The 2008 AIA Oregon Design Conference

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

The biennial AIA Oregon Design Conference has always sought to bring together speakers in architecture, design, art and other creative fields to spark far-ranging discussions that stretch our thinking as architects and human beings. Held once again at the Salishan Resort on the central Oregon coast, the 2008 Conference was no exception. Adopting the theme of “THINK OUT/out think,” the conference brought together 190 Oregon AIA architects for a voyage to the outer edges of thought and practice in our time of extraordinary change and global challenges.

The organizers (most notably Bob Hastings, FAIA and Saundra Stevens, Hon. AIA) packed the 2½ day conference schedule full with a provocative lineup of keynote speeches and breakout presentations:

• Linda K. Johnson, artist-in-residence for the South Waterfront development in Portland, opened the conference by reminding us all of the delight that may be found by the body as it moves through urban spaces, something understood very well by dancers. In a rapidly changing world, Linda has engaged community through artful civitas.
  
• Leif Utne, the online managing editor of Utne Reader, cited the Dalai Lama’s declaration of the 21st Century as the century of peaceful dialog. It is through respectful dialog, thought and reflection that change for good may come to pass. To be successful, the process of dialog should be structured. Towards this end, Leif put forward the ancient tradition of the talking-stick circle, wherein rounds of speaking without interruption are employed to promote listening and reflection before lively conversation is allowed to occur.
  
• Trey Trahan, FAIA, inspired the audience with both the quality and originality of his firm’s architecture, as well as its efforts to help catalyze and redevelop New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Trahan Architects is one of a handful of firms selected by Brad Pitt’s “Make it Right” Foundation to design affordable, environmentally-sound houses in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward.

Sorry . . . no Brangelina sightings at Salishan.

• Ultimate provocateurs, the Google SketchUp dynamic duo of John Bacus and Aidan Chopra entertained us while simultaneously evangelizing the everyday communication of concepts, ideas and places digitally in 3D. According to the gospel of Google, access to the 3D universe of SketchUp and Google Earth should be available to all, including our clients. While this may democratize the design process, such access also raises questions about intellectual property, the process of design, and what it is that distinguishes us as professionals.


• Gordon Feller, executive director for the Urban Age Institute, framed the really big picture for everyone. The year 2007 was a milestone because, for the first time in human history, more human beings lived in cities than in rural areas of the globe. The largest cities are coping with “hyper-growth” as the concept of the mega-city becomes a reality. As growth and change accelerates, the challenge is to determine how communities should develop in a sustainable way. Someone has to develop the vision, build the requisite teams, mobilize the community base, and implement the plans; architects are uniquely trained to assume this role. Gordon’s assertion is that if we humans fail to meet this challenge, Nature – the super architect – will ultimately decide our fate and the fate of our cities.


• Award-winning artist Greg Esser presented his efforts as an advocate for community development and the role of artists in the revitalization of blighted urban neighborhoods. Key to his presentation was the notion (expressed succinctly by Margaret Mead in the quotation at the head of this post) that a small group of committed, talented people can achieve whatever it is that they set their minds to.


• Our own Eric Gunderson, AIA and Art Paz, AIA (along with Amanda Hills, Associate AIA) presented a tangible and persuasive example of the power of collaborative planning and design in the form of the Franklin Corridor Riverfront Study. Conceived as part of the AIA150 “Blueprint for America” national initiative, the study involved public design workshops that attracted a broad spectrum of stakeholders, all of whom wished to envision a dynamic future for the Franklin Boulevard corridor that links downtown Eugene to downtown Springfield.
  

The conference organizers plan to post the full conference content to the AIA Oregon website. Look for it soon at http://www.aia-oregon.org/.

I have yet to be disappointed by any of the three Oregon Design Conferences I have attended (2004, 2006 and 2008). The quality has consistently been top-notch. I strongly encourage any of you who have not taken the opportunity to attend in the past to plan on doing so in 2010. Perhaps it’s merely the restorative effect of the bracing ocean winds and salt air; the bottom line is that I always come away reinvigorated and recommitted to the ideals of the architectural profession, and yearning to do the best architecture possible.

New ARE Study Materials

I’m pleased to announce that at the April 17th AIA Oregon Board meeting, the board approved the award of a $500 grant for the purchase of new study materials for use by AIA associate members who reside in the southwestern Oregon chapter area. AIA Oregon’s generous grant will be matched by AIA-SWO and additionally funded by donations from local firms.

The cost of the study materials is not insignificant, amounting to $1,500 for the books, flash cards and collateral lending materials, but they are necessary because of pending changes to the licensing examinations. Most interns are now aware that the Architect Registration Examination is due for a significant revision in July of this year: NCARB will launch ARE 4.0, which updates and improves the current format by combining graphic and multiple-choice divisions. AIA-SWO currently maintains a library for interns who are in the process of preparing for their exams. When purchased, the new materials will be available to all AIA associate member interns within the chapter at no charge. Non-AIA associate members will be asked to make a donation of any size to help replenish the fund thus allowing expansion and/or ongoing replacement of the study guides in the future. When non-AIA interns borrow materials, they will be informed of the cost of AIA associate membership, along with the additional benefits that accrue with being an AIA associate member.

