deeper penetration of how the thing really works. Such an approach works against sustainability in architecture. What about delving progressively deeper instead of bigger, at least part of the time?"—Ralph Knowles, professor emeritus, ACSA Distinguished Professor, University of Southern California, School of Architecture, Los Angeles

This proposition might also work for integrated practice. Students would learn from the beginning to work collaboratively with partners from various disciplines essential to a successful project.

Similarly, a practitioner writes:

"Students should be exposed to working with associated disciplines (landscape, planning, and engineering), to bring forth the most current thinking in related fields, in a collaborative and thought provoking forum. Ideally, this would be in a studio environment to foster more in-depth solutions to complex problems."—Anne Schopf, FAIA, Mahlum Architects, Seattle

Another suggestion is to teach students about materials and structures early on in the curriculum so they are thinking of design as they will in integrated practice. Is it just a question of sequence or more about integration of these subjects into the studio?

To learn more about the AIA Educator/Practitioner Network, visit their site on AIA.org.

What do you think?

by Jack Evans, AIA-Headquarters Facilities Manager

In furtherance of our commitment to the promotion of sustainability and green building initiatives, I'm pleased to report that the AIA national component has amended our contract with Pepco Energy Services so that we will be purchasing electricity that is entirely wind-generated.

A key benefit, of course, is that electricity produced from renewable resources reduces the amount of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, as well as sulfur dioxide emitted into the atmosphere in the production of electricity from burning fossil fuels. Wind energy is particularly effective in reducing greenhouse gases, because there are no air emissions associated with operating wind generators.

The AIA has taken on the 2030 Challenge to reduce carbon emissions from new buildings and major renovations to 0 percent by 2030. Because buildings account for an estimated 48 percent of the total carbon emissions in this country, the 2030 Challenge will have significant impact on reducing the greenhouse gases that are contributing to global warming. The AIA is committed to lead by example.

We are in good company with this decision. Other notable organizations that have purchased green energy from Pepco Energy Services include the National Geographic Society, Lerner Enterprises, the Willard and Fairmont hotels, and numerous government agencies, including the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Labor, Transportation, Energy, Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Pepco Energy Services is helping us all meet the challenge by offering electricity produced by wind farms all across the country. The AIA buys credits equivalent to a share of that production, for which we are paying about .425 cents per kWh over what it would cost to buy electricity from fossil-fuel-burning generators. It’s well worth it because, as we learned from Ben Franklin, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

What do you think?

by Helene Combs Dreiling, FAIA, Vice President, AIA Strategic Initiatives and Relationships

I feel oddly inadequate to share my thoughts and emotions on hearing of the shootings at Virginia Tech Monday, April 16. There are dozens of parents who have lost a child, hundreds of young people who have lost friends and mentors, and many faculty who have lost gifted colleagues. Throughout the region, across the country, and around the world, we have all been touched deeply. Especially in Virginia and the D.C. area, untold numbers of people have a particularly personal connection to this tragedy. As one, I would like to share these few words.

I graduated from the Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies, which is housed in Cowgill Hall, situated a few hundred yards from Norris Hall where 31 students and faculty lost their lives last Monday.

As the story unfolded that day, the place names were all familiar to me. Just hearing the sequences of events brings back memories—tangible experiences—that take me back in my mind to West AJ, where the first two killings occurred; the distant Drillfield, windy and muddy this time of year; and, across that field, hulking neo-Gothic Norris Hall, clad in the dark-granite, rough-hewn, and ubiquitous “Hokie Stone” that gives the campus a quirky aesthetic sense of unity; an aesthetic that is very much a part of the shared Virginia Tech experience.

These memories have long given me a sense of comfort and belonging. Now, the belonging has manifested into a profound sorrow. And, just as people I know have been reaching out to me to offer their comfort, I and others here at the AIA have been reaching out to do what we can to comfort our Tech-affiliated associates.

Early this week, AIA Executive Vice President/CEO Chris McEntee contacted Tech President Charles Steger, FAIA, to offer this Institute’s deepest sympathy. Yes, President Steger is a Fellow of the AIA and the former dean of the Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies, where he started his academic career as an architecture school instructor. I have known him for many years as a stalwart supporter of student advancement and well-being, strident advocate of student-body diversity, eloquent facilitator and administrator, and talented architect in his own right. I cannot imagine the pain he is experiencing now.

Please join me by expressing your condolences, grief, memories, and hopes as we try to grasp the magnitude of what has happened and reach out and up toward some transcendent purpose.

What do you think?

by Phil Simon, Marketing and Promotions Communications Managing Director

Google Earth’s new AIA Layer, launched April 24, has set the stage for AIA members at all levels to engage the public in a conversation about architecture that will give people everywhere a better appreciation of what architects do.

First, there is the “wow” factor of Google Earth. If you haven’t tried it, do. Just as the potato chip ad dared us to try to eat just one, I’d provide this (more as advice than a dare): Don’t go into Google Earth if you’ve only got five minutes till your next meeting. It is that much fun to fly from point to point—anywhere on Earth. And there are enough places with high-resolution photos in the database that you will certainly feel compelled to find your own house and try to figure out about when the satellite image was taken.

Now, with the AIA Layer, you can also visit the 150 projects selected by the public for America’s Favorite Architecture exhibit that will be at the AIA 2007 National Convention and Exposition May 3-5 in San Antonio. Zoom down into San Diego to see the Hotel Coronado or across to Colorado Springs to fly around the Air Force Academy Chapel. Jump to Eureka Springs, Ark., and visit Thorncrown Chapel, or head to D.C. and do some “site-seeing” there.

Now, imagine 200 million other people, most who will recognize at least some of the 150 buildings and recognize their value as places—experiences—in their own lives. As they make the connection between architecture and what it means on a personal level, then think of the second aspect of the new layer as it was launched: 34 (and growing) Blueprint for America projects, through which people can see how architects are (or could be) working with local citizens to help make their communities better places to live. As the list of offerings grows (anyone can post projects created through SketchUp), the potential for educating the public expands in kind.

Go take a global fly-over and tell us …

What do you think?