from the president's office
Our Legacy: Collective Action for a Better World

by Kate Schwennsen, FAIA
2006 AIA President

Summary: I can hardly believe this year has come to an end. Serving as the AIA president is an amazing privilege, and I will be forever grateful to my fellow AIA members for granting me this journey. As an elected voice and face of the AIA, I've been around. I’ve met famous architects and toured famous architecture. I have worked with the AIA's collaborators, from ACSA to AGC to AIAS to ASHRAE to ASLA, (and that's just some of the "A's") and many others to develop higher standards for education, design, practice, and construction. I have had lunch with President Bush and cocktails with Karl Rove. I have been an advocate and ambassador internationally, sharing the podium with the prime minister of Sri Lanka, having tea with the minister of culture of Korea.

The greatest privilege of being AIA president, however, is meeting and listening to fellow architects all over the world, in AIA chapters from Portland to St. Petersburg, Tokyo to Fargo, members with strikingly similar concerns and ambitions, architects working hard to make the world a better place. It is inspiring. Meeting these members has made me very hopeful about our profession's future, and thus the future of our emerging professionals and the students that I will go home to teach.

Truly, we make a difference
While meeting and listening to members is the greatest privilege, the greatest reward of being AIA president is seeing how the AIA is making a difference in the lives of these same members, and the clients and communities they serve.

AIA members understand the challenges and responsibilities of the profession in the 21st century. They know that the knowledge and actions of architects and designers have consequences far beyond the immediate, and it matters more than ever in our flat and spiky world. The pace of change in our global digital society is without precedent. The “how” of practice is becoming ever more digitized. The “who” of the profession is becoming ever more inclusive. And the “what” of this learned profession is necessarily becoming more knowledge-based, more innovative, and ever more sustainable.

What does all this mean to us? It means that we will have opportunities to practice in this 21st century that we couldn't have imagined only a short time ago. But with these opportunities are very real responsibilities. The ways in which we individually practice and educate and work have consequences.

Collective action in pursuit of a clear vision is a powerful force for the well-being of architecture and design

Individual work and action, however, is not enough. If you and I had to answer on our own the “how,” “who,” and "what" of 21st -century practice, we would be overwhelmed. Certainly, I would be. Where would we lay our hands on guides to the latest technologies? The research about the trends? The advocacy initiatives that help shape public policy and public understanding of architecture? The network that connects us to colleagues around the globe? The setting of practice standards?

The AIA provides us with a place for collective action. Collective action in pursuit of a clear vision is a powerful force for the well-being of architecture and design, a powerful force for doing good, a necessary force for cultural change.

A great time to be a member
And we, the AIA, have been doing good. This is a great time to be an AIA member. We have almost 80,000 members, a record, and we are working hard to increase value to these members through programs and services that effectively meet, anticipate, and exceed their needs. Let me give you just a few examples.

• The AIA is becoming a more authoritative source, becoming the recognized leader for knowledge about the practice and profession of architecture. We’re working with our construction and client colleagues to develop tools for the 21st century model of project delivery: integrated practice. Our contract documents are unrivaled as the industry standard. We had another record-breaking convention, a resource we will continue to leverage and from which members will continue to benefit.
• The AIA is gaining credibility as the voice for quality design and the built environment. We actively and successfully lobbied for almost half a billion dollars for housing assistance and historic structure grants in the wake of Katrina. We secured a $2 million contract with U.S. Department of Transportation on the benefits of well-designed transportation systems. We’re advocating for sustainable design at every level of government and policy, and people, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the U.S. Green Building Council, are listening.
• We have laid the foundation for a legacy-producing sesquicentennial year, AIA150. A total of 156 Blueprint for America grants have been awarded to components to help them do remarkable work with their communities. Studies are under way to make the national office a model green 21st century workplace. A book is in the works, as is a public opinion poll on the 150 best buildings, which will result in a traveling exhibit. Banners are being distributed and parties are being planned.

The challenge to act collectively
In this dawn of our sesquicentennial year, the challenges we face look very much like what the 13 architects who created the AIA faced 150 years ago. Then, as now, technology and knowledge were transforming the world, and with it the design and construction industry. The imperative that drove the small band of architects, our grandparents' grandparents, to gather in the New York office of Richard Upjohn was quite simply this—survival. They instinctively knew that collective action was the only possible course if they hoped to be drivers rather than passengers in the change of the Industrial Revolution. They knew that as a community of architects, the AIA could take them to places they couldn’t possibly reach alone.

Our grandfathers’ grandfathers knew that as a community of architects, the AIA could take them to places they couldn’t possibly reach alone

Just as it was 150 years ago, our challenge today is once again to act collectively. Our goal? To redefine and carry into the future the legacy that has been given us. This time—as before—we must act in such a way as to make a significant, positive difference in charting the future of our world.

Personally, I end this part of my AIA journey grateful for the chance to grow wiser; more fully understanding how we impact the lives of every man, woman, and child, as well as the future generations who will inherit the fruits of our stewardship of this extraordinary blue miracle spinning in the silence of space that is our home, our world. I end this part of my AIA journey much changed, but also as I began it, as an architect, a teacher, and a mother, concerned about what we leave our children, about what we leave our grandchildren’s grandchildren, but confident in knowing that AIA members will use their unique skills and resources as architects to leave the world better than they found it.

Thank you.