Details regarding the AIA-SWO Intern Library lending policy may be found on the AIA-SWO web site by clicking the following link:

http://www.aiaswo.org/interns.html

Thanks to current Associate AIA interns Becky Thomas, AIA-SWO Associate Director and Alison Moore, and also to Don Kahle, AIA-SWO Executive Director, for developing the grant request for the new ARE study materials and refining the Intern Library lending policy. Great job!

April AIA-SWO Chapter Meeting Recap

Royal Building, St. Vincent de Paul - Springfield

This month’s chapter meeting was one of the best attended in recent memory, as I counted 34 AIA-SWO members, associates and students on hand to listen to three outstanding local advocates for low-income and affordable housing discuss the work that their organizations do, the problems they face, and the funding sources and tax credits that make their work possible.

The three excellent speakers for our evening were:

• Susan Ban - Vice President, Metro Affordable Housing Corporation, and Executive Director, ShelterCare


• Jim McCoy - Development Director, Housing & Community Services Agency (HACSA) of Lane County.


• Terry McDonald - Executive Director, St. Vincent de Paul

The common theme throughout the discussion was the current shortfall in meeting the need for affordable housing. Rental vacancy rates are very low, while the percentage of households that are rent burdened – that is, those which must allocate more than 30% of household income to housing costs – is high. The past twenty years have been particularly rough, as the cost of market housing has inflated at twice the rate of workers’ wages. The availability of subsidies for affordable housing is very limited, and it is extremely difficult to make those funding sources that are available integrate well with each other. Tax credit strategies and bond financing can help meet some of the need, but are not always viable for smaller projects targeted at the lowest-income households or those with special needs.

West Town, Metro Affordable Housing Corp. - Eugene

Although the statistics may paint a discouraging picture, there are many success stories that can be pointed to by Metro, HACSA, and St. Vincent de Paul. The Eugene/Springfield community has been very willing to support the development of affordable housing. NIMBYism has not been the obstacle to the insertion of low-income or affordable housing into established neighborhoods that it has been in other areas. The high quality of the low or mixed-income housing projects that have been constructed in recent years is a big reason, and is a testament to the skills of the design teams that have been involved. It is also attributable to the creativity of developers like Metro and St. Vincent de Paul, which has resulted in projects like West Town (with its inclusion of live/work spaces) and the Aurora and Royal buildings (with their mixed-use programs) that are located on downtown sites, conveniently near public transportation, retail shops and services.

The large attendance for this meeting clearly signaled that the subject of affordable housing alternatives – and the political, financial and social mechanisms that can make them possible – was long overdue for discussion in our monthly meeting forum. Big props to Jody Heady, AIA-SWO President, for orchestrating the program and bringing to light the important work being done in our community to meet the increasing need for affordable and low-income housing.

Walter Mitty: Architect & Blogger

The demands of everyday professional practice all but preclude engaging in critical architectural discourse. As architects we are trained to look at the big picture, but too often find ourselves immersed in the banality of details, so much so that we lose sight of why we became architects in the first place. My own efforts to craft the next great manifesto on architecture are stillborn, having succumbed repeatedly to the need to work out another handrail detail, certify that application for payment, or prepare a consultant’s agreement. I know what I do is important, but it’s hard to picture that Le Corbusier was similarly distracted by concerns about a project’s front-yard setback requirement when he was writing Vers une Architecture. I like to think I could channel the spirit of the hero architects and find a similar, pompous voice that could provocatively declare “Architecture or Revolution” and pull it off. But of course, my career has been more Walter Mitty than Walter Gropius, more ordinary than fantastic.

Just as the Internet has leveled the playing field between large multinational corporations with offices worldwide and small business that are run out of a basement, blogs have provided equal access for everyone to the bully pulpit. A blog is a terrific platform from which to persuasively advocate an agenda. When I originally decided to write my blog, it was primarily to report news of interest to the AIA-SWO membership. I regarded it somewhat like an obligation, a duty I could perform as a member of the chapter’s board of directors. After one short month of blogging, I’ve already discovered that there are side benefits:

• Blogging is good exercise: If you don’t take the ole gray matter out for a healthy stroll every now and then, it has a tendency to get soft and flabby.
• Blogging has rekindled my interest in architectural theory and commentary.
• Blogging introduces you to a larger community of shared interests.

