This report on the 2010 AAO/A+DEN Conference comes to us from Walter L. Wilson, AIA, NOMA, NCARB
The AAO/A+DEN 2nd Annual Conference at the Chicago Architecture Foundation
Inspiring Solutions for People and Cities is about initiating an understanding of the power of conceptual architectural design with young people at an early age and witnessing the utilization of that knowledge in sustainable built environments in the United States and around the world.
It was cold November 2009 and the sun was still asleep in the sky when we arose. Donning my trusty black backpack and my wife in tow for company, we said goodbye to our house plants, turned out the inside lights, turned on the outside lights and negotiated our way out of our suburban neighborhood to the freeway leading to the downtown Milwaukee Intermodal Train Station, where we hopped onto the south bound Hiawatha Amtrak along the Lake Michigan shoreline, destination Chicago, to attend the first conference of AAO/A+DEN [Association of Architecture Organizations and Architecture + Design Education Network] as a member of the American Institute of Architects Education Committee. That was a momentous occasion for me and from that meeting I acquired fresh ideas to take back home, in addition to, new friendships with people from all over the world.
At the urging of Rick Bell, FAIA, founding member of the Inaugural Board of Directors of AAO, I registered to attend the 2010 AAO/A+DEN Conference again this year. This year’s theme was “Design in Action.” I really did not need much encouragement from Rick, having convinced myself long before that I should go back and attend in 2010. AAO/A+DEN were organized to promote excellence in architectural centers and design education communities all over the world. Indeed representatives from Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and other parts of the globe were represented at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, where the conference was held over a two-day period. This unique venue provided a platform for cooperation among institutions, educators, and the general public to share knowledge and experiences to energize and expand public dialogue about architecture.
As a returning conferee, I registered as an “individual member,” since my tenure on the AIA committee had expired. Instead, I acknowledged my affiliation with the National Organization of Minority Architects, NOMA, not knowing at all whether NOMA would be represented at the conference or not. The 2011 membership categories (announced during the conference) included a Founding Member, Organizational Member, Individual Member, Educator/Student Member, and Friend of AAO Member.
I recalled in 2009 attending one of the breakout sessions whose topic was how to conduct successful architectural tours. I learned how some of the AAO organizations conducted their architectural tours and it provided me with some not-so-intuitive ideas about what worked or did not work so well.
Several years back, I hosted a group of visiting architects from the Chicago Chapter of Illinois National Organization of Minority Architects (INOMA) on a tour of Milwaukee architectural sites. I could have applied a few of the pointers I learned at the conference and done an even better job. This year, however, when Bryan Hudson, a freshly minted architect and president elect of INOMA and mentor to African American high school students enrolled in the NAACP ACT-SO program for architecture, contacted me to see if I would want to host a tour again in 2010, I agreed without hesitation. The date was set for the morning of Saturday, July 31, 2010. Bryan would lead a caravan of Chicago architects, high school students, friends and spouses to Milwaukee to meet me at the Milwaukee Art Museum Addition also known as the “Calatrava” after the Spanish design architect Santiago Calatrava. This time they were joined in Milwaukee by students and faculty advisors from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS) and AIA Milwaukee members. This time I did something different. I contacted, in advance, every building owner, designer, and non-profit organization associated with buildings on our itinerary. This time the tour was twice as successful as before in part because I applied what I learned from the AAO/A+DEN Conference workshop.
The 2010 AAO/A+DEN Conference commenced on a cool Monday morning with welcoming remarks from Lynn Osmond, Chair of AAO and President/CEO of the Chicago Architecture Foundation. John Cary headlined the opening session with a presentation entitled “Design in Action,” which set forth answers to the question, “What do our physical environments say about the architectural profession and our society?” Cary encouraged the conferees to rethink age-old notions and embrace a broader design ethic to make our communities more beautiful, equitable, and sustainable. He spoke eloquently about the power of pro-bono, highlighting design in action that inspired solutions for people and cities. He encouraged conferees to follow up on his talk by going online to “Next American City.” Cary also spoke of the “Building and Community Report”, Architecture for Humanity, “Making Policy Public,” and the PBS documentary entitled, “Citizen Architect," the filming of the practice of rural Alabama architect and AIA Gold Medal Winner, Samuel Mockbee. Samuel Mockbee was convinced that "everyone, rich or poor, deserved a shelter for the soul" and that architects should lead in procuring social and environmental change.
