YAF Chair’s message

YAF Chair’s message: Architects should stand for something

As a child growing up in northeast Ohio, my family spent many Saturdays visiting my grandparents. Many of those hours were spent listening to my dad’s mom, Rita Mary Brown, talk about her work as a city councilwoman in Brooklyn, a blue-collar city on the outskirts of Cleveland with a population of about 11,000. She was an outspoken woman who never hesitated to go to battle with the mayor, spent hours on the phone with her constituents listening to the challenges they were facing, and made lasting change in her community during her 21 years in public office. She voted for one of the county’s first bans on using cellphones while driving. She helped open a senior center. And she taught me that politics, both local and national, affects every one of us, so we better pay attention.

Now living in Washington, D.C., I have an up-close and personal view of that reality. I moved to the nation’s capital in December 2012, just in time to attend Barack Obama’s second inauguration. I am ashamed to say that I spent my first four years in D.C. a bit indifferent to the political theater happening just a few miles from my apartment. Because I supported Obama and lived in a city whose local government officials largely reflected my values, I did not feel the need to stay engaged. I was annoyed that I did not have a senator or voting representative in Congress, but not enough to take action. The White House and Capitol were tourist attractions to visit when my parents or friends came to town. That changed abruptly after the 2016 election. On Jan. 21, 2017, I channeled my fear and anxiety about the new administration when I attended the first Women’s March. Over the next four years, I attended over a dozen marches and protests. I sent emails and postcards to my elected representatives. I testified at a D.C. Council hearing about the importance of health insurance covering contraception, and I spoke at a rally outside the Capitol ahead of a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. I wrote over 200 letters and sent thousands of text messages to voters in swing states to encourage them to vote in the 2020 election. I became an outspoken proponent of D.C. statehood, which is the only fair way to grant full voting rights to the 700,000-plus residents of the nation’s capital. Perhaps the biggest honor was seeing a good friend take the oath to become a U.S. citizen.

It seems like civic engagement is on the rise. The 2020 election drew the highest voter turnout in more than a century1 . We braved COVID-19 and increasing voter suppression to show up and make our voices heard. But I worry that this engagement will wane as we move into a year without an election taking up the front page of the newspaper every day. Architects cannot afford to sit back, return to “business as usual,” and pretend that politics does not affect us. We must speak up, get engaged, and flex our leadership muscles.

Would I like to follow in my grandma’s footsteps and run for office myself one day? I would be lying if I said the idea did

not interest me. The AIA has long recognized that architects are well suited for public service. The AIA Center for Civic Leadership has published multiple introductory tools such as the Citizen Architect Handbook and Living Your Life as a Leader guide. Architects have expertise and experience that are assets to our communities. We are leaders and problem solvers who are uniquely suited to help solve complex technical and societal issues. But the barriers to entry are high. Running for office requires significant financial investment, time away from our day jobs, and access to the right networks. Even if we are interested in public service, many architects feel ill-equipped for navigating the complexities of running a successful campaign for office.

To fill this gap, AIA Pennsylvania sponsored Resolution 21-2 at the AIA Annual Meeting in June. Named the Architect-Elect Initiative, the resolution called for the AIA to recruit, train, and support members in their campaigns for national, state, and local elections. AIA members need these resources to help us leverage our skills so we can run for something — whether it be for a spot on our school board or an open seat in Congress. I would love to see an architect in the White House one day, but that will happen only with dedicated efforts that go beyond the introductory tools that the AIA provides now. I’m pleased to report that the resolution passed with 3748 in favor and 1323 against. On a recent Young Architects Forum conference call, our advocacy director, Monica Blasko, issued a challenge to the committee. She asked every YAF member to take one action of civic engagement before our next meeting. I extend this challenge to all of you.

Identify something that drives you, and get involved. You can start small, like attending a community meeting, zoning hearing, or historic review board hearing. Or you could take steps toward something bigger, like inquiring about serving on a board or volunteering for a community organization. And consider running for office if the right opportunity comes along. All that matters is that you start. Because yes, we are architects, but we are citizens first.

Footnotes: 1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/elections/ voter-turnout/

Abigail R. Brown, AIA

Brown is an associate at Hickok Cole in Washington, D.C., where she works as a project architect on multifamily and mixed-use projects. She serves as the 2021 YAF chair.