Resolve to learn more about creating livable communities while you attend the AIA convention, which takes place May 8-10 in San Diego this year. Among the learning activities you can choose are “Embracing the Future: Community Visioning Training for Architects” (a half-day pre-convention workshop on May 7) and two convention seminars: “Taking a Stand for Better Design: Architects as Advocates” and “The Legal Limits on Design: Land Use Law for Architects.”

Visioning training for architects
Arrive in sunny San Diego a day before the convention this year and take advantage of one of the 18 half-day programs (3.75 LUs) or 8 full-day programs (7.5 LUs). For instance, one designed to equip architects with the skills to run public meetings and facilitate community discussions about preferred futures, “Embracing the Future: Community Visioning Training for Architects,” provides hands-on training on how to design, manage, and facilitate community-visioning processes. Attendees will take part in mock visioning processes. Workshop teachers are Tony Costello, FAIA, Ball State University’s Irving Distinguished Professor of Architecture and principal of Costello + Associates; Dr. Shirl D. Buss. Assoc. AIA, San Francisco State University department of design and industry; Michael E. Willis, FAIA, founding principal of Michael Willis Architects; and Bruce Race, FAIA, founding principal of RACESTUDIO. Check out workshop WE01, Wednesday, 8 a.m.–noon.

Showcasing architects as advocates
Few architects doubt that their communities would be substantially more attractive and livable if they were more active as advocates for a better built environment. The “Taking a Stand for Better Design: Architects as Advocates” will demonstrate that they are right. Three architects will use case studies to describe their involvement in advocacy for a more livable built environment and the results for their communities. The program, designed to inspire architects to become more involved in the public-policy debate in their communities, will educate them about the advocacy roles they can play and offers advice about how to get involved.

The program’s case studies will focus on efforts to:
• Reclaim the site of a San Francisco freeway that collapsed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and reconnect downtown to the waterfront
• Revitalize Houston’s Main Street corridor and transform it into the city’s own “Champs Elysees”
• Develop and promote a light-rail plan in Kansas City through intelligent, citizen-responsive urban design.

Speakers for the session are Clark D. Manus, FAIA, Heller Manus Architects, San Francisco; Peter H. Brown, FAIA, Civic Design Associates, Houston; and E. Crichton (“Kite”) Singleton, FAIA, Kansas City. Check out Seminar TH10, Thursday, May 8, 2–3:30 p.m.

Learn land-use law
Although architects might prefer to design on a blank slate, the reality is that their designs are limited not only by the demands of their clients but by federal, state, and local development controls. The universe of legally permissible designs is a limited one. In “The Legal Limits on Design: Land Use Law for Architects” seminar, architect, attorney, and urban planner Robert Sitkowski, Esq., AIA, AICP, will discuss the legal limitations placed on an architect’s designs. The program will introduce participants to the concepts and vocabulary of land-use regulation, including the many new concepts and terms that have evolved out of the Smart Growth and New Urbanism movements and the increase in “NIMBYism.” He also will provide participants with practical, experience-based advice on how to negotiate the processes for obtaining federal, state, and local land-use and design approvals. Check out Seminar FR27, Friday, 2–3:30 p.m.

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