Message from the AIAO Executive VP/CEO

Heather Wilson
AIA Oregon Executive Vice President/CEO

First of all, let me just say this: The Matrix is here.

It’s just not as dystopian as we thought it might be. (If you haven’t seen the movie yet – and how have you not by now – spoiler alert. Dystopian future, humans become batteries, no free will, Simulacra and Simulation. Check it out.)

Here we are, tucked away in our “pods” connecting mainly in virtual space. I even use virtual environments (backgrounds) to help others believe I am in a more fabulous space than I am (my closet). And, on more than one occasion, I’ve caught myself looking at that cave shadow of myself and thought “hmmm. I would like to be on that beach” as someone’s background suggests.

But I’m never fully fooled. We still “Leave Meeting.” And here I am, back in my closet. Wanting to see an end to this, but not sure what it looks like next.

If you haven’t signed up for our 5th annual FutureVision Conference, which starts on Monday, TODAY IS THE DAY. Several of the offerings are free, you can earn up to 7 HSW, and ALTHOUGH WE ARE NOT YET BACK IN PERSON, we are dreaming of better days together. As we talk about the ways we come back together safely in terms of pandemic, there is a parallel conversation to uncover about how we regather ourselves safely post social upheaval, because that happened as well. This year’s program seeks to reveal answers around what could be if we considered good design as a civil right. From the concept of semi-utopian “Equi-districts” to the very concrete case study of Detroit, Michigan, we want to discuss the possibilities of birthing a new paradigm. Please join – it won’t be the same without your voice and I assure you we are better together than we are apart.

Tune in on Monday as we meet Room for More and talk about equitably designed communities; host a mid-week Hack-a-Thon and wrap things up with Steven Lewis, FAIA, and our Oregon Architecture Awards.

2021 has been a transformative year. It’s a day that starts a 5-day celebration of light – Diwali in the Hindu faith, which I respect and often practice. Diwali symbolizes the spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.” I invite you to celebrate Diwali with me today by signing up for FutureVision and contributing to the advancement of our AIA Oregon community. We look forward to seeing you there!

Message from the AFO Executive Director

Claire Blaylock
Executive Director, AFO

My name is Claire Blaylock and I am the Executive Director of the Architecture Foundation of Oregon. The best part of this job is making connections with communities across the state of Oregon, and getting to collaborate with innovative, dedicated, and passionate members of the AEC field. Seriously, where else can you find a room full of professionals who geek out over CLT, debate the technologies of biophilic design, and which Pac-12 football team has the best shot at the Rose Bowl? When I’m not at work discussing the aforementioned topics, I enjoy taking long walks on the beach, sipping coffee, and reading The New Yorker magazine cover-to-cover. Just kidding! I do enjoy these things, I also have 3 kids who are 9,7 and 2.5 years old- so my walks on the beach involve frantic running to keep children from being swept away by sneaker waves.

The last time we were able to gather in a large group for Honored Citizen was 2019 BC (Before Covid). Last year we honored Oregon’s Teachers virtually for our event, but this year we are finally able to gather in person. We know that some folks may feel nervous about gathering in a larger group at Honored Citizen but rest assured that we are taking safety protocols seriously. We will be requiring proof of vaccination, masking when not eating or drinking, and reducing the number of guests per table.

Honored Citizen is one of our field’s most cherished evenings for good reason - not only do we all get to come together and see friends and colleagues but we get to honor a great contributor to our community. This year we are honoring that fantastic and amazing Interiors Architect Carol Edelman. As one of the first female leaders of an Architecture firm in Oregon, Carol embodies so many of the values that we hold at AFO but also that we hold as a community. Over the course of her career and her life in Oregon, Carol has cemented her legacy by highly valuing mentorship, community commitment, education, and creativity. From the famed Uncle Chen’s Restaurant in Portland to the visitor center at Mt. St. Helens, Carol’s work spans our region. As the youths these days say – “If You Know-You Know”- but if you don’t know, come to Honored Citizen and leave truly inspired and moved by Carol’s work and her story.

Honored Citizen is also a chance for us to gather and celebrate our accomplishments and look toward the future. I am the first person to admit that our field has work to do in order to work toward greater industry diversity, social equity, and broader inclusion - but we have started to take important steps. NOMA-PDX, AIAO, AFO, NAMC, Room for More and others have started sharing knowledge and coordinating to form a coalition of organizations dedicated to creating inclusive and diverse internship opportunities for high school students. The focus of the group is to provide student-centered experiences and ensure that the professionals and teams working with the students have been trained to work with youths from diverse backgrounds. In creating supportive opportunities for students of all kinds, we – as a field- are taking huge steps towards making our work more accessible to a wide variety of students.

There have not been many opportunities to celebrate anything together over the past 22 months. But now we are starting to get on the other side of our great period of social distancing. We hope you are able to join us for Honored Citizen, and if you can’t come in person we have a streaming option as well. But if you are unable to participate this year, I hope you feel inspired to join one of the amazing groups who are working hard to increase access to our field and strengthen our community.  

Message from a Director at Colloqate Design PDX

Sophia Xiao-fan Austrins
Director, Colloqate Design PDX

In the face of everything that feels broken and everything that needs doing in the world, do you ever feel small? inconsequential?

I came into the field of Architecture wanting to have an impact. I was inspired by the power of built spaces to shape life. In school, I was constantly taught that this life shaping power was to be held in the hands of individual Architects, but as I look out at the injustice in our society and the destruction of our planet, I have, in the past, felt at a loss at what I could possibly do. Early 2020 was certainly a moment of feeling small, but as I’ve moved forward from there, these few crazy years have also given me great hope.

In the midst of increasingly visible racist attacks at the beginning of the pandemic, I co-founded an artivist initiative called #MaskOutHate, creating relationships with BI-POC artists and communities to build opportunities for dialogue, wealth, and celebration through the design of culturally affirming masks. I went into that experience feeling inadequate. I had never organized anything comparable, never printed fabric or made masks. And though I hungered to connect with people of color after the culture shock of arriving into a predominantly white career in a predominantly white town, I had never connected with many of the communities of color in Portland, including my own.

Despite all of that, I was energized by the support of others who gathered around the vision. By positioning myself as a facilitator to a larger process, the artists who came on board led the way in connecting with their communities and creating spaces of joy and connection that were beyond what I could have created alone. Instead of assuming that participants did not know what they were doing and needed an expert to take the first pass, I saw artists put questions and tools into their workshop participants’ hands to experience the delight of designing for themselves. So much potential comes in spreading the power to create and think about design.

Through #MaskOutHate, I realized that I did not need to be afraid of being small. Yes, I am small. Yes, I am inconsequential. But we can do bigger things together by enabling one another to be larger than ourselves.

I am taking one more step in my journey. The future we started to imagine through #MaskOutHate is not one I want to continue to seek through extracurriculars alone. It has been time for a career change. Karim Hassanein and I are joining forces with Colloqate Design to open a Portland Design Justice studio serving the Pacific Northwest. Colloqate has already been working around the country towards a radical vision for racial, social and cultural justice in the built environment. The Portland Studio is a first step in a dream to support emerging Design Justice practices across the country.

By combining our expertise in architecture, communications and storytelling, Karim and I hope to expand the role of design to create the relationships and systems that our communities need to thrive within their built environments. In addition to accessible design services; grassroots organizing and advocacy are essential to change the power dynamics that surround our work. As an Architect, I want to see the power of the built environment shared with communities who have been left out of our design processes to create their own futures and find delight.

Let’s be consequential together.