by Douglas L Steidl, FAIA, MRAIC
2005 AIA President

Time surely is relative.

It seems like only yesterday (to reach for a handy cliché) that I was putting the final touches on the inaugural remarks I was preparing to deliver as the AIA’s 81st president. One year later, I am looking at my computer screen at the remarks I will make prior to another inauguration, this time for 82nd President Kate Schwennsen.

Where did the year go?

The former presidents I talked to last year told me that after the AIA national convention, life slows a little and you have time to breathe. They were wrong. With the kickoff of AIA150 sesquicentennial celebration, the tri-annual Assembly of the International Union of Architects, the EVP/CEO search, the internship conference, the three hurricanes of note—you get the picture. The second half of this year has been virtually nonstop. And now it’s December. Time to move on.

The importance of continuity
Inevitably one looks back to the beginning, to that first speech after the President’s Medal is slipped over your head. How much of the agenda set forth that night was carried out? What was missing or overlooked? Did I set the bar too high or not nearly high enough?

But those may be the wrong questions. They may be off-base because they imply that the person who happens to occupy this position of national leadership has the power to have a profound, maybe even transformational impact on the organization, either for the good or not so good. If such power were conceivable, would it be a good thing? Just how healthy is an organization that can be turned this way or that by the force of a single personality, however enlightened or well-meaning that person might be?

Last December I spoke about the importance of continuity, about how the Board, its officers, and management worked long hours to develop a strategic plan that gives the AIA focus and a long-term commitment to do the things for our profession and our society that need to be done. I also referenced the newly rewritten and approved public policies that clearly and emphatically lay before the world what we believe, what we cherish, and what we value.

The point I wanted to make was the long, thoughtful effort that has been made to build a nimble, creative, and valued-centered organization that is greater than the ambitions or even inspiration of any single individual. This, I believe, describes today’s AIA.

It also defines the qualities we look for in our leaders—not heroes, but stewards committed to caring for and nurturing the professional community that is the AIA. At first glance this might seem a diminution or devaluation of the very idea of leadership. It would certainly remove from the shelf many of the profiles of slash and burn CEOs promoted in bookstores across the land.

Partners in a professional community
Indeed, in describing how we relate to one another, our clients, and the public, we emphatically reject the arrogant bullying of a Howard Roark. We participate, instead, as partners in a professional community whose core values call for leaders who see themselves as stewards of our communities, committed to being of service. It is this commitment that explains, for example, why AIA members were prepared to act as they did, swiftly and compassionately, in the face of this year’s natural disasters. We knew what we valued and didn’t have to wait for orders from above.

This is a portrait of a vibrant, growing organization that not one single individual but all of us are accountable for, whether or not we have been entrusted with leadership roles. Sustainability and livable communities are the responsibility of each of us. And we have both the knowledge and authority to make a difference.

We’re all in this together
Last month, at the final meeting of this year’s executive committee, one member, who was reflecting on his service on the Board, which was just then drawing to a close, said (and I’m paraphrasing):

“The first time I visited the Institute and walked into the Richard Upjohn Room, I was in awe. The paneling and richness of the room, the stately portraits of the first AIA leaders on the walls, the list of AIA presidents, and then the view of the Octagon and the Washington Monument—I felt unworthy. I thought men and women far wiser than I must sit in this room to determine the future of this profession.

“Now, years later,” he continued, “I know that the people in that room are and always have been people just like me, who care about this earth, who care about the citizens who use our designs, and who care about this profession. We’re all in this together, and we’re all trying to do our best.”

I concluded my own inaugural remarks last year by asking those present to joyfully and unselfishly help build safe, healthy, sustainable communities for future generations. These past 12 months I have seen so much that convince me that we are indeed committed to a better future. I cannot begin to say just how proud I am to be part of a profession that daily rises to the challenge of being of service, and I am profoundly grateful for having been challenged this past year to do my best to try to live up to that call.

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