What were your favorite sessions at the 30th annual Architecture Exchange East this past November? A few of our members share their stories.
Keynote address by Marc Kushner
Marc Kushner is an architect and the creator of Architizer, an online hub for architecture. Architecture is not about math or zoning — it’s about visceral emotions. The power of architecture is emotional connections about the places we occupy. 90% of our time is spent indoors on average, where we are surrounded by architecture. Architecture is shaping our experiences.
Architecture works on the principle of a pendulum, innovation on one side, familiar forms and symbols on the other. We have seen the swing from Brutalism, to Post-Modernism, to De-constructionism. Instead of swinging back the Guggenheim Bilbao occurred. It united architects, academics, and the general public around it. Now innovating design has become associated with culture, civic places, and tourism.
Digital media increases the speed of architecture. There is a blurring of the line between innovation and symbol. We are all now architecture photographers. Social media allows your photographs of buildings to become part of your personal own narrative.
– Chris Venable, AIA, Spectrum Design
509: AIA Virginia’s Disaster Assistance Program
As we watched the natural disasters in Houston, Florida, and Puerto Rico, it solidifies the importance of resiliency and reconfirms the significance of the role we play in our respective communities as architects. The AIA Virginia board of directors is supporting Paula Loomis, FAIA in reinvigorating AIA Virginia’s disaster assistance program that would partner with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Emergency Management. This key initiative is in the beginning stages and Paula Loomis conducted a presentation at ArchEx.
Paula described how, with this program, architects come on the scene after first responders to perform building assessments that determine if facilities are safe for re-entry. AIA National has a program and advises states to make sure your members are protected and Virginia has Good Samaritan Laws in place to protect volunteers. Paula would serve as the State Coordinator and be supported by Bob Magoon out of AIA Hampton Roads. The State Coordinator serves as the direct link to AIA National and the local AIA components. A scoping meeting has been set for December 1 to review, and modify as necessary, the 2011 MOU between AIA Virginia and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. The next step will be to solicit two contacts from each local chapter that would be willing to serve as coordinators and to begin plans to make Safety Assessment Program (SAP) training available.
– Bill Brown, AIA, Moseley Architects
AIA Virginia Annual Meeting
Call to Order – AIA Virginia Board President Bill Brown, AIA called the meeting to order and offered opening remarks that included the statement of the mission and vision of the organization. Minutes from the June 2017 Virtual Meeting of the Membership, as well as minutes from the November 2016 Annual meeting, were approved.
Board President Brown also took a moment to recognize the members of the 2017 Board of Directors, as well as recipients of the AIA Virginia 2017 Honor Awards. A resolution was put forward and passed in appreciation of exhibitors and sponsors of ArchEx 2017. Mr. Brown also updated the membership on the Board’s progress on the implementation of the 2017 – 2020 Strategic Plan, and related initiatives.
Treasurer’s Report – Mitch Rowland, AIA delivered the Treasurer’s Report, and informed the membership that AIA Virginia has paid off the line of credit, reported on membership and related revenue and stated that AIA Virginia will begin the 2018 fiscal year with cash reserves increased from last year.
The Board Secretary and Advisory Councils provided updates on key initiatives, plans for 2018, and continued progress on completing goals set by the 2017–2020 Strategic Plan. President-elect Keplinger, AIA led the membership in the passage of a motion to modify language in the recently updated Bylaws, in order to allow Associate Members the opportunity to serve in the role of Component Director. Additionally, the Membership was presented with an update from Regional Director Brian Frickie, AIA, which outlined the position and function of AIA’s Strategic Council.
Executive Vice President R. Corey Clayborne, AIA, and President-Elect Eric Keplinger, AIA finished out the meeting with brief updates, an announcement of the slate of 2018 Board Officers and Directors, and some words of inspiration for the coming year.
– Gina Robinson, Assoc. AIA, HDR
504: Siting the Past/Projecting the Future: Public Debate and Richmond’s Landscape of Memory
David Buege and CL Bohannon
With a few weeks having passed to let those impressions that might filter to the top time to do so, I’m left with a number of vivid take-aways from ArchEX 2017. Front and center though are some of the illuminating points made by David Buege and CL
Bohannon in their thought-provoking presentation on the current controversy surrounding Richmond’s Civil War monuments.
A complicated subject and an emotion-charged debate, Buege and Bohannon recognized the many perceptions and connections that legitimately influence and shape myriad perspectives. Landscape – the canvas for these embattled and divisive symbols – is the medium of the American public and popular debate. What struck me most, is the individual experience of the landscape that for some is so different from my own. As a ‘northerner from the Midwest’, I realized that I’ve been so completely unaware – not conscious actually – of the presence these objects in the landscape command, and subsequently the emotions they stir.
Think about feeling “a thousand cuts” every time every day that you pass a Confederate monument… one Richmond African American’s experience every day as she drives to and from work. Just imagine. An awakening of sorts to someone else’s reality; the adage of ‘walking in another’s shoes’, now seeing more clearly through another’s eyes.
Rather than prescribing an antidote or proposing specific solutions, Buege and Bohannon suggest the notion of redoing as a form of doing –
(RE): implying an undoing of some previous action:
(RE)member
(RE)consider
(RE)contextualize
(RE)move
(RE)present
(RE)flect
(RE)cover
(RE)name
(RE)structure
(RE)conciliation
Small small pieces from an amazing presentation… to provoke us to think and engage in constructive dialogue.
– Rob Reis, AIA, Hanbury
Walking Tour of the Virginia Capital Trail
Our group enjoyed walking a couple miles along the Virginia Capital Trail on a beautiful fall afternoon. The 50-mile long walking and biking trail extends from Downtown Richmond to Jamestown. It follows the Route 5 corridor, which is one of the oldest travel corridors in Virginia dating to the colonial period.
The guides led our group along the westernmost segment of the trail extending from Great Shiplock Park along the Kanawha Canal to Shockoe Bottom, which passes beneath the ‘Low Line’ railroad trestle. Native plants have transformed this formerly overgrown and unused area into a successful linear park.
Tour of VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA)
The VCU and BCWH team led a tour of the new Institute for Contemporary Art. Construction of the 41,000 s.f. Steven Holl design is nearing completion. Located at the corner of Broad and Belvidere, the ICA is intended to serve as a beacon of art and culture at one of Richmond’s busiest intersections.
The site opens to both the city and to the VCU campus, with landscape playing an important role in the design. The building is composed of curving volumes and spreading gallery wings which are clad in titanium-zinc panels. Our group was able to walk through the Galleries, Performance Space, and the back-of-house support spaces. The entry Forum is 33-foot high space filled with natural light and a sweeping grand stair. The ICA is scheduled to open in April 2018.
– Chris Venable, AIA, Spectrum Design
New Licensee Prosecco Toast
In what organizers hope will become an annual tradition, seven new Virginia licensees were applauded and welcomed into the professional ranks by members of the APELSCIDLA licensing board, NCARB, AIAVA and of course, their colleagues. Kate Nosbisch shared insights and sage advice from her many years of leadership with APELSCIDLA, while Jared Zurn, AIA, Director of Examination brought congratulations from NCARB. Several former and current AIAV Virginia Board members shared their perspective on the promise that these newly minted architects hold and cheered their new status.
Registration is a career milestone – providing access and credibility while offering new opportunities in tandem with new responsibilities. It’s often recognized with new titles and assignments, and hopefully even, a bump in compensation. On this afternoon though, in a semi-circle around the new licensees, we paused to acknowledge their accomplishment, raising our champagne flutes in a spirit of celebration and camaraderie. Congratulations – well done!
– Rob Reis, AIA, Hanbury