Message From the Outgoing AIAO President

Amy Vohs, AIA
Outgoing AIAO President

“What a long, strange trip it’s been.” 

I hope  you are all well and are able to spend some time away for the holidays. As I wrap up my term as AIA Oregon president I look back on what we were able to do in such unusual times. 2020 started out innocent enough with some good momentum behind our strategic plan for the next few years.  We were looking forward to a lot of change as well as knowing we needed to hire a replacement Executive Vice President and work through our lease on the Center For Architecture ending December 2021. We were getting ready with the different task forces for these major events along with rolling out new educational programs for the year. The chapter was still merging into a single state chapter. We were debating on the best course of action to roll out long distance learning for equitable access across the state, with a plan to expand our technology with cameras and good streaming services to upgrade the existing capabilities for broadcasting programming.  

Then COVID hit. 

We took a month to regroup and understand what our mission was as a professional organization. What our members are paying for is quality education and activism in issues regarding our profession so our attention focused on how to move big events to the virtual world. We learned a lot from members on how they were making the transition, shared tips and were back up with a limited amount of programs as we also realized that our personal lives needed much more attention as well. 

Memorial Day 2020 seemed to have it all.  It was the start of the wildfire season that turned our skies red and our air quality toxic, forcing large evacuations and creating devastation that came to a head in September, devastation that communities are still working hard to rebuild. The Eugene and Southern Sections worked with other organizations to discuss better ways to build, landscape and protect communities from wildfires in the future. This will be an ongoing discussion with jurisdictions on code adoption as well as with the construction industry. 

Also on Memorial Day, George Floyd was murdered, triggering an awakening to the many injustices facing people of color throughout the country and most notably to us, in Portland. It has changed how we look at our cities, how we collaborate with each other, how projects are planned, how we talk to our kids, and - I hope - how we govern our communities. As an organization, AIA Oregon changed our strategic initiatives by reviewing and improving programs to discuss equity in the built environment, community engagement and how we work better within our communities so that the past does not repeat itself. We created our Social Justice Action Plan focusing our efforts on six different areas to help us focus our efforts where we can be most effective. 

•           Access to the Profession

•           Expand and Enhance Community Relationships

•           Advocacy

•           Continuing Education Training

•           Equity Within the Organization

•           Celebration of Architecture and Architects 

We issued an update to where we were in our Action Plan earlier this year.  We will continue to use this as a guide to continue to make progress. Social change is a continued effort that needs to constantly be reviewed and course corrected throughout our lives.

In 2021, as our communities started to rebuild, we have been slowly getting back on our feet with a new Executive Vice President, Heather Wilson, who brings such a strong background of working with AIA National and other chapters.  She has already brought some amazing speakers to us and a different approach to facilities management.

With our Portland CFA lease ending at the end of 2021, we opted for signing a three year lease at the MODA center to allow us time to look for a new final home, to allow us outside opportunities for revenue generation and to provide a benefit to members and allied partners for a little different venue to socialize and network. 

Future Vision 2021 brought some great discussions on equity from multiple voices. Room For More’s presentation on Equi-Districts pushing the discussion on how we can bring equity to the center of our design profession.

As Steven Lewis, FAIA mentioned in his keynote conversation with Chandra Robinson for 2021 Future Vision, we need to learn about the communities we work with and engage with them to let them guide what is needed for their own community. “If it is not with us, then it is not for us”. If you missed this conversation, please see the Vimeo recording linked above. The discussion was open and honest and I find myself revisiting it often. 

The Keynote Speaker for Sustainable Building Week Hop Hopkins, Climate Justice Fellow with the Sierra Club, brought up discussions on disposable land and our relationship with people, land and pollution affects larger percentages of communities of color. This was a three part program with discussions on energy use, bringing sustainability to our homes and how to expand that to other communities.

These are just a few of the events AIA Oregon presented through the tireless efforts of our committee members. We are also working on coordinating efforts for organizing opportunities for high school internships or job shadows to provide students of color or students without access to the AE professions. This is continuing our efforts to expand access to the profession working with several other organizations NOMA PDX, Room for More, ACE, and others for a more equitable approach to working with firms and students. 

This is just a fraction of the discussions we’ve had over the last two years.  I look forward to 2022 with more opportunities to get back together with the Oregon Design Conference, Business of Architecture series, Tour of Homes, and others. I look forward to what the next board will bring to the table. Kaley Fought, AIA has been a part of this board for several years and has some amazing ideas to expand upon over the next two years. I look forward to what is to come. I feel blessed to have been your president for the last two years and thank you all for being a part of AIA Oregon. I wish you all a Happy New Year. 

Peace out and I’ll leave you with one more Grateful Dead quote:

“If we had any nerve at all, if we had any real guts as a society, or whatever you need, whatever quality you need, real character, we would make an effort to really address the wrongs in this society, righteously.” ~ Jerry Garcia

Message from the AIAO President

Amy Vohs, AIA
AIA Oregon President

President’s Internship initiative

Hello everyone! 

I hope you are all getting ready for the holiday season. 

I wanted to introduce you to a program we have been working on since the beginning of this past summer.  AIA Oregon with the CoEDI Committee have been focused on pushing forward an initiative identified in our Social Justice Action Plan to increase the awareness and access to the profession of architecture for high school students of color and students who may not have access through their remote location, or lack of programming in their curriculum to the AEC industry. AIA Oregon gets several requests for high school students to provide job shadows or other opportunities so we wanted to focus on making a formal process where firms can easily express interest in providing opportunities, students can browse different firms, and school educators, career counselors and CTE program directors have a way to connect to architecture and engineering firms to expand their outreach to student interest.

