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ALBION DISTRICT LIBRARY BY PERKINS + WILL IS A 2018 COTE TOP TEN RECIPIENT. IMAGE: DOUBLESPACE PHOTOGRAPHY

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The Committee on the Environment (COTE®) is an AIA Knowledge Community working for architects, allied professionals, and the public to achieve climate action and climate justice through design. We believe that design excellence is the foundation of a healthy, sustainable, and equitable future. Our work promotes design strategies that empower all AIA members to realize the best social and environmental outcomes with the clients and the communities they serve.

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Raise Your Voice:  Buildings are Infrastructure

By Kira L. Gould Hon. AIA posted 06-22-2021 06:43 PM

  

Raise Your Voice:  Buildings are Infrastructure 

By Kira Gould 

Late last month, AIA members got an email reminding them of an important opportunity to raise their voices. Mike Davis, FAIA, Chair, Government Advocacy Committee, and Lanny McIntosh, FAIA, Chair ArchiPAC Steering Committee, called on us all to step forward and take a few minutes to reach out. They wrote:  

“You have probably heard about the ongoing negotiations on the infrastructure package between the White House and Congress. As talks continue, now is the time to reach out to your member of Congress and ensure that they include buildings in the infrastructure package.  

A comprehensive physical infrastructure package is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring to scale the contemporary planning, building materials, design, construction, and operational techniques that will make our communities more resilient and our buildings greener and more efficient.” 

If you didn’t already do this, now is the time. Use this link; it takes only a minute: https://p2a.co/8qlpLQJ.   

Please contact your members of Congress right now and ask them to include federal investments in the building sector in the final infrastructure package for: 

  • Funding to seismic retrofit buildings at risk from earthquake damage; 
  • Investments to increase building code enforcement and to incentivize updated building code adoption at the state and municipal levels; 
  • Grant funding to retrofit schools, hospitals, and civic centers to serve as community “resilience hubs” offering safe places to congregate when disaster strikes. 

We must do more to meet the challenges of the 21st century, including climate change and the myriad risks its poses to people, buildings, and communities.  

Contact your members of Congress today (use this link: https://p2a.co/8qlpLQJ) and urge them to include investment for public buildings such as hospitals, schools, civic centers, and affordable housing in any congressional infrastructure package. 

Here’s an article from AIArchitect about Buildings as infrastructure. 

 

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