Riding the elevator up to the AIA office on the seventh floor of one of Pittsburgh’s stately old office buildings, you could tell we were all a little bit nervous. It was mid-September 2017, and each of us had been accepted into the second year of the AIA Leadership Institute for Emerging Professionals. What this actually meant and what our experiences would be over the course of the next nine months, few of us had any idea about. But we would soon find a unique mix of professional camaraderie, personal inspiration, healthy discomfort, and perhaps slow to develop but deeply sincere friendship. I have often found myself to be an ersatz leader, filling space when there is a leadership vacuum,...

Photo credit: Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture / Christina Brown This past fall, the Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture (SoA) inaugurated EX-CHANGE, an end-of-semester exhibition celebrating student work. On 4 May 2018, the school opened the second EX-CHANGE, which featured a week-long exhibition followed by a day of discussions with Ming Fung, AIA, principal, and co-founder of Los Angeles-based Hodgets+Fung and director of Academic Affairs at SCI-Arc; Mitch McEwen, assistant professor at Princeton University School of Architecture, principal of McEwen Studio and co-founder of A(n) Office; and Amy Kulper, associate professor and head of the Department of Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. Discussions on Saturday, May 5 covered issues of pedagogy and practice framed by questions posed...

New Peters Township High School Rendering, Hayes Design Group Architects Jennifer Beck, AIA, Project Architect at Hayes Design Group Architects, recently attended Career Day at Peters Township School District’s McMurray Elementary School. She, along with a number of other special guests, presented to fourth, fifth, and sixth-grade students about different careers to consider. Jennifer shared information about the field of architecture and all that goes into designing buildings. She also showed the students some examples of HDG’s recent projects, including the design of the new Peters Township High School (which recently went out to bid). After Career Day, Jennifer received a number of very creative and thoughtful thank you notes from the students! Peters Township’s McMurray Elementary School holds a...

Recently, the Carnegie Mellon University’s AIAS chapter invited the Young Architects Forum to discuss ‘the aftermath’ of studying architecture. What happens once University is over? Should you accept your first offer or keep searching for the perfect job? What about teaching and researching? Eight panelists, with different backgrounds and work experiences, gave thoughtful answers to the good questions the students asked. Pursuing licensure is a fundamental step for people wanting to practice architecture. Getting registered involves studying with dedication, patience in gaining AXP hours, and a substantial budget. Students that find themselves unsure about what to do after earning their degree in architecture might postpone becoming licensed until they feel sure about their choice. After all, almost every architecture school...

The Carnegie Mellon University chapter of Freedom by Design has taken on their first project to introduce and disperse weatherization kits into homes across Pittsburgh. These kits provide families with a series of means to help insulate their home and a booklet outlining the importance of this cost-saving process. The long winter of Pittsburgh causes high heating costs for many residents across the state. Creating energy efficient spaces benefits the resident both financially and thermally. It is important for one to understand the role they can take in keeping heating costs low and their home warm. The FBD team has prototyped and established a packaged kit organized to assist homeowners and renters across a series of communities in Pittsburgh. The...

Images of the ACE Mentorship Program, photo credit Anastasia Dubnicay.  Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Architecture Design Challenge, photo credit Louise Sturgess.  CMU Saturday Sequence Program, photo credit Paul Moscoso Pittsburgh is a city that embodies an interconnected web of makers and learners of all ages, truly living up to its title as one of America’s City of Learning. No matter your age, each citizen of the world has knowledge and expertise about their environment and can have agency to effect change in their communities. Pittsburgh’s Architecture Learning Network is one partnership in the city where eight non-profits have joined forces to support architecture educational programs in the region. The result is an architecture-learning pathway that helps youth prepare for...

DESIGN + INNOVATION: Certificate of Merit PROJECT NAME: Penn51 Façade CLIENT: 11 to 3 LLC ARCHITECTURE FIRM: mossArchitects DESIGN TEAM: Andrew Moss, AIA; Darren Lloyd, Rebecca Murden ENGINEERS: Conway Engineering CONTRACTORS: P2 Contracting, LLC PHOTOGRAPHERS: Anthony Musmanno INTENT: The Penn51 project, one of many 1-3 story building facades along the Bloomfield and Garfield commercial corridor, is nestled in the center of the Penn Avenue business district; an area that has been the focus of revitalization, with a strong emphasis on the arts. The design solution seeks to reinterpret the facade as a folded skin that simplifies and unifies its previously disconnected property while adding an artful reinterpretation and visual activity to the busy commercial avenue. The design aims to connect...

Editor’s note: Reposted in its entirety from IKM’s website.  Used with permission. What is an “emerging professional?”  As architects, we use the term to describe any professional with 10 years of experience or less. At IKM Architecture, our “emerging professionals” represent the largest and most influential group at the firm. In many ways, their diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and technical acumen make them our go-to resource for mentoring the upcoming generation of designers and forming a symbiotic relationship with firm leadership. No pressure, right? Last year, the AIA Pittsburgh’s Foundation for Architecture launched the inaugural class of the AIA Leadership Institute for Emerging Professionals to support a cohort that is ripe with talent and ambition but remains hungry for direction.Through a...

Young Architects Forum members at an informal “Salotto” The Young Architects Studio Competition (YASC) is a special competition within AIA Pittsburgh’s Design Awards. Currently in its 8th edition, Nick Doichev, AIA established the competition in 2010 as an opportunity to recognize the talent of emerging professionals (defined as still studying or a maximum of ten years out of school). In years past, much creativity has been showcased, but the 2017 edition is particularly special. For the first time, the Young Architects Forum (YAF) has come up with a theme for the come up with a theme for the competition based on a discussion of Pittsburgh’s needs. In spring 2017 YAF held a series of meetings, informally called “Salottos” – an...

Reposted in its entirety from Ray Bowman’s blog RMB-Design: Architecture Made Accessible. As I mentioned last year, I’m doing more and more with the American Institute of Architects (the AIA), both locally, regionally and nationally. It’s part of the reason that I don’t blog about things until months after I do them anymore. One important role of the AIA is to advocate for all architects and support legislation that is supportive for the profession. That’s why the organization moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C. from New York City 50 years ago, to have a louder voice in influencing national legislation. But all politics is local, which is why regional and local chapters of the AIA organize their own lobbying days. Pennsylvania’s...