Andrew Scheidt, AIA
Eugene Section Director-Elect
Member Re-engagement
As the new Section-Director Elect for the Eugene Section of AIAO, I would like to take this opportunity to give you some information about myself and my motivation for taking on this position. I primarily strive to be an architect focusing on design respectful towards and reflective of place. With that in mind, I have found the local AIA sections to be the best avenue for discovering the factors/persons affecting the design of the places where I find myself.
In my undergraduate experience at the University of Virginia (‘02), I learned to design buildings from an artistic standpoint. We learned how to take an idea and translate it into a built form. In my graduate studies at the University of Oregon (‘06), I was first exposed towards critical regionalism, and those studies provided me with the technical skills to analyze a site and make an informed response with my design proposal to create a building that will have a benefit to its environment.
I worked for 7 years post graduate school primarily with other architects and designers at The Sea Ranch in coastal CA, designing custom mid-sized single-family residences, both for owner occupied and rental use. Ten years ago, I moved back to Eugene where I have worked in local offices doing small commercial/retail work. In the past 2 years I have picked back up and reopened my full-service architectural firm working primarily in residential and low-rise commercial/retail.
My design philosophy is based around two main influences: client and site. The conditions and goals placed on the project by the client and the opportunities presented by the site allow the project design to take a unique form, which I view as my definition of the ‘Ecology of Place’. I feel design projects that relate to the ecology of their place and quantify environmental variables and their influences on the design result in holistic structures. Structures that maximize the available functions, energy efficiency, longevity, sense of appropriateness and the physical and mental well-being of the occupants. I believe in passive design strategies as a solution to the issues of excessive energy consumption, indoor air sickness, and as a method to reconnect building inhabitants to the natural world.
Prior to COVID I was participating in various AIA-SWO activities, of note were my participation in the most recent re-envisioning of the Eugene COLA group circa 2012/13, acting as the local Design Spring (Emerging Professionals) lead for Eugene for 2 years, and participation in and hope to take on as leading, (then COVID) of the local Small Firms group. These experiences have helped me expand the knowledge, expertise, and awareness of the factors and possibilities of our local design community.
However, during my educational experience I was not involved in AIAS and my early professional carrier I did not see the value in participating in the local AIA chapters. It was only upon coming to Eugene and looking for professional networking that I began to reach out.
It quickly became evident to me the value of the local AIA. If I can convey one message today it is that your local Sections value is commiserate with the effort one puts into it. This is a volunteer organization; it runs on local members giving of their time.
My vision and goal for my time as a future leader in this organization is for it to facilitate your needs. This includes both being a resource, but also a venue for you to be able to make your ideas happen. Do you wish there was more peer to peer networking, GREAT come help us make that happen for you and the community. Do you wish you could have a discussion around what the local market is like for designers and who is the real competition for what you want to achieve, GREAT, come to the AIA with that idea and we will help you facilitate that gathering. If you need information on a particular topic, I would like your local section to be your go to source. If you want to know how to become licensed, I would like your local section to foster, support, and help to provide the resources for you to be able to succeed in that.
What this vision requires is participation. In the coming months I will be looking towards Member Re-engagement. Coming out of COVID and all remote worlds, what does the AIA look like in a way that will get you to come out and participate? What events would you like to see? What resources should we focus on making locally available. These are items I would like to focus on so that coming out of a statewide reorganization followed by a Pandemic we can focus on what will get members to make their own value out of AIAO