Category: Justice, Equity, Diversity + Inclusion

Together We Stand: A Letter from the AIA Colorado President

Posted on by Jon Bell

Members of the Architecture Community:

Yet again, we feel the urgent need to come together. In the face of violence and such great loss in our own community—on the heels of the frightening shooting in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday, March 22—we reiterate that AIA Colorado is here for you as a safe space.

This horrific act comes just days after the violent actions against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in Atlanta. And although we are far from Georgia, it hit rather close to home. In just the last year, we’ve witnessed louder racist voices drowning out those of humanity, diversity, and hope; we’ve seen innocent Black and Brown Americans beaten, bloodied, and murdered by those too ignorant or afraid of the idealistic melting pot America had promised to be for us all; we’ve watched as abuse and attack of human differences was normalized at the highest level of leadership in our country.

On behalf of AIA Colorado, I want to stoke the embers of justice and equity in light of recent extremist, biased, and discriminatory rhetoric we’ve been witness or even victim to this last year. We stand passionately alongside our national AIA partners, our allied professionals, and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) in their recent statements. We denounce all acts of hate against the AAPI community.

Our hearts sit heavy—for our neighbors in Boulder, for our AAPI community, those whose lives were taken, who mourn loved ones, whose stories did not gain national media attention but who still deserve to be protected and supported and welcomed, and for those who have felt the last year drastically and extremely. And still we fight, at AIA Colorado, for a more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive world here at home and wherever our work and generally humanity might reach.

While letters such as these are becoming more and more urgent and necessary, they can often feel lonely and hollow. Please know your AIA Colorado community is here for you. Know that we continue to prioritize our contribution to the brightness and positivity in our small part of the world. We stand in solidarity with our minority communities. We pledge to always be a safe place for those who need one, and we condemn any hint of hate, discrimination, and abuse. We urge our members, firms, and community allies to stand up and be vocal and committed in combatting racism.

Our board of directors, committees, staff, and members must be there for one another, and we must also hold ourselves, each other, and our communities accountable. In the words of our National NOMA President Jason Pugh, we must stay B.R.A.V.E.:

  • Banish racism.
  • Reach out to those who are grieving.
  • Advocate for the disinherited.
  • Vote in every American election.
  • Engage each human as you’d have them engage you.

Do this for your fellow AIA Colorado members, your fellow community members, and your fellow humans.
Rachael Johnson, AIA
AIA Colorado President

Equity Resources: Black History Month Edition

Posted on by Jon Bell

The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee continues its series on equity in architecture. From podcasts to film to Instagram accounts worth following, we’re rounding up the best in relevant resources to keep working toward a more equitable profession.

While we work to bring you resources and recognize BIPOC each and every month, in this edition, we acknowledge Black History Month and provide even more resources to raise awareness of racial inequalities.

TO WATCH

Hollywood’s Architect

The first African American AIA member, architect Paul R. Williams, was one of the most successful architects of his time. But at the height of his career he wasn’t always welcome in the buildings he designed because of his race. Hollywood’s Architect will tell the story of how he used talent, determination and even charm to defy the odds and create a celebrated body of work.

TO READ

Design Justice

What is the relationship between design, power, and social justice? “Design justice” is an approach to design that is led by marginalized communities and that aims explicitly to challenge, rather than reproduce, structural inequalities. It has emerged from a growing community of designers in various fields who work closely with social movements and community-based organizations around the world. Even better: The link above takes you to purchase via the Black-owned Denver bookseller, Matter.

TO FOLLOW

@archsowhite

The @archsowhite Instagram account visualizes racial inequality in Architecture.

TO INSPIRE / DONATE

Eames Lounge x Mike Ford Mashup

Herman Miller and Hip Hop Architecture Camp Founder Michael Ford are collaborating to provide a platform for honest conversations about racial inequity, social justice, and hope—by way of a remixed iconic design. 

When Charles and Ray Eames conceptualized the Eames Lounge Chair, they defined it as a “special refuge from the strains of modern living.” In continuing this mission, Michael Ford redesigned the iconic chair with handwritten names of victims of racism in the U.S. as a stark reminder that these Black men, women, and children were not afforded the privilege of refuge. 

