Dallas architects want to tell you about the power AIA members have to make a difference in our communities. It was just four years ago that AIA Dallas, in preparation for its role as host of the 1999 AIA national convention, solicited submissions for a Legacy project. Since then, the chapter, its charitable foundation, and its Legacy Committee have taken on or referred several community service projects and have moved the original assignment along to where they are ready to hire an architect to convert dilapidated Parkland Hospital into a modern health-services center.

AIA Dallas followed in the tradition of AIA Atlanta, which in 1995 became the first host chapter to undertake a pro bono civic project in conjunction with a national convention held in its city. Its project, which partnered the component with Habitat for Humanity to build new homes, continues to serve as an inspiration and model for AIA national convention host chapters as a way to make a contribution to their community, the Institute, and the profession.

AIA Dallas' experience
"The reason most of us get into architecture is because we want to create things. When we're young, or at least when I'm young, you think that what you're going to do is make people's dreams come true. And we do that. But sometimes we lose the perspective that you get when you work on small projects for intensely grateful people . . . When people see that what they thought they could get was 'A,' but then they came and talked to us, and they're getting 'Z,' and it's more than they ever knew even existed," said Walter Kilroy, AIA, chairman of the group's Legacy Committee.

"When we decided we were going to do a Legacy project, the first thing we did was to analyze what we could do, what we ought to do, and what we shouldn't do," Kilroy explained. He said the committee soon devised criteria for judging the projects: It had to be in Dallas County and be a project that would have a long life rather than a speculative endeavor. And they decided they didn't want to take on a project that someone could afford to hire an architect to do."

"We decided that what we should do were projects that wouldn't happen without an architect's help," Kilroy said.

AIA Dallas volunteers did not single-handedly select their Legacy project. Rather, they asked the community to come to them with its suggestion of people and places that needed their help. They put out the word that they would be taking on a volunteer project in Dallas and solicited proposals from civic and political activists, benefactors, government agencies, nonprofit groups, and others. The chapter received more than 100 inquiries for assistance and got 24 official proposals.

Kilroy explained the process: "It took us quite a while to narrow it down to six, and once we did, we asked them to come and make in-person presentations to an open chapter committee. We listened to presentations all one Saturday. After the presentations we had a vote and on the first ballot we picked this one for Parkland Hospital."

The Parkland-Woodlawn project is the renovation and conversion of the 1911 Parkland Hospital into a modern health-services center for people in Dallas. When completed, the rehabilitated building would be a site for public and personal health education for all Dallas County residents. It's a place, for instance, where people or families of people who have chronic diseases can come to learn, in a non-clinical setting, what to expect and what their treatment options are. It will also accommodate health-education classes and provide low-cost space to nonprofit health and human-services organizations and other institutions of higher education in nursing, allied health, and public health.

Among other tasks, the volunteers provided predesign work such as historical and code research, feasibility studies, parking planning, landscape planning, conceptual designs, and an evaluation of the exterior building envelope.

Importantly, the Legacy project gives architects the opportunity to interact with business and community leaders, government representatives, and officials from other allied organizations to accomplish, advocate, and publicize their projects. For example, AIA Dallas has formed partnerships with the local American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) chapter, the local general contractor's group, and a 3D-modeling firm, which set up virtual offices at the AIA Dallas office. It also encourages stronger bonds between the members of AIA Dallas, especially the older and younger architects. It's an important alliance that serves the architects well in their community.

Domino effect
"What I'm trying to interest you in today is not the grandness of this one Legacy project," Kilroy said, "but the process by which the Dallas chapter took on the concept of legacy as not only part of its convention responsibility, but as an opportunity to reach out to the community from now on." To signify its importance, the component made the Legacy Committee a permanent fixture of the chapter now, Kilroy said.

"We never disbanded Legacy," Kilroy continued. "We sent out our original inquiries to a couple hundred places and people. Subsequent to that we seem to get requests for help every once in a while." And for that statement, Kilroy has numerous successful examples.

For example, the runners-up of the original Legacy project were all attended to. One did pull out of consideration in deference to the Parkland project, Kilroy said. The rest, however, were passed along to other groups, including their AIA Dallas' Associate's forum, its urban designer team, and the local ASLA chapter, all of whom were eager to help with the endeavor. For example, the two neighborhood associations requested master plans, which the Legacy Committee and the urban designers worked together to create.

The Legacy Committee is now working with a church in Dallas to build a completely accessible 6,000-square-foot home for James and Phyllis Penney, a couple who, over a number of years, have adopted 11 special needs children. Of the children now in their home, five are in wheelchairs or will be in wheelchairs, as is Mrs. Penney. Kilroy said the house is more apropos of a clinical setting rather than a residential setting. In addition to accessibility, the house will also feature a physical-therapy room, hydro tub, and mechanical room, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Other projects that have come to the chapter and to the Legacy Committee include the rehabilitation of an early-1900s cemetery in Mesquite for African American brickyard workers who were denied access to the larger town, both in life and in death. Over the years, Kilroy said, the cemetery was all but forgotten. "Someone brought it to the attention of the Mesquite Historical Committee and the Mesquite NAACP, and together they brought it to the Legacy team's attention. Volunteers have now finished the design of the entrance. The state has decided to name it an historical site. Now the cemetery is poised for a fundraising effort to accomplish other needed improvements.

Another project that recently came to the Legacy Committee is the Cedar-Skyline Trail Initiative, for which the chapter is working with the Texas Trail Network and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system. This project is intended to build a trail accessible to persons with disabilities that will connect three public schools and may also end up connecting the Dallas Zoo to an additional DART rail line. Its aim is to improve conditions for the residents of a predominantly low-income, urban area. Kilroy said the woman who brought the project to the attention of AIA Dallas said, "hopefully it will get people who live in my part of town out of their homes and more visible and enjoying nature."

Satisfying experience
"When we started out, our goal was to follow up on (AIA Fellow) Richard Bradfield's idea [a resolution proposed and passed at the 1997 AIA convention] of leaving a Legacy project behind after a convention instead of 1,000 cubic yards of convention debris. As it turns out, ours is going to be a pretty significant series of projects."

Kilroy says he is involved in Legacy not because he is generous, but because he is selfish.

"It's an incredible experience to see what architecture can do to individuals who are not our typical client base," Kilroy said. "The excitement and delight they get from what we can do for them is just so satisfying."

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.