President’s message

President’s message: The future of architecture

This year, NOMA President Jason Pugh and I visited five of the seven HBCUs with National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAH)-accredited architecture programs. We will visit the other two schools later this year.

Chapter members and officers from both NOMAS and AIAS joined during the visits. Jason and I shared personal stories of our path to architecture. I enjoyed interacting with both the students and faculty to learn about their programs, successes, issues, and challenges.

AIA will continue to seek ways to support and enhance connections to these and other architectural programs to ensure equity and diversity in the pathways from education to practice and through the career continuum for our profession. Less than 3% of practicing architects in the United States are Black. In the 2020 study “Where Are My People? Black in Architecture’’ for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), Kendall A. Nicholson, Ed.D., Assoc. AIA, reports that one out of every three Black architecture students attends an HBCU, and explains, “This is substantial, because, on average, each of the remaining degree programs only graduates two Black architecture students each year.” A recent step in increasing diversity to the profession was to add a new supplement to our Guides for Equitable Practice - Equity in Architectural Education. This report, created in partnership with ACSA, provides actions and prompts to inspire discussion within schools and institutions in achieving goals of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Since school culture and workplace culture interconnect, we’re urging all our members to read it to better understand the connection between academics and practice and how firm culture can support diversity.

We also have work to do when it comes to gender equity. The ratio of women to men graduating from architecture school is 49/51%. Yet women only make up 22% of licensed architects. According to a 2020 report in Architect magazine, only 0.4% of licensed architects in the United States are Black women. The Women’s Leadership Summit addresses this imbalance. The recent gathering was a great success and had speaker presentations on mental health, entrepreneurship, and belonging. This signature event will now take place annually.

We want to continue sharing success stories of women and minorities in architecture so students will continue to see themselves in our membership and in our profession.

We want you as emerging professionals to be engaged throughout your careers. I am heartened by the diversity in your forum. We want to help maintain that same diversity through all levels of the profession. We want to support you so that you can support the next generation of architects.

We also cannot promote diversity without sustainability – the two interrelated issues drive safety and preserve the health and protect the welfare of the public.

AIA alone cannot solve the lack of equity and diversity in the profession. We have and will continue to collaborate closely with other groups that are dedicated to advancing EDI, including NOMA, NOMAS, AIAS, other alliance organizations and even those outside the profession.

Morgan State University graduate student Taylor Hardey, the president of the school’s NOMAS chapter, echoed the need for this collaboration during our HBCU visits when she said, “The future of architecture depends on how much everyone is willing to help each other.”

Daniel S. Hart, FAIA, PE

Hart is the 2022 AIA president. He is the executive vice president of architecture and serves on the board of Parkhill. He was an adjunct instructor of architectural engineering at Texas Tech University and the founding president of the college’s Design Leadership Alliance.