What I Learned at the AIA Convention June 2024

There is research that suggests Americans are not very happy. People are stressed-out, have fewer friends, feel unsafe in public places, and are finding more reasons to disagree with one another. The homes we live in, the buildings we design and build, have increasingly become our “sanctuary,” the place where we feel most safe, secure, and healthy.

This must be the reason that the American Institute of Architects annual convention’s prevailing message was designing for health, safety, and wellness, and that the most coveted continuing education credits earned there were HSWs. There were four days of seminars, workshops, tours, panel discussions, exhibits and receptions at the Washington, D.C., convention center early this month. Here is what I learned.

AIA and the architectural profession are intent on addressing every problem de jour, whether sustainability, resiliency, climate change, social justice, metal health, physical fitness, accessibility, or social alienation. While these are important causes that we should all embrace, it makes me wonder, does our building and design profession lead or follow?

There were hundreds of sessions at the AIA annual convention that illustrate my point, especially about the health and well-being objective, such as: “Empowering Healthy Communities through Mission Driven Design;” “Five Fundamental Shifts Advancing the Healthy Buildings Movement;” “Build the Happy life You Want;” and “Love & Livability.”

The exhibition floor had a similar healthy theme with sponsored sessions like “Material Health, Designs for Health and Safety”and “The Architect’s Guide to Health Conscious Material Selection.” I felt so health conscious at this convention, I bought new vitamins on my way home.

While there is a growing building and design industry awareness of the importance of historic preservation, adaptive use, and traditional building, it is not necessarily reflected in AIA’s conference curriculum or messaging. There were just a few historic preservation seminars such as “The Power of Preservation Symposium: The Federal Historic Tax Credit Program,” and a lunch time panel discussion, “Stewardship in the Monumental Core of Washington, D.C.,” hosted by the AIA Historic Resources Committee and moderated by Tom Jester,FAIA, Quinn Evans Architects.

The AIA tours around town were a better reflection of an interest in traditional buildings with tour bus stops at historic monuments and museums. The AIA Historic Resources Committee panel discussion encompassed many of them, including those on the National Mall: The Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, monuments as well as the  Smithsonian, which is comprised of the National Gallery of Art (a John Rusell Pope building with an I. M. Pei addition); the Air and Space Museum ( with a new entrance designed by Quinn Evans); The African American Museum of History and Culture and the Museum of Natural History. There are 19 Smithsonian buildings in all, some but not all, are classical buildings.

“Stewardship in the Monumental Core of Washington, D.C.” was a fascinating look inside myriad Federal agencies that manage the buildings, monuments, and parks which comprise one of the world’s busiest tourist destinations. These agencies were represented by the people on the panel: Susan Wertheim, RA, Chief Architect and Deputy Administrator for Capital Projects, National Gallery of Art; David Maloney, State Historic Preservation Officer, DC Office of Planning; Former Associate Regional Director for Lands and Planning National Park Service, Peter May; and Carly Bond, Associate Director, Architectural History and Historic Preservation, Smithsonian Institution.

I learned that there is “no longer a single focus on historic preservation on the National Mall,” as David Maloney put it. “The Mall is about recreation, education, advocacy, research, accessibility, reflection, celebration, and preservation.” With this multi-layered purpose, the stewards of the Monumental Core manage a balancing act of competing priorities. And these priorities change like the wind that swirls around the tidal basin.

For example, the classical buildings, monuments and museums,which graced the early years of the National Mall expressed our newly formed democracy, reminding Americans of the classical roots of our government. Now over a century later these buildings and their stewards’ endeavor to communicate accessibility, social justice, multi-cultural awareness and our nation’s moral responsibility to the world.

“Accessibility” is not just about wheelchair ramps or grab bars in the public bathrooms. Now, and this was explained by our panelists, accessibility is about making people of all nationalities, colors, religions, and persuasions feel welcome, safe, and acknowledged. “It’s more about the people’s experience than it is about saving historic fabric,” said Peter May, former regional director for lands and planning, National Park Service (NPS). NPS manages the grounds but not the buildings on the National Mall.

With so many federal agencies involved with what happens on the National Mall, decisions to restore or renovate a building take a long time. The panelists agreed, it is “decision by debate,” or as one panelist put it “collaboration on steroids.” The decision to hire an architect for a new building or building addition is “more about the designer than the design.”

I learned that there is no mandated architectural style for buildings on the Mall. The context for design is ever changing based on the cultural values the stewards, patrons, Congress, and stake holders want to express. The Museum of African American History and Culture is a good example; its context is the surrounding landscape, as well as materials, methods and forms with origins in West Africa. It is decidedly not white with Greek Revival columns, on purpose.

AIA’s Historic Resources Committee is the sweet spot for historic restoration and renovation among the AIA knowledge groups and always my favorite destination at what is otherwise a horizontal morass of seminars and events at AIA’s annual convention.

Members of the HRC leadership team gathered for dinner at thehistoric Georgetown Club Thursday evening to zero in on a discussion about national and international architectural heritage and how to preserve it. With over 50 percent of architectural billings generated from the restoration, renovation, retrofit, and adaptive use of existing buildings, our merry band of traditional building architects, suppliers, and practitioners was feeling healthy and well off. And increasingly relevant as solution providers for today’s issues.