by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: AIA Baltimore Executive Director Karen Lewand, Hon. AIA, pursues the dual goals of providing resources to her city’s architects to help them better their practices through knowledge and fellowship and educating Baltimore’s public about the significance of the built environment in their lives. She introduced the city’s first architectural walking tours and created a curriculum that teaches architecture to young students through the lenses of art, math, and history. The former CACE president and founder of 1,000 Friends of Maryland, a smart growth and natural preservation organization, believes strongly in the importance and responsibility of volunteering.

Education: I have a master’s in administrative sciences from Johns Hopkins University, where I worked through most of the ’80s in financial development. I also have taken about eight post-grad classes in historic preservation and architectural history.

Years at AIA Baltimore: Since 1992.

Favorite pastime: I guess my greatest pleasure has been traveling—visiting and learning about new places.

Proudest achievement: My two children. We have two daughters who are 35 and 31. Professionally, I would say helping people in Baltimore understand a little bit better the great value of the built environment.

Path to AIA Baltimore: Architecture and historic preservation have been great interests of mine since I was in my early 20s. We lived in Charlottesville, Va., during the time that my husband was studying for his PhD. The architecture down there in Jefferson Country is wonderful. Then, throughout the ’70s, we lived in New England, where even the plainest building that hasn’t been painted in 20 years has a beautiful aesthetic.

One of the most interesting things I’ve done related to the built environment is a National Endowment for the Humanities grant in 1981 through our Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. The NEH grant enabled me to develop local history programs in 23 different city schools for gifted and talented 5th and 6th graders. Basically, it taught how to study history through the built environment, so each class had a different program related to their neighborhood. I spent about 12 hours with each class. Then the syllabus was disseminated nationally by NEH. It was a great experience working with probably 500 kids and their teachers, and hopefully encouraging them to continue these studies in the future. It was the inspiration for some of my volunteer work a few years later starting historic and architectural walking tours here in Baltimore. At that time, nobody was doing it. We did it first through Baltimore Heritage, which is our preservation group. Then, for a number of years, I did a walking tour class of Baltimore neighborhoods for the Maryland Institute College of Art. My goal was to train a lot of neighborhood leaders who knew their communities but had never really thought about giving walking tours. Now, there are several groups doing them.

In 1982, I had a great opportunity to work for the department of planning writing a book on the history of 55 North Baltimore neighborhoods, so that helped me understand a lot about the physical development of the city. With all the different jobs I’ve had over the years related to architecture and the built environment, when this position became available, it was a no-brainer.

Most important role for AIA components: Local components provide an excellent opportunity for members to meet and know each other and work together on issues that face them as architects, but also as individual citizens in the community. I think that’s the beauty of the AIA, that local components have so much autonomy. In addition to providing the basic benefits of the national AIA, people in the local components can determine the most pressing needs and opportunities for them.

Current issues facing AIA components: Well, I think most of the chapters around the country are doing very well, especially since the economy has been good for quite a while now. I think dealing with issues of growth and expansion is significant to a number of chapters, though they’re really challenges more than problems because growth is a good thing. The AIA now being up to 80,000 members is fantastic.

I think that knowledge dissemination is the biggest challenge for the AIA national as well as local chapters. This is something we’ve known about for a number of years and tried to figure out how to provide knowledge to our members when they want it, as opposed to just sending it out en masse whenever we acquire it. The knowledge communities are getting much closer to that provision on the Internet, and that’s a wonderful thing. It will help all of our members tremendously.

On the benefit of AIA membership: I think our challenge has always been helping members understand how much they can contribute through the AIA. It’s not just a matter of what members get from the organization, but what they can do together through the AIA. I’ve always been very impressed with how our members here in Baltimore have worked together so well to solve mutual problems. When you think of the fact that they’re basically competitors, some of them very direct competitors, they’ve been tremendously willing to help each other. I think that’s the greatest opportunity of AIA. It’s an umbrella organization that does much for members, but the greatest benefit is what individual architects can do together through the AIA.

On AIA in the public: I’ve been very pleased to observe the AIA national’s more activist role in the last several years in terms of promoting livable communities, historic preservation, and sustainable design. National leadership is important at the federal level, and it really sets a high standard for local chapters to get into similar activities in their own communities.

The built environment has been a great value in my life, and it’s important for all of us who care about it to do what we can to help others understand its significance. At the same time that it provides shelter, it also contributes so much to our daily comfort and behavior. Whether we’re inside buildings or outside them, whether they’re historic buildings or brand new architecture, they have a tremendous impact on people and communities. I think most people don’t understand that and take our built environment very much for granted. That’s why the AIA as well as local architecture foundations and preservation groups are so important. They’ve had a big impact on the thinking of people throughout the country in the last 20-30 years, but there’s still much to do in helping people understand the significance of the built environment.

Life’s passion: The driving force in my life has to be volunteerism. This is something we really encourage our members to do—not just within the AIA, but to volunteer in at least one other group so they can help other people understand the universal problem-solving skills architects have and contribute to a wide range of organizations. It doesn’t even matter what they are, but it’s really important for architects to get out there and be known to the public, not just to their clients.

I think I was first aware of this volunteer privilege and responsibility way back in middle school. It seemed to me that people who have good health and a good education have a special responsibility not only to work hard through their professions, but to volunteer in any way they can to help the world progress a little bit through their life. My volunteer work has been a big part of my life. I have been very active in historic preservation, especially in Baltimore Heritage, for about 25 years. I’m pleased to see that a growing number of people are beginning to appreciate the rich architectural heritage that we have in this city and in many urban areas and small towns throughout the country.

I also was a founder of 1,000 Friends of Maryland. There were several of us who worked together to help people in Maryland understand that the health of the built and natural environments are very related to each other and that where people live, work, and play has everything to do with conservation. We started working on this in the early ’90s and have been dealing with smart growth issues, which again are greatly related to historic preservation and the architectural practice, and we feel like that’s been having some impact on people’s thinking about the future.

On architecture in the schools: Getting architecture in the schools needs to be done, not just to recruit more diverse professionals, but to sensitize the public to the value of the built environment. Anything that’s taught seriously is introduced at three different ages and at greater depth and breadth. There’s no question that’s a major goal for all of us, but it’s a difficult one because educators feel like they hardly have enough time to teach what they’re doing anyway. That was the gist of my neighborhood discovery program in 1981, helping teachers understand that they could use the built environment as a tool to teach many other subjects: math, art, and practically everything lends itself to built environment studies. Rather than trying to get separate time, we need to get more teachers to understand that they can use the built environment to turn kids on to the basic arts. I think we’ve done that with the natural environment. The environmental movement over the last 30 years has grown very, very strong, and we’re definitely reaping some of the benefit because young adults have been much more sensitized to conservation than the previous generations. If we could do the same thing with the built environment, I think we would have a much better functioning and more attractive world.