The chair will travel through February 2021, hosting conversations surrounding racial disparities. Donations support the Hip Hop Architecture Camp, internships, and give you a chance to win the chair.

TO LISTEN

Podcast: Yo! Is this Racist?

Yo, Is This Racist?, hosted by Andrew Ti, creator of the popular blog of the same name, is now a weekly podcast! Every Wednesday, Ti, co-host Tawny Newsome, and their guests answer questions from fan-submitted voicemails and emails about whether or not something is, in fact, racist.

Looking for more books, podcasts, and articles?
Visit our Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness page to see the full series. 

Equity Resources: December 16

Posted on by Jon Bell

The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee continues its series on equity in architecture. From podcasts to film to Instagram accounts worth following, we’re rounding up the best in relevant resources to keep working toward a more equitable profession.

TO READ

Creative Courage: Leveraging Imagination, Collaboration, and Innovation to Create Success Beyond Your Wildest Dreams

Written by the former Executive Creative Director of Cirque de Soleil, Creative Courage challenges us to evade comfortable choices in favor of breaking through to the new.

TO LISTEN

99% Invisible Podcast: Gender-Neutral Restrooms

The debate about trans bathroom access became a big national story a little over five years ago after the passage of ordinances in cities that attempted to restrict access to trans people. Many transgender, non-binary, and intersex people risk stress and sometimes physical danger when entering bathrooms that are segregated by sex. But a group of people have devised a design solution that may make bathrooms better for everyone.

TO FOLLOW

moodynolandesign

Crafting spaces built on the idea that architecture should adapt to the environment and needs of each organization, Moody Nolan is a firm on Instagram worth following.

TO INSPIRE

2021 Architecture Firm Award: Moody Nolan

“For Moody Nolan, diversity has been at the core of the firm’s philosophy since its founding. Much greater than a recruitment plan, the firm’s complete embrace of talent that hails from diverse cultures, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds allows it to nimbly address complex problems through its staff’s myriad points of view. The nation’s largest African American-owned and operated design firm, it has a long history of serving clients with its trademark navigation of cultural sensitivities and keen understanding of the impact its work has on individuals and communities.”

This recognition is an important step in tackling the systemic lack of diversity in our profession.

TO DO

Read this Article on How Diverse Employees are Struggling during COVID and How Employers Can Help

The end of the article cites action items for firms to respond to the inequitable struggle of diverse employees.

Looking for more books, podcasts, and articles?
Visit our Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness page to see the full series. 

Equity Resources: November 11 Edition

Posted on by Jon Bell

The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusiveness Committee continues its series on racial equity in architecture. From podcasts to film to Instagram accounts worth following, we’re rounding up the best in relevant resources to keep working toward a more equitable profession.

TO READ

Toxic Communities

Renowned environmental sociologist Dorceta Taylor focuses on the locations of hazardous facilities in low-income and minority communities and shows how they have been dumped on, contaminated and exposed. Drawing on an array of historical and contemporary case studies from across the country, Taylor explores controversies over racially-motivated decisions in zoning laws, eminent domain, government regulation (or lack thereof), and urban renewal.

TO LISTEN

NPR: The Conspiracy Against Hip-Hop

Why are hip-hop and mass incarceration so entangled in the U.S.? This episode examines the history of policing and the music industry’s complicity—with hip-hop OGs Too Short and Killer Mike—breaking down iconic songs to unveil how the justice system disproportionately affects Black America and what hip-hop, as America’s most consumed music genre, has always done to push back.

TO FOLLOW

Beyond the Built

This Instagram account (and program) engages community through architecture to advocate for equitable, reflectively diverse environments. Founder and Executive Director is Pascale Sablan, who spoke recently at the 2020 AIA Colorado Practice + Design Conference.

TO MAKE YOU THINK

McKinsey’s Annual Women in the Workplace Survey

Before this year, Women in the Workplace research had consistently found that women and men leave their companies at comparable rates. However, due to the challenges created by the COVID-19 crisis, as many as two million women are considering leaving the workforce. The COVID-19 crisis could set women back half a decade!

