Architect as Advocate

“Advocacy” has come to mean many things to many people. We advocate for preferred design options, for staff to be promoted, and to recognize the efforts of marginalized peoples. But there is an important aspect of advocacy that largely goes unrecognized in the architectural community: legislative and regulatory advocacy. This is where more Architects are needed to engage their communities across the country. We are facing many largescale issues that affect everyone, from affordable housing, safe schools, and sustainable buildings and energy, just to name a few. Everything that touches the built environment is something about which architects can position themselves as experts and educate their representatives, or become one themselves. The tracking and lobbying of these issues are where the AIA brings value to everyone, architects and laypeople alike, at all scales of government whether local, state, or federal.

In 2016, AIA National hosted SpeakUP, a multi-day seminar geared towards increasing architects’ advocacy skills in legislative and political arenas. SpeakUp often dovetailed the annual Lobby Day, when many architects attending the annual Leadership Summit (formerly Grassroots conference) would lobby their elected representatives and advocate for the AIA’s policy agenda. 2023 Lobby Day covered issues such as the

H.R.5291 Democracy in Design Act and the H.R.5689 Resilient AMERICA Act.

“AIA members believe that advocating for the profession is one of the Institute’s highest priorities,” said former AIA President Russ Davidson, FAIA. “SpeakUp [gave] architects the tools they need to be more active and engaged in the political and governmental processes, helping ensure they have a seat at the table when big policy decisions are made.”

While at the A’23 Conference on Architecture in San Francisco, I interviewed Paul Battaglia, the new Executive Vice President (EVP) of AIA Virginia, on the role of advocacy in the architectural profession and role of the AIA in legislative advocacy at the State level:

Carrie Parker (CP): How has your previous role as a practicing architect prepared you to be the EVP?

Paul Battaglia (PB): In my previous role in a firm as a principal, a lot of what I was doing was outreach, strategic partnership, community engagement, and advocacy. I assumed the role in November and General Assembly started in Q1 of this year, so I had to hit the ground running: coming up with talking points and going to meet with elected officials. There was a higher degree of affirmation than I expected about actually being a registered architect and that raised my credibility with the legislators.

CP: How much of your role involves advocating?

PB: The composition of our staff team influences the extent to which any of us can manage. Advocacy and government affairs is within my portion of the portfolio. It waxes and wanes throughout the year, but part of me wants to say 20-25% with the capacity to be 25-35%.

CP : Can you educate our readers on what is the role of the Political Action Committee (PAC)?

PB: The role of the PAC is to expose the value of architects and architecture to elected officials through something they recognize, which are political campaign contributions. That’s the chief mission. We are an organization that is intentionally and overtly nonpartisan. It supports people who appear to be our strategic allies, but also be part of the outreach to remind people who hold particular positions of the value of architects and architecture, such as chairs of certain committees like general laws. Whether they’re Democrat, Republican, or something else, they all have a role to play in getting laws passed.

CP: What is the role of the Advocacy Advisory Council?

PB : More now than it’s ever been. The Advocacy Advisory Council may be unique to Virginia. The goal is to source legislative ideas from the organization, but then have them be vetted by the Advocacy Advisory Council. And kind of go back and forth and get some input from our lobbyist about the appropriateness and timeliness of bill sponsorship. Virginia also has a Hill Day (or week of zoom appointments) where we meet our representatives to talk about the issues. The Advocacy Advisory Council sets that up and finds members in the representatives’ voting districts to participate.

CP: What issues would you like members to be aware of?

PB: The concept of “universal licensure” is not unique to Virginia, and as the smallest of the large states, there is something to be learned from other states in similar positions. Which is the benefit of exchanging knowledge with neighboring and similarlysized states.

Architects are registered by the state, and to go back to Civics 101, those powers that are not seated at the federal government by the states are retained by the states. And likewise, we have the obligation for the health, safety and welfare of our states’ citizens and how individuals ought to become registered to safeguard those aspects. Universal licensure basically reduces to the least common denominator of any of the 50 states plus the four territories, and wherever it becomes easiest to be licensed. Some elected officials see this as reducing impediments to business and to people migrating to the state rather than away from it, but this is a solution in need of a problem. So for now we satisfactorily amended the bill in Virginia so that it excludes professional services. But we still have ongoing discussions with the cabinet about where we’re willing to budge.

Now, having discussions about how one reduces the impediments and barriers to becoming licensed is really what will draw professionals and business to the state. The year that I was registered was the year that they sunset the apprenticeship route to licensure in Virginia. I am a product of NAAB-accredited programs and I’ve taught in NAAB-accredited programs. For me that was a great education and I think it still has value, but it cannot be the only route. There are a lot of ways people learn, some have neurodiversity issues, and college can be prohibitively expensive.

CP: What is the value to members of the state AIA?

PB: I do think that advocacy is key to the relevance to the value proposition of the state level component. Local chapters are good and effective strategic partners in terms of advocacy, but I really think the leadership and resource allocation comes from the state. Unfortunately, we do not do as great a job of advertising as local chapters do with programming, so that value largely goes unnoticed.

Advocacy is multivalent. We have legislative advocacy, and we always will and always want to. But there’s also regulatory policy, which in some cases is in the purview of gubernatorial appointees. You can pass laws all day, and if they don’t show up in the building code it’s hard to enforce. Whereas if you integrate something into the building code, it has force of law. So, there were a couple of the things that we did during the last legislative session where we were attempting to educate legislators of this more effective pathway to success. An easy example was requiring conduit for electric vehicle charging stations in parking garages; which is noble, but the legislators had to be taught to put it in the code rather than having a random law. Many of our state representatives are volunteers too and not professional politicians, so they rely on our expertise in many ways.

CP: How can the membership help?

PB: We had an advocacy summit a few weeks ago and the general idea was to bring together representatives of the various people who are involved in advocacy. Now to me, ultimately, that’s each and every one of us. But there was representation from the PAC, from the Advocacy Advisory Council, and also from the Knowledge Communities such as Historic Resources. The former, for example, are always involved in historic rehabilitation, tax credit legislation and policy. Virginia’s COTE also works on affordable housing, the environment, and policies.

We also had several of our gubernatorial appointees attending. But more and more, we’re hoping members from the PAC board of trustees, the Advocacy Advisory Council, participants in knowledge communities, or other folks that happen to be the constituents of the elected officials become more involved at the state level. We are always looking for volunteers who are from all voting districts to be part of the conversation.

Many people are concerned for the future of our communities and environment, and watch aghast at decisions being made on their behalf. This is your call to be part of the change you want to see in the world. You have to have a seat at the table if you want the conversation to steer in a fruitful direction. This is our plea to everyone to reach out to your Young Architect Representative, State Associate Representative, or leaders in your state and local AIA components to ask how you can help. Run for your county board. Be on the local parks commission. Wherever your interest lies, there is an opportunity to become involved and help advocate for meaningful change.