Boston Society of Architects emerging professionals network: year in review

by Gabriela Baierle, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

What a difference a year makes. As I reflect on everything our local AIA chapter has accomplished for emerging professionals (EPs) during 2019, I can’t help but feel grateful for my co-chair’s leadership and dedication, our extraordinary support at the Boston Society of Architects, and our membership, which rapidly expands. As the largest young architect committee in New England, our committee runs programming grounded in mentorship, knowledge, and networking that is always free and open to the public. Our network reaches over 2,500 peers, and with strategic outreach such as partnerships and live-streaming of events, this number increases.

We kicked off our 2019 programming by hosting a “fireside chat” with three members of the AIA College of Fellows. Over cookies and hot chocolate, Jim Batchelor, FAIA, Anne-Marie Lubenau, FAIA, and Nancy Ludwig, FAIA, shared stories of their early years in the profession, most challenging and rewarding moments, and advice based on the audience’s questions. In line with this type of moderated discussion, we also held two more panels, one with local hiring managers and another with mid-career practitioners, where EPs learned about building up skill sets, approaching negotiation, and what they can expect after the first five to 10 years in practice.

To prepare our membership for networking, we hosted for the third time Judith Nitsch, PE, who beyond her extraordinary career as her company’s founder, also teaches a terrific networking workshop. Her active, hands-on teaching style proves to be extremely beneficial time and time again: This is one of our most attended events, with usually over 50 participants. We deliberately schedule this workshop immediately before our largest networking event of the year, the EPNet Winter Warmer, where we partner with over 20 AEC institutions in the greater Boston area for a night of socializing with fellow young professionals. This year, the Winter Warmer had a record attendance of 300 and engaged architects, designers, developers, vendors, engineers, contractors, students, and more.

With the intent to build upon the relationships that culminate every year in our Winter Warmer, our committee has diligently connected with emerging professional parallel groups such as the Boston Society of Landscape Architects (BSLA), the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES-EP), and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). We are in the process of developing programming that can weave in the interests of all our members while being educational and interesting. In 2019, we were fortunate to host the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) for an enlightening presentation on how EPs can get involved in the practice’s marketing, as well as the local chapter of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), on the important process of collaboration between architects and specification writers.

Lastly, I can’t possibly talk about the EPNet without acknowledging the incredibly tight-woven network of practitioners we have in Boston and how their efforts to give back have helped our membership directly. Each of the past few summers, the EPNet has organized a program called Leadership Lunches, where local offices open their doors and host a discussion similar to a “lunch and learn” with visiting EPs. This year, we encouraged firms that hadn’t participated in over a year or ever to join the program, which was competitively sought after. This program in particular has proved to be mutually beneficial: Firms get to know prospective candidates in an informal setting, and prospective candidates learn about the firms’ body of work, culture, and leadership without the interview factor.

It was this strong network of architects that supported our largest new initiative for 2019: the FeedBack mentorship program. As of this year, Boston did not have a mentorship program in support of young architects, and developing one from the ground up became part of the mission my co-chair, Christopher Moyer, Assoc. AIA, and I crafted for our time in leadership of the EPNet.

With an initial cohort of 30 people, FeedBack connects each mentee with five mentors, thus not only casting a wider net of perspectives, but also promoting a broader interaction with professional practice. It runs for five months, suggesting that a mentor has a new mentee each month and encouraging the pair to meet at least once during their suggested month. The framework for meeting is loosely laid out by design: It was our intent to leave room for organic relationships to take place, rather than forced interactions between assigned pairs. In doing so, our program has been widely adaptable for mentors and mentees, who were highly encouraged to mentor up.

After having learned a lot from the first participants’ input, along with support from the BSA/AIA leadership, we look forward to continuing the program in 2020 and beyond. We have started brainstorming ways to help smaller AIA chapters within the New England region apply the program’s format in their own communities because we believe its flexibility can be beneficial to chapters that are smaller in membership.

Looking back, I find that the most valuable lessons learned this year are to listen to our membership and to rely on our networks. For instance, every time we host a panel discussion, we pool attendees for their questions, which directly affect the outline of the conversation. Moreover, building up new relationships and strengthening existing ones heightens our programming in immeasurable ways. In 2019, it was this attitude that allowed us to launch brand new initiatives, increase the variety of our events and topics of discussion, and, most importantly, deliver content that is widely relevant and impactful to emerging professionals in the Boston area and beyond.

Cheers to a successful 2019.

Author bio:

Gabriela Baierle, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
is an associate architect at Arrowstreet in Boston. Baierle is also co-chair of the Boston Society of Architects EP Network and an adjunct faculty member at the Boston Architectural College.