TO SUBMIT + SHARE

Compendium of Architecture Pathways

AIA Colorado is working to build the largest compendium of opportunities for students and future architects of any age in Colorado. Share this link with your network and/or submit architecture internships, programs, courses, and more as we develop an interactive map of resources to design a more equitable profession.

Looking for more books, podcasts, and articles?
Visit our Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness page to see the full series. 

Equity Resources: October 28 Edition

Posted on by Jon Bell

The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusiveness Committee continues its series on racial equity in architecture. From podcasts to film to Instagram accounts worth following, we’re rounding up the best in relevant resources to keep working toward a more equitable profession.

TO READ

The Color of Law


The Color of Law addresses how segregation in America—the incessant kind that continues to dog our major cities and has contributed to so much recent social strife—is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal level.

*Note: Catch the webinar in this link, as well

TO FOLLOW

National Organization of Minority Architects – Colorado

Get introduced and stay up to date with the newly formed NOMA Colorado chapter!

TO MAKE YOU THINK

400 FORWARD

400 FORWARD was named in light of the 400th living African American woman who became a licensed architect in 2017 (out of over 115,000 total licensed in the US). Did you know women represent 20% of licensed architects, and black women only .3%? This initiative aims to seek out and support the next 400 licensed women architects with an underlying focus on African American girls through exposure, mentorship, and financial assistance.

TO INSPIRE

Women in Architecture | Livestream

“Women in Architecture” is a digital-mapping projection produced by the AIA Colorado EDI Committee, Night Lights Denver and Tend Studio. The initiative recognizes the presence of women in the field of architecture across Colorado, celebrates their contributions and aims to change a culture through representation, as just 30 percent of AIA Colorado members are female or nonbinary. The projection only runs until October 31 in downtown Denver, so catch this livestream if you miss it.

TO DECLARE

International Living Future Institute’s™ JUST™ program

The International Living Future Institute’s™ JUST™ program is a voluntary disclosure program and tool for all types and sizes of organizations. JUST is, quite simply, a call to social justice action. It is not a verification or certification program. Rather, the program provides an innovative transparency platform for organizations to reveal much about their operations, including how they treat their employees and where they make financial and community investments.

TO-DO

VOTE!

Remember to vote! If you haven’t already mailed your ballot, plan instead to find an official ballot drop box or make a plan to vote in person.

2020 Practice + Design Conference Day 3 Time-lapsed Illustration

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Practice + Design Conference 2020: Day 3

Posted on by Jon Bell

Just Architecture 2020 Practice + Design Conference Day 3 Recap: “Justice Equity, Diversity + Inclusion”

By Victor Gonzalez

History seems to be repeating itself, and we cannot wait any longer to make architecture influence equitable change around us. Day three of the AIA Colorado Just Architecture 2020 Practice + Design Conference highlighted the constant effort in creating a more equitable practice, showcased by the AIA Colorado Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee. The committee itself realized that we needed an action to make sure there are more entryways into the field of architecture and were determined to increase awareness and access to architectural education. This continuous effort was highlighted nationally through the presentations of, “Just Speak Up,” by Carole Wedge and the importance of women leading the future of the profession. Following her presentation was, Milton S. F. Curry, who voiced his vision for the future of the design field through, “Just Constructions” presentation showcasing the power in outsourcing architectural education to other underserved communities. Day three of the keynotes closed with a powerful keynote, Pascale Sablan, who explained the various mediums in which the current and future generations of BIPOC designers have empowered themselves in order to shape the future of “Just Architecture.”

Over the noon hour, students joined members of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee for a virtual “Ask an Architect” event, where architects with diverse backgrounds answered questions on architecture as a profession and higher education. The afternoon featured three lively breakout discussions with the panelists, encouraging us all to become more self-aware and step in in our firms to begin to create change. A panel discussion with all presenters left attendees with powerful takeaways, and the event culminated with a virtual livestream of the “Women in Architecture” projection, which takes place in downtown Denver all through October.

Once again, the Practice + Design Conference left us informed, connected, and above all, inspired. Check out some of the key takeaway moments below, and we’ll see you next year.

