March 2016

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Committee on the Enviroment

Letter from the Chair

Hello COTE Community!

This Earth Day, April 22, 2016, I'm excited that we'll celebrate the 20th anniversary of the AIA COTE Top Ten Awards. In 1997, Gail Lindsey, FAIA, LEED Fellow, and friend launched the inaugural Earth Day Top Ten Green Awards. Before LEED, before sustainable design was widely understood much less mainstream, Gail saw the importance of celebrating projects that exemplified both sustainable design and design excellence.

Paula McEvoy, AIA, LEED Fellow

In 1997, those projects tended to be of limited scope and size and without a clearly-defined set of metrics by which to judge just how "sustainable" they actually were. Over the next 20 years, the AIA Committee on the Environment, along with hundreds of architects, engineers, jurors and committee members would work to develop the 10 metrics and continue to evaluate them against an increasingly sophisticated design profession.

Over those 20 years, projects began to change. They grew in size and complexity, varied in location and expanded to include more and more firms. Last year, we wondered: would it be possible to comb through all of the data from these projects and see how sustainable design and the Top Ten projects had changed over the years? What began as a simple question became the 2015 COTE Research Project, spearheaded by Lance Hosey. Next week, AIA COTE will publish the resulting report of this research. It's an in-depth analysis which shows where we started, how we've evolved and where opportunities lie for the next 20 years of the COTE Top Ten. It's also a celebration of Gail, her vision and the remarkable people who contributed so much to this journey. Look for it to be released on April 4th and found here.

What should the next 20 years look like for COTE, the Top Ten and sustainable design? This May in Philadelphia, we will be meeting with leaders from around the US to explore those questions. On May 19th, we'll gather to celebrate practicing architects and emerging student talents, as well as the 20th year of COTE's Top Ten Awards and the tail end of COTE's 25th anniversary at the COTE Top Ten Reception. And in a special remembrance, we'll also celebrate the life of Philadelphia architect and 1999 National COTE chair, Muscoe Martin. We've come along way. I'm excited to see where our next 20 years' leaders will take us!

Best regards,

Paula McEvoy signature

Paula McEvoy, FAIA, LEED Fellow
2016 Chair, AIA Committee on the Environment Advisory Group

In this issue
AIA KnowledgeNet Twitter LinkedIn YouTube

2016 Sponsors

Top Ten Program Sponsor:

BG

Presenting Sponsor:

View Glass Logo

Green Sponsor:

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Feature

AIA COTE Hackathon

By Karen Robichaud

hackathon

Photo credit: Payette

This year AIA COTE is trying something a little different for our annual summit. This year we’re holding a hackathon focused on today’s urgent environmental and sustainable challenges. Our summit falls in the afternoon on Wednesday, May 18 (the day before the AIA Convention officially starts). We’re gathering COTE leaders from around the country to dive deep on issues like; meeting the Paris Agreement, mainstreaming materials transparency and climate action planning.

Read more


In the News

Celebrate the COTE Top Ten Awards with us

EV217- COTE Top Ten Reception
Thursday, May 19, 2016 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM | School of Design Meyerson Hall UPenn | $35

Join the AIA Committee on the Environment as we honor the 2016 recipients of the prestigious Top Ten Awards. This year’s COTE reception will feature a special program to celebrate the life of Philadelphia architect and past National COTE chair, Muscoe Martin. Celebrate practicing architects and emerging student talents, as well as the 20th year of COTE's Top Ten Awards and the tail end of COTE's 25th anniversary.

Learn More

Reframing Resilience: Proceedings of the AIA 2015 Resilience Summit

Resilience Summit 2015

Photo design by Nancy Bratton

What makes a community “resilient”? What are the primary threats our communities need to be resilient against, and how do those differ by geography, income, size, or economy? Perhaps most important, who is responsible for creating - and maintaining - resilience at the community level, and how does one community learn from another?

To tackle these questions and more, the AIA convened leaders at its inaugural 2015 Resilience Summit. We hope you'll stay in a resilient and adaptable dialogue with your colleagues and help the AIA serve you better starting with a brief member survey.

Learn More

AIA San Francisco: Equity by Design, Equity in Architecture Survey 2016

This survey seeks to create a comprehensive national dataset detailing current positions and career experiences of architecture school graduates. The resulting research will focus on differential experiences of women and men as well as underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. It should take about 20–25 minutes to complete. It will be open through April 1st.

Complete the survey

checklist

Upcoming Events

AIA Convention 2016

Attend COTE related sessions at AIA Convention 2016

TH303- COTE Top Ten: Performing Beautifully...a Restorative Future
Thursday, May 19, 2016 | 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM | Pennsylvania Convention Center
Earn 1.00 LU/RIBA/HSW | Learn more

The AIA COTE Top Ten and Top Ten+ Awards are the profession's foremost recognition for integrated, holistic design. This program celebrates projects that exemplify high-performance architecture with stories from the winning design teams. Join your peers in celebrating how beauty and performance create holistic architecture.

SA105- Lessons from the Leading Edge: COTE Top Ten Research Project
Saturday, May 21, 2016 | 7:00 AM - 8:00 AM | Pennsylvania Convention Center
Earn 1.00 LU/HSW/RIBA | Learn more

The highly anticipated Top Ten Research Project illuminates the work of nearly 200 Green Projects Awards winners, and the Committee on the Environment's groundbreaking report sets the stage for a new era in design. Extraordinary things are happening in sustainable design, and this session dives into a whole host of them.

Register now
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Washington, DC 20006
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