Summary: The second day of the 2009 AIA National Convention began with a theme of honor and possibilities with regard to diversity in the profession of architecture as President Marvin J. Malecha, FAIA, remembered the late J. Max Bond, FAIA; recognized the 2009 Whitney Young Jr. Award Winner Clyde Porter, FAIA; and introduced a panel of young architects of accomplished moderated by Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist John Hockenberry.

On remembering Bond, [photo right] who died February 18, Malecha noted his 50-plus years of untiring devotion to his work, clients, and profession. An early recipient of the Whitney Young Jr. award, Bond stayed active into his 70s and was a leading force in the team that prevailed in the Smithsonian National African American History and Culture Museum.

Whitney Young Jr. Award
Malecha then introduced Porter, [photo below] the assistant vice chancellor and director of facilities and district architect for the Dallas Community College District (DCCCD). Porter started a program that requires female- and minority-led AEC firms be hired for at least 50 percent of the district’s work, Malecha noted. Further, in selecting Porter for the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, the AIA Board of Directors recognized him for his work to make educational and design opportunities available to underserved and minority communities.

“If there is one place I never imagined I’d be standing, this is it,” said an emotional Porter. He said there were too many people to thank, but that some stood out, notably his wife and family for keeping him humble and directed. His memories of the AIA and the National Organization of Minority Architects are rich with memories of great men and women, and also thanked the staff and trustees of the DCCCD. “I stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before me,” he said, “to assure against all odds that the AIA would embrace diversity.”

Obey and take heed, Porter concluded, and you will be successful and sit wisely. “Thank you for your benevolence.”

Citation for Mayor Gavin Newsom
Noting his prerogative as AIA president to confer citations on notable individuals, Malecha introduced San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to the stage, accompanied by AIA Executive Vice President/CEO Chris McEntee. Newsom accepted gladly.

“Welcome to our wonderful, wacky city,” the mayor said, describing San Francisco as 47.5 square miles surrounded by reality. He followed with a recitation of the city’s many accomplishments, such as a health-care program that is “the only one of its kind in America.” He said he would always welcome 22,000 architects to his city, but, with the economy down, especially now. And he thanked the AIA California Council and national component for supporting the San Francisco’s Greenest Buildings program earlier in the week.

San Francisco is the greenest large city in the country with its transit system, alternative-fuel taxis and buses, recycling, and solar power initiatives. The lights illuminating the stage in the Moscone Center are PV-powered, he said. Led by architects and their fellow design professionals, San Francisco now requires a LEED™ Silver rating for all newly constructed public and private buildings, he said, noting that compliant design—such as Renzo Piano’s California Academy of Sciences and Pelli Clark Pelli’s Transbay Transit Center and Transit Tower—may also be architecturally significant. “Design inspires and enlightens us and brings us together,” Newsom said. “I am proud of your great work and I am proud to be here today to welcome you.”

Focus on Practice in a Complex World
The day’s plenary session ended with a panel of four young designers who have already made a significant mark on the evolution of design and planning at every scale. The panel, underwritten by McGraw-Hill Construction, included Amale Andraos; Minsuk Cho, AIA; Julien De Smedt; and Craid E. Dykers, AIA. The moderator, John Hockenberry, distinguished fellow at MIT’s Media Lab, noted that the panel is about “the storming of the Bastille” in the profession of architecture. Their significance begins with the understanding that the sloshing around of $2 trillion is not the solution to economic recovery. The solution is to bring sharp, creative minds to bear on eliminating small and bad ideas and putting forth good, big ideas.

Andreos started the discussion with the thought that her firm is working to develop a voice to transform the way they work. “As one moves, perceptions change,” she said, referring to her team as worker bees working to cross pollinate. She moved through a series of buildings and master plans from New York City to Beirut to show how architects can find new visions in urban formal and informal spaces. She also referenced the 49 Cities project by Work ac exploring these same issues.

Compression and identity were Cho’s watchwords as he likened many of the hastily developed cities as Kimchi cities—as ubiquitous and important to the table for Koreans as salt is in the West. His mission, as 2 percent of the world’s population control 50 percent of its wealth, is to re-distinguish what has become indistinguishable form from city to city across Asia. He pointed specifically to the “public living room” customs of people there who often see public space and a natural extension of their private space.

De Smedt spoke of the Ordos 100, a new breed of collaboration exercise involving 100 architects designing for 100 acres in 100 days. For an example of his work, he showed a slide of an apartment tower with jutting bowsprit balconies—diCaprio balconies, he called them in reference to the movie Titanic. They are long and spacious to give people an outdoor extension to their indoor space, he said. In his ideas for high-rises, he would like to see social extensions of neighborhoods in the design rather than the traditional design based on stacking of levels.

To understand Snowhetta’s own work, Dykers began, the firm members realized they had to understand themselves. With multinational parents who lived all over the world as he was growing up, he said he considers himself a child of globalization, and assured the audience that we all are now children of globalization when you look beyond the superficial. “We aren’t abstractions, our buildings are,” he said, drawing applause.

Dykers noted that his office is unionized, they have open committees for setting firm direction, and their salaries are open. He showed a slide with his salary ($120,000) and that of an entry-level employee ($52,000), noting that they can’t design social spaces unless they have internalized a social mindset within the office. And social space is what they create, such as the National Opera in Oslo. When you leave the complex, you take home a memory of a social experience, not a camera full of sculptural images, he said. “Think vertical, act lateral.”

Urban planning “is not about density,” Dykers said. “It’s about intimacy.” That concept extends outside the profession as well as inside, he said, concluding as he began: “Look inside before you project outside.”