PANEL DISCUSSION CAPTURE

SESSION NOTES

Carole Wedge | Just Speak Up

  • Find your confidence and your voice
  • Things that I have experienced made me realize that it is valid and important to learn to build your own capacity and ability to speak up.
  • Alumni from CU Boulder – BENVD
  • Alumni from Boston Architectural College – BARCH
  • Kemper Award 2020
  • CEO in 2018
  • FAIA in 2008
  • President in 2004
  • Principal in 2000
  • College and University Leadership 2000
  • Library Leadership 1994
  • Joined the firm in 1986 working in the mail room as a student at the Boston Architectural College.
  • Was inspired by her father’s word that was finding her own confidence in the world
  • “Journey of your career and your life is one you have to design and make happen.”
  • “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world, Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
  • Having that voice to have that conversation in order to open up that opportunity.
  • “Stay open to learning.”
  • Learning to speak up for things and learning to advocate
  • How do women lead, how do people of color lead?
  • “The culture and the people define the type of firm you are.”
  • Any woman in America has experienced a sexist comment.
  • You have to build your muscle through empathy.
  • “Our core values guide us.”
    • They shape our vision, our culture, and reflect our beliefs as a company, and as individuals.
    • Passion: celebrate your passion for design.
    • Diversity: Embrace different perspectives, listen to every voice.
    • Empathy: realize the impact of what we do.
    • Integrity: Do the right thing, the right way, every time.
    • Balance: Whether it’s in design or in work and life, we strike balance in everything we do.
  • Building culture:
    • Inspire: we encourage each other to do better, be better.
    • Foster: we empower the next generation of visionaries with a passion for design.
    • Respect: we recognize the ideas and work of our peers with the highest regard.
  • Shepley Bulfinch is women-owned and led.
  • A more diverse team will be a naturally more successful team.
    • Makes better design and makes a better field.
  • The diversity needs to be measured at different levels.
  • What is the interculturalism of the firm?
  • There needs to be a pipeline built on where your employees come from.
  • There should be an extensive outreach to BIPOC communities.
  • We have to go look at other places that we are not accessing, because how are they supposed to access us if we are not present?
  • AIA Convention
    • Carole Wedge was inspired to create a scholarship stipend to get students to travel to the convention center in Boston.
  • Justice and equity lead to diversity, inclusion and belonging.
  • Racial justice is climate change.
  • Designers can have a powerful impact on the environment.

Milton Curry | Just Constructions

  • USC School of Architecture
  • Focus on the process of making and becoming
  • Making and constructing culture through the creation of buildings and spaces.
  • From Fresno, CA (1960s)
    • Parents had migrated from Denver.
  • Born during the Civil Rights Movement
  • As a profession you are not a profession that has distinguished itself from the causes of the Civil Rights Movement and you are most distinguished from your thunderous silence and…” (Whitney Young)
  • I was going to have to view my life through activism.
  • Individuality activism is not accessible to all and it is not guaranteed to be a success.
  • Just constructions is a way of attending to our basic needs and our access to the natural world.
  • I know how justice looked like and how people that were ethical constructed their lives and careers.
  • There is power and meaning of protesting through structural change.
  • Although the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery, it was a gateway to replace this form of racism and oppression entrenched in our infrastructure.
  • The university must be an ally on how we enable to build these social bonds with a common sense of values.
  • Accessibility to all is what creates opportunities for all.
  • Educating ourselves of the nature of the harm that was inflicted on us.
  • Why is it that the urgency of now gets shifted to another business cycle.
  • “I want to engage a social, political conversation about the contemporary world that I live in or my relationship to it, and at the same time I want to abstract it.”
  • If we want our profession to change, we have to make the construction of our profession to change.
  • Modern values were bonded together by myth.
  • Rethinking architecture theory in order to recount how our profession has segregated and discriminated against certain communities.
  • The same modern works have inflicted harm on indigenous communities.
  • USC school of architecture is emerging as a global platform for cultural heritage architecture and urbanism. Our school is returning to the experimental DNA.
  • USC is second among the top 30 raw numbers for diversity related to BIPOC.
  • We are diverse, but we are not diverse as we need to be.
  • Architecture development programs targeted at the high school level
    • Pipeline for attracting underrepresented students continues to be a challenge.
    • This issue is complex and recognize that systemic racism is determinate of educational outcomes and opportunities.
  • Affirmative action is one of the ways to attain equity.
  • The average Black and Latino students have to fight other influences such as educational inequality, food deserts.
  • 2015 started a high school program that has launched the A-LAB.
  • ACSA Diversity Award.
  • Paul Revere Williams Archives Program:
    • Involved in the transformation of the urban fabric of LA.
    • He was the first Black American appointed to the AIA Fellows.
    • He was the first Black American to attain the AIA gold medal.
    • The Getty Foundation and USC School of Architecture
      • Will be a multiyear of symposium that will leverage USC School of Architecture.
    • Allows scholars the opportunity to view these archives and preserves the legacy left behind by Revere Williams

