Beverly Hauschild-Baron, Hon. AIA, executive vice president of AIA Minnesota and recipient of the 1999 AIA National Service Award and the 2005 University of Minnesota Outstanding Service Award, is a leader in advancing the careers of up-and-coming architects. She has created a strong allegiance to her alma mater, the University of Minnesota, by becoming an advocate of the university’s College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (CALA). She has lobbied for new facilities for the college and developed programs such as the Clarence Wigington Scholarship for minority students and the Ellerbe Prize to shape young architecture students. As Ed Kodet, FAIA, CALA National Advisory Board chair, explains, “She’s an all-star.”

Geography and architecture
A graduate of the University of Minnesota in 1972, Hauschild-Baron parlayed her geography degree into a successful AIA career. The architecture ball began rolling when, while attending the University of Minnesota, she used her knowledge of geography to land a job at an architecture firm.

“Geography helped me understand the planning aspects of what architects do,” says Hauschild-Baron. “I always thought there was a strong connection there. With geography, you look at how culture and the physical landscape connect, such as how the history of a place or a city evolved as a matter of its culture and landscape and what the people did there to make it a living. These issues inform architects. For example, if you look at urban planning, those types of issues are in play because you look at how buildings serve the area that they are part of.”

Hauschild-Baron later joined AIA Minnesota and managed the state convention, edited its newsletter, and worked with the committees on continuing education. She has held many positions in the AIA, including serving on its Board of Directors, the Board of the AIA Trust, and the National Convention Advisory Group and Site Selection Committee. She has been AIA Minnesota’s executive president since 1982.

Educating tomorrow’s architects
She currently maintains a very strong alliance between AIA Minnesota and the University of Minnesota as an advocate of the university’s College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. “My interest is in seeing young people who are currently studying architecture develop over time and help them get involved with the AIA and see how their leadership skills can be developed,” explains Hauschild-Baron, who serves as CALA’s representatives to the Board of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association. She also has served on CALA’s National Advisory Board and the Continuing Professional Advisory Board.

She advances support for minority students pursuing architecture in her role with the Minnesota Architectural Foundation (MAF) through the Clarence Wigington Scholarship. “Our foundation made a huge commitment to improve the number of minority students who would eventually become practitioners,” she says. “We have worked hard to raise the funds to support two students, and it’s been a rewarding experience to participate in that and develop a relationship with them over the years. Also, AIA Minnesota has a student representative on its board of directors. That is another way we have a close connection to the students. Over the years, I have seen many of those students graduate and thrive as practitioners. It’s important to make sure that the younger practitioners be brought into our organization when then they become members, because they bring a different perspective and energize. It’s important that they are brought into the organization in a meaningful way when they become members and feel that they have a valuable contribution to make. I view that as an important role for me.”

Hauschild-Baron has lobbied extensively at the legislative level for renovations at CALA that have resulted in new facilities, including a new building, an auditorium for lectures, a gallery, and a library. The new additions were recently ranked first in the country by Design Intelligence.

“Beverly has consistently supported partnerships between the college and the AIA, greatly enriching the learning opportunities of our students,” says CALA Dean Thomas Fisher, Assoc. AIA. “She is an extraordinary leader and friend of the college.”

Hauschild-Baron says that her lobbying over the last 10 years has been “a big effort to raise the funds through the state legislature by working within the university system.” Says Kodet, “She is untiring in terms of the time she has spent at the legislative level to develop programs to advance the careers of young architects and provide scholarships for the University of Minnesota. She has a genuine interest. She also possesses a great understanding of an architects’ mentality and culture because she understands the balance of art with finance. She also knows it’s not all about awards but rather it’s about understanding the culture of how we work with clients, the community, with each other, and society.”

Building charrettes
Hauschild-Baron pioneered the Search for Shelter program in Minnesota. “We work with social agencies to provide shelter for the homeless and affordable housing. We have a group of architects who are committed members who put together a charrette every year. For example, the agencies come to us and say ‘we have a small building that we would like turned into a shelter.’ During the course of the charrette, there would be a team of architects and students working on it and over three days who present their solutions to each of the agencies, who in turn then find the funding to carry it out.”

Another AIA Minnesota program that she oversees is its Minnesota Design Team, which is a group of architects, planners, interior designers, and graphic designers who go out to small rural communities to solve problems. “For example, there might be a small town where their commercial district is run down and they want to revitalize it, but the town doesn’t know how to begin. The team of architects and other professionals go to the small town and spend three days there, after doing preliminary work, working with the community leaders, understanding what they want to accomplish, and then undertaking a design charrette. This is a program that has been extremely successful for the 20 years it has been ongoing.”

Hauschild-Baron has also been the publisher since 2000 of the award-winning bimonthly magazine Architecture Minnesota. The AIA has recognized her service by designating her a Richard Upjohn Fellow, conferring Honorary AIA status in 1991, and giving her an AIA National Service Award in 1999 for her work in continuing education.

“She has single-handedly mastered the profile of an AIA component,” Kodet says. “When you say AIA Minnesota, you say Beverly Hauschild-Baron. They are one and the same.”

—Russell Boniface

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