Breakout Series 4

Friday, November 14, 1:15 – 2:15pm

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Practice Simulation Lab

Colorado’s 2025 Single-Stair Bill Spurs Code Reform Movement

Process & Presentation

Simulate the fun, complexity, and responsibility of being a firm owner in this collaborative workshop. Participants will work in diverse teams to explore the many challenges—and opportunities—involved in running a successful architecture practice.

The Practice Simulation Lab (PSL) is a collaborative, hands-on workshop that challenges participants to imagine, design, and test speculative models of future architectural practice. Rooted in the Young Architects Forum’s Practice Innovation Lab and reimagined by AIA Ohio, the PSL brings together emerging professionals, Fellows, educators, and firm leaders in a dynamic learning environment that simulates the real-world pressures, decisions, and opportunities faced by practice owners.

Originally launched in 2023 with support from the AIA College of Fellows, the PSL has grown to reach audiences beyond Ohio at AIA Aspire, AIA24, and North Carolina. Past sessions have led to the creation of speculative firms tackling developer-architect partnerships, owner advocacy, and equity-centered cooperative studios. The program fosters cross-generational mentorship, deepens participants’ understanding of practice operations, and gives voice to early professionals envisioning change in the profession. Multiple attendees have cited the experience as the first time they felt truly empowered to shape the structure and values of their workplace.

Participants work in interdisciplinary teams to build their “firm of the future,” crafting everything from a mission statement to a business model, firm structure, and first project. As the simulation unfolds, teams encounter dynamic challenges—from climate disasters to leadership transitions—that push them to test their ideas under real-world pressure. By merging mentorship, design thinking, business planning, and scenario-based learning, the PSL provides early professionals a rare opportunity to explore the complexities of firm leadership in a supportive, low-risk setting. Meanwhile, seasoned practitioners are invited to share wisdom, shift perspectives, and reflect on evolving definitions of success in the profession. The process is playful and open-ended, but grounded in urgent questions about equity, sustainability, labor, and longevity.

To adapt this model for the Colorado context, teams may consider climate scenarios specific to the Mountain West, including wildfires, water scarcity, and rapid urban expansion. Simulated projects may respond to the housing needs of resort towns, rural design-build models, or disaster recovery frameworks—all with the aim of testing how resilient and responsive a firm must be to thrive in a changing region.

The simulation is playful in tone but serious in its aim: to foster critical conversations about the conditions of contemporary practice and empower the next generation of firm leaders.

Alexandra Oetzel, AIA, is a licensed architect at Moody Nolan with a broad portfolio spanning community recreation centers, public libraries, and student-focused academic facilities. Her professional practice is rooted in equity, environmental responsibility, and the belief that architecture must serve the communities it inhabits. Alexandra has held teaching positions at Rice University and currently teaches at The Ohio State University’s Knowlton School, where she contributes to shaping the next generation of architects through critical and practice-based pedagogy.

An energetic leader and advocate within the architecture community, Alexandra currently chairs the AIA?Ohio Design Conference, guiding statewide programming that advances dialogue around design excellence. She has fostered national conversations on architectural labor and education through her involvement with The Architecture Lobby’s ABC School and plays a vital role in supporting emerging professionals as a leader within AIA?Columbus. Alexandra also serves as the 2024–2026 Ohio Representative to the AIA Young Architects Forum, where she champions mentorship, advocacy, and professional development initiatives both statewide and nationally.

Seth Duke, AIA, is an associate and architect at Bialosky in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a Master of Architecture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Seth’s portfolio spans various project types, but he has worked primarily on adaptive reuse and urban infill projects, transforming vacant lots and abandoned historic buildings into new uses for local communities.

Seth has been a member of the AIA National Young Architects Forum since 2020, serving first as a representative to the forum and now as its 2024-2025 Community Director where he leads the YAF Community focus group. This group leads efforts focused on mentorship, collegiality, and camaraderie for young architects by fostering open dialogues with young architect leaders across the country and providing resources to assist them on their career development now that they are licensed.

