Dispatch from A’19

AIA President Bill Bates, FAIA, announces that the organization is launching a comprehensive review of the process used to select its award recipients “to promote the highest professional standards among members and within the profession” at A’19 in Las Vegas.

This past June more than 20,000 architects from all over the US and beyond gathered in Las Vegas for A’19, and took a stand for a sustainable future.

Architects designing for a better future means taking on the critical challenges facing cities, and our world, today. This was a key message of A’19 as the theme of Blueprint for Better was interwoven throughout the conference.

Blueprint for Better, an initiative of AIA National, highlights how architects are working with clients and community leaders to tackle key issues from rising water levels and more frequent natural disasters, to diverse housing needs and the increased urgency for sustainable and resilient design.

This urgency was recognized when AIA members voted in large majority to pass a Resolution on Climate Action by a margin or 4,860 to 312 (read the full resolution here). Find out more about how AIA Pittsburgh is carrying these efforts forward in this letter from the AIA Pittsburgh Committee on the Environment.

Among the other business conducted at the AIA Annual Meeting was:

• the election of new national leadership. In particular, candidates spoke of strategies to support equity, diversity, and inclusion within our profession and within the AIA boards, committees and leadership.
• an announcement by AIA President Bill Bates, FAIA, that the organization is launching a comprehensive review of the process used to select its award recipients “to promote the highest professional standards among members and within the profession.”
• the need for architects to seek out and form partnerships with others given the complexity of the issues facing the built environment.

“This was not so much a break from last year’s messages, but a continuation and reinforcement of these large aspirations and necessary changes to design a better future for all,” said AIA Pittsburgh President Stephen Winikoff, AIA.

Save the date: The A’20 conference will be in Los Angeles, May 14-16. The call for speaker proposals is still open: seminar proposals close August 5 and preconference workshop proposals close September 27.

AIA Pittsburgh members Gwen Dakis, AIA and Ayla Abiad, Assoc. AIA present at A’19