The story of Samuel Mockbee’s life and his contributions to rural Alabama via his architectural practice has inspired me to look more broadly at opportunities to put my skills and talents to work closer to home.
Next was a lecture entitled, “Neighborhoods Go Green!” by the passionate, erudite architect Douglas “Doug” Farr, author of Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature.” Mr. Farr, who’s architectural and planning practice is headquartered in downtown Chicago, also appeared in the PBS documentary the “Green Machine” on Mayor Richard Daley’s mission to make Chicago the greenest city in America, and is the founding chair of the LEED Neighborhood Development project (LEED-ND), as well. Mr. Farr, who prefers Doug, defined what the concept of transportation oriented urban design was and how that strategy could aid design professionals and developers in creating “smart sites,” for lively, nature-friendly environments for human habitation and the cultivation of sustainable neighborhoods.
As I listened to Doug’s presentation from the last available seat in the back of the auditorium I could not avoid thinking about what impact the lack of rapid transit development in Wisconsin might be like. Would economic growth stagnate? Would unemployment in low income communities and rural enclaves continue to hover in the double digits? Would politicians ignore the high costs taxpayers have to pay to maintain existing and new highway construction? Plans for a rapid transit link to Milwaukee from Kenosha, called the KRM, for Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee, are on the drawing boards as politicians and public policy makers debate the cost and value of expanded public transportation at a time when austerity is the watch word of the day. Newly elected governors of Ohio and Wisconsin emphatically reject high speed rail. Wisconsin’s governor-elect is vowing to return the $810 million in federal government investment money awarded to eventually create a link between Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul on the grounds that Wisconsin cannot afford to pay nearly $800,000 in annual maintenance and upkeep costs after the system is operational.
I said to myself, this is a perfect opportunity to challenge our state’s design community to find creative ways to educate the public, the business community, and our politicians and policy makers about the environmental, social, and economic benefits of high speed public-oriented transportation.
One of three simultaneous afternoon breakout sessions at the conference, “How to Make Public Architecture from $800 and the Empty Lot,” was presented by Mitch McEwen, Director and Founder of SUPERFRONT. She is a practicing designer as well as the Director and Founder of SUPERFRONT, a gallery and project space for architecture and interdisciplinary projects. Since founding SUPERFRONT in January 2008, she has been the curator of more than a dozen exhibits and has published four architectural catalogs. She works with artists, historians, and architects from New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Madrid, and elsewhere. Her exhibits at SUPERFRONT have investigated the relationship between architecture and performance, as well as phenomenology, community engagement, and urbanism.
Mitch McEwen walked us through a methodology used by SUPERFRONT Brooklyn’s “Public Summer” program to lead young designers in the construction of temporary structures for local community groups. The project operates as a microcosm of community development, engaging local groups with the design process for producing contemporary architecture for public use.
Other Monday breakout sessions, which I was fortunate enough to attend were, “National Design Issues: Fit City and Beyond,” featuring Rick Bell, Executive Director, AIA New York and Ole Bouman, Director, Netherlands Architecture Institute, where Bell and Bouman in tag team fashion shared examples of how their Architecture Centers became central gathering places to engage practitioners, government officials, and citizens in conversations about design projects.
The other breakout session which I attended was called, “Meet and Greet with Funders,” presented by Sunny Fischer, Executive Director, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and Sarah Herda, Executive Director, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. In this session, a series of “do's” and “don’ts” with regard to fundraiser preparation and recognition of donor types and fundraiser expectations were covered. Speakers prepared excellent PowerPoint presentations, which helped facilitate the question-and-answer session.
These were just a few of the couple dozen presentations, workshops, and breakout sessions that took place at the Chicago Architecture Foundation.
