by Eugene C. Hopkins, FAIA

AIA presidential inaugurations take place in significant architectural spaces. The inspiration that comes with the territory works its magic on both the speaker and those in the audience: Attention is focused, noble sentiments seem more plausible in the context of design excellence, and the eye can wander if the speech is too long. It’s a classic case of the medium being the message.

My inauguration as the AIA’s 80th president last month in the Library of Congress was no exception. But it had a special relevance for me that went beyond the Beaux Arts splendor of the library’s Jefferson Building. Like the medieval cathedrals, the building designed by Washington architects John J. Smithmeyer and Paul G. Pelz is a monument to faith—but the faith here is not in a higher, supernatural power. It’s in humankind itself.

Optimism, not despair, has always been the engine of positive change. As Harlan Cleveland reminds us: “The steepest part of the learning curve is not skills but attitudes.” This building is a gesture of profound optimism. It breathes and inspires a positive attitude!

Where design and knowledge intersect
Democracy, freedom, literacy, public access to knowledge—all are the offspring of the Age of Enlightenment as expressed by the library’s first and most ardent benefactor—Architect-President, AIA Gold Medalist Thomas Jefferson. It was Jefferson’s belief that a free, democratic society could not exist and thrive without the shared knowledge made possible by books. Jefferson once wrote: “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of the day.”

Twenty-two years earlier, I succumbed to the magic of this place. As a young architect who chose historic preservation as his area of specialization, I was employed to write the material conservation specifications for the library restoration just then getting under way. It was at that time that I became acquainted with every inch of the place as I crawled around it from the basement up to the dome where I looked down through the oculus into the great reading room.

I cannot think of any other building in Washington where the intersection of design and knowledge is so blatant, so powerful, and so resonant with meaning for our profession and The American Institute of Architects.

Evolving into wisdom
Knowledge is the AIA’s legacy. We are a knowledge-based profession. And knowledge is most assuredly the AIA’s future: finding it, capturing it, analyzing it, and sharing it.

The wonderful news about the knowledge we as a profession pursue is that it’s a living, organic thing. It evolves and grows within each of us. And if we’re smart enough, if we nurture knowledge with the food of deep, compelling values and exemplary ethics, it evolves into wisdom.

The challenge for us as architects is to keep up with it, feed on it, share it, and, in the process, grow and flourish as a community. In this regard, the words of the great 19th-century educator, Horace Mann, speak powerfully to us: “Every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power; and while a philosopher is discovering one new truth, millions of truths may be propagated amongst the people. The whole land must be watered with the streams of knowledge.”

A culture of sharing
The role of our AIA knowledge community is nothing more or less than this: to water the seeds of society’s noblest dreams and make them bloom. To realize this potential—which I am convinced is our destiny—we must advocate and model a culture of sharing within our profession, the construction industry, and our communities. We must be forceful and informed advocates for sustainability, for well-being, for stewardship of our design legacy, and for wise use of the precious resource that is our land.

Never in my lifetime have conditions been so favorable to make the case for the value of architects and architecture. Never in my lifetime has society been so eager for our success. Never in my lifetime has The American Institute of Architects been better poised to address the needs of our changing profession and the dreams of the people we serve.

Is this an ambitious challenge? Yes. Can we meet it? I say most emphatically, yes!

I say we can rise to the challenge before us because I have learned during the years I have been an AIA member what we, acting collectively and with purpose, are capable of. And we are capable of truly great things. Helping to create the conditions that will make these great things happen is my agenda as your president.

Happy New Year!

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