We have been meeting with a great task force representing a wide range of interests with representatives from Room for More, NOMA PDX, AIA Oregon, ACE Mentoring PDX, AFO, Emerging Leaders,  and Oregon Green Schools PDX.  In addition, AIA Oregon has been meeting with Oregon Department of Education to understand how we can leverage this program state-wide and align with existing CTE curriculum.  

The task force organized the discussion around three areas: Representation, Diversity and Inclusion. 

• Representation focuses on knowing the numbers. Where are we now so we can track progress.

• Diversity focuses on offering students an opportunity to work with architects or engineers that look like them. It is important to be able to see themselves working in the profession they are interested in. If firms are not able to provide this yet, we will set up an outside mentor who can fill this roll. 

• Inclusion focuses on offering training to firms, mentoring and evaluation from both firms and students to continue to improve the program.

What you will see coming out shortly is a request for firm interest in getting involved to be able to create a database for interested students and outside organizations, as well as a request for mentors to be able to pair up students with similar interests. The task force will assist in getting students placed as well as getting firms access to other programs and school districts looking to expand their offerings for career experiences. We will also be a resource for providing training as requested on inclusive programs for high school students. Once interest is better identified by students and firms, we will look for ways to create a multi-tiered program based on student and firm availability.  I hope you will be interested in getting your firm involved or in becoming a mentor. Our goal is to have a program set up for this coming summer.  

Feel free to send us any questions or comments or to find out more about the task force, please contact us at info@aiaoregon.org.  

Thank you,

Amy E. Vohs, AIA

Please fill out the survey that best describes your interest:

Mentor interest

Firm interest

Message from an AIAO Fellow

Don Stastny, FAIA FAICP FCIP

AIAO Professional Achievement Awards

Some observations on THE AGE OF COVID:  The pandemic has basically restructured society as we know it—changing the workplace, isolating people that require interaction, compromising mental health and limiting collaboration.  We all have become somewhat proficient at Zoom meetings (and have been a part of developing a whole new profession of “designing backdrops” that are messages in themselves and allow us to advertise who we are).  In the past two years, we have condensed at least ten years of life into a brief moment in time—resulting in a number of conditions that share a common highway: political division, vandalism, terrorism, racism, lack of empathy for our fellow human beings, dishonesty, and environmental ignorance have evolved and supported each other in a way that we have never experienced.  How do we reclaim our lives, our principles, our communities, and our democracy going forward?  I suggest that is through a series of small actions—each of which builds upon other actions to create a supportive and progressive society.  I have often used the analogy of tossing a pebble into a pond and the resulting ripples that result—and if enough pebbles are thrown in, the ripples begin to interact and those interactions contain the mana for positive change and further evolution of a place and a culture. 

My apologies for the RANT, but I believe the current condition of society (and particularly in Portland and Oregon) finds itself at a crossroads—how can we move forward in a positive way, how do we (as a profession) send messages to the public about values we share, and how do we provide leadership going forward.  In a way, our Professional Achievement Awards are our “pebbles” that will create ripples—and in THE AGE OF COVID, these ripples may have a very strong impact on the way the profession is seen by the public, and, through the recipients of those awards, challenge  our community to be better, to not accept negativity and remain optimistic about how society is moving forward.

AIA Oregon has chosen to include Professional Achievement Awards as a part of the annual Design Awards in order to recognize individuals  who are making an impact—on their profession, on their community and on their peers.  The AIA Oregon President’s Award is given to an individual AIA member for significant contribution to the architecture profession through distinguished leadership and service over an extended period of time.  The AIA Oregon Young Architect Award honors individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made contributions to the architecture profession early in their careers (and this award is a potential stepping stone to the AIA National Young Architect Award), and the AIA Oregon Emerging Professional Award is given to individual Associate AIA members to recognize outstanding leaders and creative thinkers early in their careers.

Another award, not necessarily given annually, is the Award of the AIA Oregon College of Fellows.  This award is given by the Fellows only if there is a recipient identified that demonstrates--through action or program—a continuing contribution to the community through Design Excellence.  While this award has been given to individuals, it is often awarded to an organization or entity that embraces the founding principles of AIA Oregon and is impactful in the continuing development of the community.

In THE AGE OF COVID this series of awards have greater meaning.  First of all, IDENTIFYING LEADERSHIP—whether it be as an individual or an organization—and how that leadership is exemplar of the principles and ethos of the American Institute of Architects.  Secondly, ADOPTING ACCOUNTABILITY—recognizing the recipient adopts the charge to continue the work she/he has begun.  And thirdly, IMPACTFUL CONTRIBUTIONS—to use the Award to influence current and future decisions that will benefit the profession and society. As the awards are bestowed on individuals and organizations, we, as a profession offer our sincere congratulations and challenge the honorees to make their “ripples” meaningful and complimentary.

Donald J. Stastny FAIA FAICP FCIP has been a practicing architect since 1976.  His international practice includes Architecture and Placemaking, Urban/Civic Design and Community Strategic Planning, and Design Process Innovation.  He holds the 2009 National AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture, the 2006 AIA Northwest and Pacific Region Medal of Honor, and was the recipient of the 2017 Outstanding Citizen Award from the Architecture Foundation of Oregon.