Pascale Sablan | Justice Through Action

  • I was asked to stand.
  • It didn’t just happen to me.
  • Google “Great Architects”
    • First 40 start from contemporary to historical.
    • How many are women?
    • How many are Black?
    • How many are minorities?
    • Zaha Hadid holds it down in two categories.
    • Why was this the result?
      • Google stated that this was the case since there was, “not enough content for BIPOC to be showcased.”
    • Say it Loud exhibition
      • Feel our impact and show our work through the great caliber that we have had.
      • “Say it Loud” has even been brought to the United Nations.
      • “Say it Loud” exhibition became an international movement.
      • Say it Loud has a traveling activation.
      • AIA team to put their exhibition in a mobile app.
      • Say it Loud Virginia
        • Has been brought as a set of lectures and presentations.
      • Say it Loud Pennsylvania
        • Selected in a venue for communities to have access to
        • How to engage our communities into the exhibit work
      • Say it Loud Georgia
      • Say it Loud United Kingdom
        • February 2020.
        • The issues and challenges we face here are also found across the world.
      • Beyond the Built IG takeover
        • There are multiple ways of attaining this design profession.
      • Great Diverse Designers Library
        • Showcases as a resource to elevate us to collaborate on projects.
        • This is also a way of protecting our history.
        • Being strategic with our relationships with publications in order to preserve our history.
      • Great Diverse Designers Textbook
        • International designers featured.
        • Leveraging the content of which we inspire.
      • Learn Out Loud – Kids Books.
        • Lego Collaboration.
        • It is a way of inspiring children to see their identity in the profession.
      • Say it with the Media.
        • Asking publications to take a position to increase a 5% every year on the amount of BIPOC content is held in their publications.
      • Architecture as Advocate.
        • The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
          • “The lynching museum”
          • Each medal has the name of the person that is lynched.
          • This is not of the past, but of the present.
          • As publications are going away from the term “slavery” we need to make sure that architecture is a way of a permeant statement.
        • National Museum of African American History and Culture
          • It creates a place for celebration of Black history and culture.
        • National Center for Civil and Human Rights
          • Showcases the current rights we have today because of previous efforts.
        • Max Bond Highway.
        • African Burial Ground National Monument
          • First project as an intern.
          • 800 bodies found at this site of buried slavery.
        • Haiti Campus
          • ACE mentoring allowed us to create a campus for the underserved communities.
        • Dismantling oppressive spaces.
        • Project Pipeline
        • 400 Forward
          • Having more one on one mentorship with students.
        • Design Justice
          • Allows an online platform on how architecture can help resolve these issues.
        • Hip-Hop Architecture Camp
          • A gateway of music to architecture.
        • See it Loud Camp
          • Educating and empowering through design augmented reality.
          • Embed information, young kids, augmented reality.
        • Beyond the Built Environment
          • See it loud camp
          • Say it loud
          • Learn out loud

Women in Architecture Projection

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Do Not Try to Blend: Recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month

Posted on by Jon Bell

Somos nuestra memoria, somos ese quimérico museo de formas inconstantes, ese montón de espejos rotos.”

