Great Spaces, Great Places
The following article is reposted from Fast Company, by author Kimberly Dowdell, AIA, NOMA, NCARB, LEEP AP BD+C Police brutality and the coronavirus pandemic are two health crises that disproportionately impact black Americans. Architects, who take an oath to protect the “health, safety, and welfare” of the public, must be part of the solution. I …
Continue reading “Racism is built into U.S. cities. Here’s how architects can fight back”
By Tim Hawk, FAIA2019-2021 At-large Director, AIA National Board of Directors Members of the American Institute of Architects have stepped forward with unprecedented energy to help peers and communities’ weather the COVID-19 pandemic. As a professor of architectural history, I believe that we respond in part because of our knowledge of history, and our awareness …
Continue reading “June 2020 AIA National Board Outreach Network Report”
Imagine: It’s the fall semester of your senior year of college. You can’t wait to see all of your friends, have late nights in the studio, and take multiple trips to Lowes. Fast forward to your spring break. You have just finished your midterm architecture review and said, “See you later” to your friends and classmates. Little did you know, you probably won’t ever be seeing some of those classmates ever again.
The last AIA Convention’s theme was rural resiliency. At that time, we didn’t know the challenges we have faced the last month or so. I keep coming back to the idea though. I have hope that our state will bounce back. Midwesterners are known for their toughness and ability to weather the storms: their resiliency. This year’s spring meeting was evidence of that attitude. The plan was to hold the meeting in Brookings hosted by SDSU’s chapter of AIAS. The students had put time and thought into an informative agenda. Social distancing changed plans.
A South Dakota architect in Yankton, Sarah Mannes Homstad is conducting a study during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is in response to the evolving needs of our communities and questions about what it means, architecturally-speaking, to inhabit our world today. Mannes Homstad asked herself the following questions: What is changing about the way we …
Continue reading “Input Needed : SD Architect Collects Data About Architecture & Social Distancing”
While the silver lining in no way relieves the pain and suffering of those directly and indirectly affected by this global pandemic, it does pose some questions of what this means for the 9-5 desk jobs. Will we see another paradigm shift in office designs? Will home buyers evaluate prospective homes based on the office or den? Will South Dakota see a return to rural lifestyles as living in the city is no longer a requirement to stay connected? The future holds many unknowns, but if anything is certain, it is that life will go on. We will pick up the pieces and learn from the events that necessitated a sudden separation.
With stories in Australia with wildfires and earthquakes in Puerto Rico scattered throughout my newsfeed, global disasters are top of mind. We live in an age of information and technology, and have access to current events at our finger tips. With that comes the ability to affect change and help the situations we’re reading about. There are many avenues to aid in relief efforts. It’s hard to know where to get involved. Fortunately, the AIA has a program that specializes in disaster assistance.
As cities and countries continue to declare climate emergency, they are now faced with the economic burden that it takes to switch over to more energy efficient systems. However, in their article, Climate change: real estate worth billions could become obsolete – unless owners act now, Kevin Muldoon-Smith and Paul Michael Greenhalgh, professors at Northumbria …
In response to national and regional advances in disaster preparedness, AIA South Dakota had begun to develop a Disaster Assistance Program by connecting with AIA National and other State components to create the protocols for our volunteer architects to respond in case of a major event (tornado, floods, forest fires, and winter storms) in our …
Continue reading “Newly appointed AIA SD Disaster Coordinator”
Meet Stacey Zwetter Keller AIA Wisconsin’s Disaster Assessment Program Coordinator Not only is Stacey a Senior Project Architect at Mead & Hunt, Inc. in Middleton, WI, but she is visible in the profession and the community through her service as the AIA North Central Region Young Architect Regional Director, past president of AIA Southwest Wisconsin, …
Continue reading “Disaster Recovery Reform Act Part 2 – Wisconsin”