Helene Combs Dreiling, FAIA

by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: Helene Combs Dreiling, FAIA, has been the AIA’s managing director of Component Relations since June of this year. She previously has served the Institute as an elected Vice President of the Institute, AIA Community vice president on staff, Stakeholder Relations managing director, and a member of the AIA Board of Directors. Helene also was the staff lead for the Institute’s AIA150 initiatives. She stepped down from the position of vice president last summer and now is one of five AIA national staff members working full-time at remote locations as an AIA pilot project.

Education: That one is easy. I have a bachelor of architecture from Virginia Tech.

Why did you run for national AIA Board office? I very much enjoyed my AIA service when I was a volunteer at the local level. I then leapfrogged over the state and went to the national Board because I felt like I had additional things to contribute. There were certain areas that I wanted to be able to focus on, so running for office gave me another year or so to do that. In particular, I’ve always been quite concerned about and interested in nurturing future professionals. Back then—this was the late ’90s—there really was not a lot of emphasis on emerging professionals, so I wanted to accomplish as much as we could in that regard.

Why did you become a staff member at AIA national? It got to the point where my enjoyment of my AIA service really eclipsed my project work. I had always felt that I was stronger in administration, management, and leadership—that side of architectural practice, so to me it just made sense as a good fit. Additionally, I felt my work could have a more lasting and beneficial impact for the profession if I were doing it full-time.

What do you miss about practice? If I miss anything, it’s the satisfaction of seeing a project completed and seeing how the client feels about it or the change that it has made in their life … Architecture is a little bit like sculpture on a larger scale, so to see the work when it’s finished and know it has really enhanced the way people live or work is very satisfying. That’s really the only aspect of practice that I miss. A lot of people ask me if I miss practice and what I tell them is that I’m just applying my creativity in a different way. I build relationships instead of buildings, and I design programs and projects rather than structures.

What’s it like working full-time away from the national office? It has actually worked out very well. I think we in Component Relations are blazing new trails in this regard. I am working remotely, and I now have two other staff members who also work remotely: one in San Diego and one in Atlanta, so half of the staff is out of Washington, D.C.

What it means is that we have to communicate more effectively. Everyone has to be very open. The whole team has to understand what the other team members are doing, so we have a very collaborative approach to our work and understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the others, but also the ability to cross over and work on another program if necessary. The whole team will probably only get together once a quarter, something like that. I travel about once a month out and about the country, and then the other remote folks will be traveling two to four times a month to chapters around the country. We really have a renewed focus on outreach to components.

Perspective on AIA as head of AIA150: I started with AIA150 in June 2006, so I came to it a little bit late in the game, but what occurred to me as the staff lead working on all the AIA150 elements is how appropriately named our AIA150 tagline was, which was Celebrating the Past, Designing the Future. I think that the AIA very often looks to its heritage and is understandably very proud of it, but because architects are so visionary and creative, it’s appropriate that the organization reflect that kind of forward thinking. What we really tried to do with AIA150 was to have people respect and understand our terrific accomplishments over the last 150 years, but also understand that we’re not resting on that but are looking to really make a difference in the communities around the country for the next 150 years.

Most important practice areas for AIA members to be involved in: I think the easy answer is sustainable design. That is something the AIA is trying to mainstream among all firms: that it’s just a way of practicing, and the design incorporates elements of sustainable design always.

I think the more difficult concept for a lot of firms and architects to get their heads around is integrated project delivery and the collaborative nature of that process. I think that is what actually will be really transformational to firms in to the future. They’re going to need to be able to practice in that integrated way to be as successful as they possibly can be.

What do you do for fun? Spend time with my family as much as I possibly can. My very favorite thing to do is skiing, but obviously there’s only a limited amount of time to do that in a given year. I also love to travel.

What advice do you have for creating a good work/life balance? I have learned through the years that it is difficult to manage everything at the level that I would like to. I tend to be a perfectionist, so I feel like I am not doing justice to anything quite often, when in fact I’m probably juggling things pretty well. But I think the advice that I would give, really, is to stay true to doing the things you enjoy the most, both on the personal side and the professional side and try to work in a place that is especially fulfilling and where the work is rewarding. The AIA has been such a satisfying place for me to work because I feel like we have accomplished so much on behalf of architects around the country and so it’s exciting. It’s really very satisfying. Not everybody has the benefit of working in that kind of environment, so I would say that being in a job where you really enjoy the work is quite important.

Proudest accomplishment at AIA: I think that if there is one singular thing that I’m proudest of, it’s that NCARB and the AIA all have voted to allow the architect registration examination to be taken immediately upon graduation. You might think that’s a silly thing, but it’s something that I have been talking about for probably 12 years—since I started on the AIA Board in 1995. The reason it is so important, I think, is that it signals a real shift in the way we view the education experience and examination process: that pathway to licensure. I think it is a real catalyst for change in the area of internship and emerging professionals in their development.

Advice to the Institute: My advice to the organization would be to think really carefully about emerging professionals and about the future of the profession and how we reach out to those individuals in a meaningful and relevant way so that they will remain engaged with the profession and with the AIA. I think that one of the biggest challenges facing the profession and facing the AIA as an organization is the generational differences between the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers and Gen Yers and relating to each other and reaching out and communicating in a way that all of those groups find effective. The AIA is always accused of being all things to all people. It’s even more of a challenge nowadays because people are all so different. Each generation receives information in a different way and processes it in a different way, so we have to be able to think like all the various segments of our membership in order to reach them effectively.

Advice for young architects: My advice to young professionals and graduates is to obtain an advanced degree as early as you can in your career. That’s something I did not do. When I graduated in 1981, it was not important at that time in practice to have a master’s. A bachelor of architecture was in fact plenty for then, but the further I have advanced in my career, the more I have wished that I had that advance degree. Similarly, I think it’s important for interns to get licensed. Then, beyond that there are many alternatives, as we know. Architects and architecture graduates take a variety of different paths in their careers, but I think that is a credential that can never be taken away. To pass the exam to become a licensed architect and obtain an advance degree are the two things that I would go ahead and take care of early on. I did one of them, but I didn’t do the other. If I have any regrets professionally, it’s that I didn’t get a master’s degree. Maybe I will someday.