Jorge Luis Borges, “Cambridge,” Elogio de la Sombra, 1969

According to the most recent census, the Hispanic population in Colorado accounts for 21.8 percent, although only 2 percent of AIA Colorado license holders are from that ethnicity. This percentage can look small, but the number of Hispanic architecture students currently enrolled in Colorado schools of architecture is promising to change AIA’s DNA for years to come. The AIA Colorado Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee honors Hispanic Heritage Month by highlighting our Hispanic members’ commonalities and by extending an invitation to the next generations of architects to embrace their heritage.

It is extremely difficult to either extract the specificities of Hispanic architects in the Colorado context or to connect a minority to a specific way of doing architecture. Robert Adam’s survey of early Colorado Hispanic heritage architecture is now part of our past. Cultural assimilation shaped many of our Hispanic architects’ ideas, and yet some parallels are visible in their inherited multiculturalism, their altruistic desire to build communities, the strengths developed thanks to their family bonds and their bilingualism.

As a country, we’ve started acknowledging the inaccuracy to consider Hispanics under a single ethnic umbrella. Neither force nor constitution ever united the Hispanic population. Hispanics from Latin America and Europe can refer to multiple ancestors at the same time thanks to the combination of native and colonialist pasts. If America’s indigenous architecture has many forms and levels of development, the architectural cradle for many Latinos remains in the colonialist neighborhoods, the neoclassical governmental landmarks, and the 1950s metropolises. European Hispanics will complete the mental landscape by adding influences from the Roman Empire, the medieval times, or the Arab culture, among others. It is under this global imagery that Hispanic heritage becomes so inherently diverse. For a Hispanic born in the U.S. or abroad, the sense of belonging to a wider culture, and therefore to represent and use such information in architecture is a part of his/her life experience. As Juan Gabriel Luna principal of Rogue Architecture explains, “The thought of ‘leaving’ roots and family, the thought of ‘finding and making’ a new identity, these are formative processes that have changed my views. That affects how I see the world as a malleable, pulsating, organic environment, that I have control over.”

The ability to dig down into collective and individual memories is a skill practiced by many architects. The Brazilian 2006 Pritzker Price Paulo Mendes Da Rocha condensed this idea in the book Maquetes de Papel: “Our ideas are generated by sophisticated dialogues with our sophisticated universe of interlocutors either if they are dead or alive.” Such ability to communicate in different dimensions, including time, is a skill Hispanics seem to transcend perhaps as a result of their lineage tradition and their inherent bilingualism.

Our interviewees shared a natural desire to serve their communities, a practice in which the respect to family bonds goes beyond their household to reach the borders of duty. AIA Colorado Denver Director Ignacio Correa-Ortiz, AIA, and Senior Architect and Urban Designer at RTD, describes this idea at the center of his work, as it “involves interpreting a community’s aspirations, and therefore community input is at the center of it.” Definitively, strong social ties are resilient skills to function better in the world, as Ely Merheb, Principal of Verso, describes what sets her apart: “The way I interact with everyone—from clients to consultants, from staff to GCs—is heavily influenced by the warmth and familiarity of Hispanic culture. I’ve been able to balance establishing very professional, yet joyous and familial working relationships, where every member of a project is empowered. Valuing and treating people with respect becomes more important to me every day.”

Good relationships are the key to a better more comprehensive and tolerant architecture, a skill popularly connected to bilingualism. According to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, bilingualism is often seen as a brain-sharpening benefit that allows for more exploratory actions, increasing conceptual originality, and enhancing flexible problem solving. If we think of architecture as a universal language, a bilingual mind can relate to wider concepts and therefore reach a larger circle within that universe. A fluent bilingual Hispanic carries the soul of her or his culture, casting a greater impactful shadow wherever she or he goes.

Although there is a common belief that every architect develops an autobiographical architecture, our AIA Hispanic members share the notion that their intangible heritage makes them unique, and therefore, the more we understand who we are, the better we can service people and understand them, the better the architecture we can provide. In today’s world, Hispanics can perceive their heritage as a handful of broken mirrors, and yet our call for the new generations is to reflect on them, and embrace their culture, appreciate its value and share their views, because there is great richness and creativity in diversity.

Design for Healing

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