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To our Architectural colleagues in the AIA, we once again renew our year with a greater sense of urgency and commitment to the realm of Public Architecture. It has been a distressing winter with harsh winds, rains and snowstorms making our lives rife with challenges. This only goes further to support the knowledge that climate change is very real and change is very necessary.
The current social, economic & political forces which shape the world, which we design and build Civic Structures, has proven to be even more contentious than ever before. Funding has been cut from a great many Federal Agencies, which support housing, institutional buildings, bridges and roads and the infrastructure for environmental protections. And this only threatens to leave many people without the structures and resources necessary to any civilized society.
The 2018 Public Architects Knowledge Community (PA KC) welcomes all AIA members to join in the effort to provide a forum for new and innovative ways to create, inform & challenge Public Architecture. And this context has provided us with unprecedented coalition building for advancing progressive social and technological ideas. It is our hope, that this can be translated into the built environment and to express the best of our vision for a more just and generous society. This pressure on the national debate will be necessary to restore the funding necessary to build and maintain our civil structures.
We have set forth an agenda with our AIA 2018 National Convention Public Architects Workshop, which endeavors to showcase public architects driving innovation in the industry’s best practices. The workshop presents effective uses in resiliency, sustainability, and technology addressing AIA’s New Urban Agenda, depicting measures for remediation affecting urban development, transportation & cultural institutions. These themes highlight how our public built environment serve to protect our city, state, and national infrastructure at all levels of the economic spectrum and cultivate our society. And hopefully, these edifices can be emblematic of a new and more generous spirit of support and cooperation.
The Public Architects Knowledge Community strives to benefit not only those architects serving in Federal, State & Local government agencies; but also for those private architects who plan, design and provide construction administration on our behalf. In this way, we seek to open a strong dialogue on how government and non-profit institutions can best serve our cities and how private architects can translate ideas into tangible symbols that speak about the best in human nature. The Public Architects Workshop is a great starting point to meet the members of the KC and make a meaningful contribution. The KC is where we can begin to build communities to strengthen our voices inside of the AIA and emerge with a solid base into the larger sphere of influence in the social and political debate.
Please join us on Wednesday June 20th for the AIA Pre-Convention Public Architects Workshop.
My thanks,
- Lee Solomon –
2018 AIA Chair Public Architects Knowledge Community
Lee Solomon is the Chair of the Public Architects Workshop at the 2017 AIA Convention. She has been a public service architect for over 25 years and currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Capital Planning Technical Group for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). She guides the capital planning process for the agency’s five and ten year plans. She previously held positions in the City of New York Office of the Mayor, Office of Management and Budget providing value management workshops for public projects totaling over $3.9 billion and worked at the Dormitory Authority for New York as well as the New York City School Construction Authority. Lee has 12 years of experience in the private sector heading up her own firm and managing projects for other architectural firms.