Hello all, and greetings from Philadelphia, the host of the 2021 AIA National Convention. Our Philadelphia chapter is already starting to look forward to this great event. Our local Historic Preservation committee had its monthly meeting last Friday, and one of our members (Nan Gutterman, for those of you who may know her) suggested that we, as a committee, work hard on tours and presentations for the 2021 convention. Tours are largely left up to the host chapter, so we have our marching orders. However, we were reminded that the selection of workshops and programs is generally handled by AIA National.
So – I am writing to all of you architects working on preservation and adaptive reuse projects nationwide to think about submitting a program proposal when the call for programs goes out in another month or two. How great would it be to have enough submissions to create a true preservation/adaptive reuse track (with a strong link to sustainability) at AIA 2021? Please think about submitting when the time comes – we'd love to see what is happening in other cities, and it would also be great to have this be a focus of the convention in Philadelphia, home to so many historic buildings.
Thanks -
Kathy Dowdell, AIA
Farragut Street Architects