Spring 2009

Letter from the Chair
Welcome to the Interior Architecture Knowledge Community's Spring 2009 newsletter! We are pleased to continue to provide news of events and activities within our practice area and trust that you look forward to each issue. Since this year’s AIA National Convention is in California and right around the corner, we thought that you might be interested in perusing the end-of-year issue of arcCA, the journal of the California Council of Architects. The entire journal is focused on interiors and includes a series of well written articles relevant to our professional focus. Enjoy.

Also, please stop by one of our numerous focused offerings at the convention. We will be presenting “Design as a Business Strategy” in cooperation with the Committee on Design, we are joining with IIDA leadership to present “Grow Your Practice, the Interior Advantage”, and we even have an outreach forum focused on how we can best serve your needs. Please plan on attending any or all of these seminars. We would love to meet you. In your service, Tim Hawk, AIA

Interior Architecture Committee Events at the AIA 2009 National Convention
Please join the AIA Interior Architecture Knowledge Community for a networking and outreach forum at the AIA Convention next week. You are encouraged to submit discussion topics and questions to Steven J. McCollom, AIA, IIDA. The 10:30 a.m. Thursday event is AIA Interior Architecture Local Component Outreach Forum. Other sessions of interest are listed on the Interior Architecture web site.

Interior Architecture Competition Toolkit
The advisory group of AIA Interior Architecture Committee has been busy packaging a scholarship competition toolkit. This toolkit will be posted to the web site after convention, and will support our efforts to roll out competitions in regional locations across the country. The original program has been perfected over time within the Los Angeles component, and our group is currently working with Washington D.C. component leadership to initiate an Interior Architecture Committee and provide a local competition in the next academic calendar year. Email interiors@aia.org if your chapter is interested in organizing a competition. The advisory group is available to answer questions, help interpret or provide leadership in the competition development.

Views from the Inside
arcCA asked a dozen interior designers, from sole practitioner to global team leader, to respond to two questions: What is one thing you would like architects to know that would facilitate the relationship between the two professions? What do you consider the two or three most important questions or ideas or concerns motivating interior design today? Read how your industry leaders responded. More

The Place of Interior Design
by Maria McVarish
How did interior design evolve through history and why was the original voice of interior design, the decorator, feminine? McVarish theorizes gender and repositioning interior design profession in this piece. More

Challenging Whitewash
by Jill Pilaroscia
When he accepted the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1984, Richard Meier said, “White is my favorite color.… White conventionally has always been seen as a symbol of perfection, of purity and clarity.” Meier’s preference is hardly an uncommon one among architects since the dawn of modernism, but it overlooks the powerful role that color can play in architecture. Learn how skilled colorists around the world have developed sophisticated approaches to choosing the right hues. More

To view the complete arcCA 08.4 issue and archives, visit http://www.aiacc.org/arcca/.

Get Published
If you are interested in contributing an article to the Interior Architecture Newsletter, please contact interiors@aia.org. See the Author Guidelines for more information.

Discover Something New about Managing Your Practice
Join the AIA Practice Management Knowledge Community. Help identify and develop information on the business of architecture for use by the entire profession that will maintain and improve the quality of the professional and business environment. Send an email to practicemanagement@aia.org requesting to join the Practice Management Knowledge Community. See the latest Practice Management Digest to learn more about the group.