6 minute read
Chair’s message
YAF chair’s message: Design pathways for impact
The Young Architects Forum was created in 1991 to provide a pathway for recently licensed architects to evolve their professional careers. The foundational mission and vision of the YAF galvanizes our work as a committee, but it is the unique perspective of each individual committee member that enables us to collectively engage and amplify voices that are not typically heard on a national platform. Past issues of Connection have challenged readers to keep showing up, to stay accountable, and to disrupt for enduring change. Building upon those, I want to share a few resources in my message as chair to help everyone design pathways for impact to achieve a more equitable future.
As Marian Wright Edelman said, “You cannot become what you cannot see.” Many of us were fortunate enough to be introduced to architecture by a family friend or teacher, but there are many children who grow up not knowing what architecture is or what architects do. The AIA has a robust collection of K-12 Pathway Initiatives that individuals or components can take into their local schools. These programs are wonderful examples of how we can introduce our profession to children through engaging activities. Opening up this type of pathway to information early on creates a variety of opportunities for new voices to enter our profession; the future impact this could have is limitless. Throughout 2021 and 2022 our YAF Advocacy workgroup developed and hosted a mini-series of webinars to expand access to information that continues to position architects as agents of change in the profession and in our local communities. These sessions create space to grow, share, inspire, and partner with those who have made significant impacts with their equity work. So You Want to be a Citizen Architect?, So You Want to Design for All? Designing for Belonging, and So You Want to Build an Equitable Future? can be found on AIAU and short recaps are in past issues of Connection. The YAF for So You Want to Design for All? Designing for Mental Health was held on 12/6/22.
If you’re looking to create pathways for change within your career trajectory or at your firm, check out the Guides for Equitable Practice. These guides give readers the baseline tools necessary to have meaningful conversations across nine dynamic topics with two supplementary editions, all related to EDI. If you’re not sure how to start these sometimes difficult and uncomfortable conversations, or if you’re just looking to better understand the perspectives of others, a read through these guides will illuminate several pathways forward. Acknowledging biases that exist within the architectural profession can be challenging for anyone who has not personally experienced one. The Elephant in the (Well-
Designed) Room is a short but powerful snapshot of the current biases that do exist. Reading through this information illuminated several biases that I was not aware of but will now be more cognizant of as I go through life. I was encouraged to find that this document also proposes potential solutions to interrupt those biases and break the cycle, so we have no excuse for maintaining the status quo.
AIA Minnesota’s Culture Change Initiative is an aspirational example of impact. If we as a profession continue to do what we have always done and foster the same professional culture, we will never achieve anything different from the status quo. This initiative is available to any form or organization within the architectural profession and provides a training presentation on the ongoing effort to reexamine the culture we are collectively creating as a pathway toward achieving our desired culture.
The recently completed NCARB by the Numbers 2022 shows that progress within our profession is being made. Our challenge is to continue to build upon the meaningful conversations that have started and provide tangible actions that drive impact. The resources noted above are a small sample of pathways that each of us can carve out to open the profession up to new voices. Resources to check out: • Guides for Equitable Practice • https://www.aia.org/resources/6246433-guidesfor-equitable-practice
• Culture Change Initiative – AIA MN • https://www.aia-mn.org/get-involved/ equity-profession/culture-changeinitiative/#:~:text=The%20Culture%20Change%20
Initiative%20is,in%20achieving%20that%20 desired%20culture.
• AIA K-12 Pathway Initiatives • https://www.aia.org/resources/154816-k-12initiatives
• The Elephant in the (Well-Designed) Room: An
Investigation into Bias in the Architecture Profession • https://content.aia.org/sites/default/files/2021-12/
NBTN2022.pdf
• YAF Advocacy webinar mini-series • So You Want to Be a Citizen Architect? Get Inspired to
Take Action! AIAU • So You Want to Design for All? Designing for Belonging
AIAU • So You Want to Build an Equitable Future? Practice
Innovation through Universal + Inclusive Design • So You Want to Design for All? Designing for Mental
Health • So You Want to be a Citizen Architect? YAF Connection
Jessica M. O’Donnell, AIA
O’Donnell is a project architect at Thiven Design in Collingswood, N.J., where she specializes in multifamily housing. She is a 2022 AIA Young Architect Award winner and the 2022 chair of the YAF.
Editorial team
Editor-in-Chief Beresford Pratt, AIA, NOMA Pratt is a design manager and architect with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He co-leads multiple J.E.D.I based architecture pipeline initiatives with Baltimore, Maryland K-12 students. He is the AIA Young Architects Forum communications director.
Senior Editor Bryan Buckley, AIA, NCARB Buckley is the studio director & business development director at Signal Work in Providence, Rhode Isalnd. He focuses his efforts on both internal and external growth and is the managing architect behind most of the firm’s K-12 and urban rehabilitation projects. He serves as a director-at-large for his local AIA chapter and is Rhode Island’s young architect representative..
Senior Editor Meghann Gregory, AIA, NCARB Gregory is a senior project architect at K2M Design. She is the young architect representative for West Virginia and a member of the AIA West Virginia chapter. Her professional interests include adaptive reuse, urban planning, custom residential, and sustainable practices.
Senior Editor Holly Harris, AIA, ASHE, LEED AP BD+C Harris is a healthcare architect and planner at SmithGroup in Chicago, Illinois. She was selected for the Herman Miller Scholars Program for emerging professionals in Healthcare in 2019 and recognized as a Rising Star by HCD Magazine in 2021. She is the chair of the AIA Illinois Emerging Professionals Network and serves as the young architect regional director for Illinois.
Senior Editor Shawna Mabie, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP Mabie is a project manager and associate at Hanbury in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has taught at North Carolina State University and University of Arkansas Community Design Center. She currently serves as the young architect director on the AIA North Carolina Board and is the young architect representative for North Carolina.
Senior Editor Matthew Pultorak, AIA, NCARB Pultorak is a Senior Planner/ Estimator for Rutgers University’s Planning Development and Design Team and Owner of Time Squared Architect, LLC in New Jersey. He currently serves as the young architect regional director for the region of New Jersey, Emerging Professionals Communities At-Large Director of Mentorship, and AIA Jersey Shore’s president-elect. Daniel Hart. FAIA Jessica O’Donnell, AIA Kaitlyn Badlato, AIA Abigail Brown, AIA Laura Ewan Brian Baril, AIA Gabriella Bermea, AIA Saakshi Terway, Assoc AIA Paige Russell, AIA Dennis Dine. Assoc AIA Kurt Green, Assoc AIA Heli Shah, Assoc AIA Gabriela Baierle, AIA
Contributors:
Kathryn Prigmore, FAIA
Li Ren, AIA Tracie Reed, AIA Knowledge Focus Group Kaylyn Kirby, AIA Darguin Fortuna, AIA Ryan Lewis, AIA Kiara Gilmore, AIA Trent Schmitz, AIA Jason Takeuchi, AIA Terry Zink, AIA