This session highlights how architects are driving building code reform—focusing on Colorado’s new single-stair law—to unlock affordable, sustainable, and inclusive housing. Learn policy details, design benefits, and advocacy strategies change.

The architectural community is increasingly engaging in advocacy to reform restrictive building codes, concerning housing equity and affordability, with recent momentum around single-stair legislation gaining increasing interest from policymakers and the media from coast to coast. In many cities, well-intentioned building regulations constrain the ability to delivering missing middle housing in communities urgently facing a housing crisis. This session explores how architects, urbanists, and policymakers are reshaping that landscape—beginning with the single-stair apartment building.

Recently signed into law in Colorado, HB25-1273 allows multifamily buildings of up to five stories to use a single-stair design and was supported by YIMBY Denver, AIA Colorado, and numerous other groups while breaking with the International Building Code (IBC), which typically requires two means of egress for buildings over three stories. Colorado is not alone: over 50% of the U.S. population now lives in jurisdictions that have adopted or are considering similar policies. Inspired by safe, efficient building traditions common across Europe and Asia, single-stair housing is gaining traction as a policy and design tool that meets the moment—especially for creating “missing middle” housing types.

In this session, experts will dissect the origins, benefits, and barriers of single-stair reform, positioning it as a case study in broader code modernization and architectural advocacy. Presenters will examine how architects are stepping into the role of policy advocates to push forward a more flexible, equitable, and climate-resilient built environment.

Sean Jursnick, AIA, serves as the co-chair of the AIA Colorado Housing Committee and has authored policy briefs on efforts to reform building code to improve housing options. Sean has presented at national conferences including AIA National and YIMBYtown and in the fall of 2025.

Jesse Adkins, AIA, passion, professionalism, and creative drive set the standard at SAR+. He is gifted in both design and the business of architecture, helping to lead SAR+ to become a national design firm. He is goal oriented and has a clear ability to direct a strong, process-oriented team; integrating all stakeholders, design collaborators, and builders seamlessly to achieve the most strategic project success.

Keaton Hodges is a designer at SAR+ Architects, where he contributes to a range of impactful projects spanning multifamily housing, urban planning efforts across Denver, and high-elevation developments in iconic mountain towns such as Vail, Winter Park, and Jackson Hole. With a keen interest in housing innovation, Keaton is an advocate for single-stair design—championing more sustainable, connected, and inclusive living environments that better serve diverse communities.

Futurists and Architects are of a kind, as we both take a long-term perspective and are divergently curious. We can also be equally vulnerable to being fooled into thinking that something is a trend when it’s actually just trendy.  

Half of this talk is about the process David Zach developed as a Futurist, scanning the horizon for both trends and traditions, how he organizes ideas and how he weave diverse ideas into presentations that can capture both attention and imaginations.  

It’s been said that most people would rather die than speak in public. If you can think and speak on your feet, you have an exceptional advantage over most of those people – and your co-workers and clients will take notice. And, it’s not like it’s really going to kill you or anything, but learning these process and presentation skills will help to kill off weak and misinformed ideas. 

As a professional speaker who’s given over 1500 keynotes, David Zach knows a few things on what works and what doesn’t at the front of the room. From how to breath (yes, you should breath while giving a speech) to how to handle hecklers. (Ask me about the mid-talk disruption by a drunk at AIA-NJ…)  

David Zach is a Futurist. No really. He earned a Master’s Degree in Futures Research from the University of Houston. That’s a real degree from a real university. Then again, he got that degree way back in 1981, so it’s pretty much history at this point. 

Since then, he’s given over 1500 keynote presentations, with over 50 of them to AIA and AIAS audiences. He served two terms on the AIA-WI board and from 2010 to 2013 he was a public director on the AIA National Board. In 2012, he received an AIAS Presidential Citation for his work with emerging professionals. He lives in Milwaukee.