Tours of Chicago’s downtown architecture added to the conference, as well. I chose to visit the Monadnock Building at 53 W. Jackson Blvd., the tallest commercial load bearing masonry building ever constructed. It was designed (in part) by Burnham and Root in 1891 but the south addition to the building was done by Holabird & Roche in 1893. It was located just a few blocks from the Chicago Architecture Foundation which is housed in the beautiful Santa Fe Building at 224 S. Michigan Ave. Our docent led us on foot to our destination at a very leisurely pace, while immersing us in Chicago history, its aromas, its heroes and its shadowy figures, its urban context, its tempo of hustle and bustle, all the while weaving us in and out of the paths of blank faced men and women, tall and short in stature, dressed in every manor of fashion, all scurrying around to points unknown. Although my ruined knees were thoroughly tested by the long stretches of hard pavement and ascending and descending stairways, the tour and our docent filled my head with facts and figures that were simply worth the discomfort.
Jason Schupbach, Director of Design at National Endowment for the Arts was the opening speaker on day two at the conference. Mr. Schupbach indicated that because of the lack of adequate funding for some projects, federal agencies have to coordinate resources for sustainable regional community planning projects. With that understanding, NEA has $100 million to work with, some of which is designated for rural community development. In order to leverage funds, other foundations have to team with NEA to do Art/Community Development projects. San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association (SPUR) used this method to fund one of their signature projects that way. NEA money is also used for Place-Making projects through the “Our Town” programs. Jason said that $1.5 million goes to design related fields, and continued that the NEA is currently in need of data showing the state of design/architecture professions in the United States, and welcomed conferees to assist in gathering that data.
Ty Goddard of the British Council for School Environments (BCSE) was the Keynote speaker on day two. BCSE is an educational charity and membership organization made up of schools, local authorities, and companies. Citing example after example, Mr. Goddard shared his experiences of organizing contractors and material suppliers, who volunteered their time and skills, free of charge, to renovate a deteriorating neighborhood school for under-privileged children. Mr. Goddard talked about catalyzing social change through design and spoke fervently of creating social change through architectural and urban design for the primary purpose of dignify people. Mr. Goddard recommended Sun Tzu's “The Art of War” to find strategies and a winning philosophy to achieve successful outcomes through social change.
Mr. Goddard also cited a report written by G. Mulgan, R. Ali, R. Halkett and B. Sanders called, “In and Out of Sync: The Challenge of Growing Social Innovations," published February 22, 2008. The report is about how social innovations spread and grow. It was meant to provide a theoretically- and empirically-grounded guide for the people involved in social innovation: innovators, funders, policy-makers, and commissioners. It draws on a growing body of research on patterns of growth, and distills its conclusions into a guide to help direct scarce resources more effectively to maximize social impact and much more.
At the end of my day in Chicago, I understood the need to inculcate a broader and more fundamental understanding of the importance of architectural design and planning into public discourse and how important it is to try to do that as early into the educational process as possible. Doing so could not be more critical in the twenty-first century as we watch in dismay and wonderment the consequences of climate change, worldwide economic disparities and dysfunction, and a Darwinian kind of ruthless pursuit of self-interest, leaving in its wake devastation and destruction of certain sectors of our built environment. We have seen glaring examples, which included the pre-Katrina solutions to the canals and levies in New Orleans, the insatiable appetite for fossil fuels, the growing gap between the rich and poor people in America, in particular, and around the world in general, the deterioration of black, Native American, and Hispanic communities in cities like Detroit, “The Ville” in St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Baltimore to name just a few.
It was late in the afternoon, all my business cards were passed out, and I was exhausted. It was time for me to head back home. The chill outside did not bother me because Union Station was just a $5.00 cab ride away from the Santa Fe Building. My backpack seemed heavier than it was when I arrived in Chicago, and deep inside I felt a calling to spread the word about what I learned to a larger audience back home. I boarded the 5:30 p.m. Hiawatha and dodged the maddening automobile and truck traffic back north to Milwaukee.
I was now a true believer (as if I wasn’t before) that architecture centers are functioning very well as central gathering places to engage practitioners, government officials, and citizens in conversations about architectural design projects; and the necessity of having design professionals engaged in our educational, political, social, and societal discourse. It was up to me and other design professionals to challenge our youth to imagine the possibilities of design and its power to enhance our built environments. AAO and A+DEN was that important forum to share ideas, celebrate diversity, recognize excellence in architectural centers and architectural education, and promote sustainable communities in the United States and all over the world.