Blogs on architecture, as reported in the November 2007 issue of ARCHITECT magazine, have largely supplanted the small, erudite print journals that found much of their material and audience amongst architectural scholars during the mid to latter part of the last century. As a student, I remember reading publications such as Perspecta and Oppositions, which struck me at the time as entirely too esoteric and academic but nonetheless impressive because of the way they elevated architectural discussion. Blogs aren’t as a rule subject to peer review, and thus they’re nowhere near as rigorous or discriminating as these publications were. Nevertheless, they have become the forum of choice for many serious (and not-so-serious) observers of architecture, who are attracted to the immediacy and accessibility of the medium.

I was surprised to find so many blogs about architecture—there must be hundreds of them, originating from all over the world. Many are written by architects. Many others are authored by non-architects, online pundits who are simply architectural enthusiasts bringing their unique perspectives to the topic of environmental design and building. Still others are the work of professional journalists for whom writing about architecture is a paying job. I’ve perused only a few of these many blogs, but those I’ve found particularly interesting are ones that I have listed in my “Sites of Interest” (located in the sidebar at right). These include A Daily Dose of Architecture, which also serves as a useful portal to dozens of other blogs about architecture. Portland Architecture is the work of Brian Libby, a freelance journalist who often writes about architecture for The Oregonian. My current favorite is Notes on Becoming a Famous Architect. I’m not quite sure if the authors of this blog are fond of architects or if they find us unbearably vain and pretentious. I’m pretty sure it’s the latter; regardless, the site’s sardonic humor is worth a look and chuckle. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention Architecture Week, which is a widely-read online magazine (and thus not exactly blog-like) with its roots in Eugene: Kevin Matthews is editor-in-chief, and our own Dave Guadagni, AIA, is responsible for the Architecture Puzzler feature in each week’s edition.

I sense that the proliferation of blogs is about to reach critical mass and that we’re on the verge of a renaissance in architectural thinking spurred by the writings of an ardent group of bloggers. Widespread access to the Internet has created a new incentive to publish manifestos about architecture and the built environment, with the knowledge that there is an instant potential worldwide audience. And so it is that SW Oregon Architect has serendipitously armed me with a voice for my arrogant hero-architect alter ego. That great manifesto might yet be heard. Then again, my blog may amount to no more than the not-so-secret ramblings of an ineffectual dreamer.

March AIA-SWO Chapter Meeting Recap

How many of you are familiar with AIA Oregon’s mission to improve and define the practice of architecture in the State of Oregon? If you’re like me, chances are you have not paid as much attention to the activities of AIA Oregon as you should. In a nutshell, it is AIA Oregon’s role as the umbrella organization for the State’s four chapters to advocate on behalf of the profession on issues of importance to Oregon and its citizens, architects, and the built environment. Last Wednesday’s AIA-SWO chapter meeting was the place to learn even more about our State AIA component as it was our privilege to host presentations by AIA Oregon Executive Vice President Saundra Stevens, Hon. AIA and, and AIA Oregon Lobbyist Cindy Robert.

Saundra happily reported that Oregon architects do value the benefits of AIA membership. While "association experts" may insist that people are no longer joiners, that isn’t the case with architects in Oregon. 85% of all registered architects in the state are members of AIA, a full 35% above the national average. 26% of interns are associate members of AIA, as compared with 19% nationally. Oregon architects recognize that AIA offers a vast pool of resources that helps them compete in today's market. These resources include such AIA Oregon offerings as the biennial Oregon Design Conference, which for 2008 takes place once again at the Salishan Resort under the rubric of THINK OUT/out think (more on this year’s conference in a future blog posting). Saundra also talked about the Portland Center for Architecture, which is a new resource available to all Oregon architects. Since its opening earlier this year, the Center has become a hub of activity for all people interested in architecture and the built environment, and serves as a gathering place for the exchange of ideas about architecture and mentoring of our future architects and clients. The Center occupies a 5,000 square foot, one story building located at the corner of NW 11th and Flanders in the Pearl District. Originally constructed in 1888 as a horse carriage facility, the building truss system is still in place throughout, and oversized windows and skylights (added later) fill the space with natural light. Located in an emerging art enclave, on the Portland streetcar line, the new space provides the visibility appropriate for AIA Oregon's and AIA Portland’s new home. Its size allows for current and planned office needs, as well as creation of a gallery/salon/conference area for continuing education and public outreach. Fully renovated, the Center is a state of the art facility and a sustainable demonstration project, reaching for LEED Platinum and the carbon neutral goals of the 2030 Challenge. Saundra emphasized that the Center is for use by all AIA member architects from around the state.

Cindy provided a most informative summary of the results of the recent supplemental session of the Oregon legislature, conducted over a 19-day period last month in Salem. Of 109 bills introduced, 73 were passed, and the “get-it-done” mind-set during this intense session impressed Cindy immensely. In her opinion, State government would be well-served by limited annual legislative sessions, rather than the current two-year process. Her reasoning is based upon the inability to accurately forecast revenue and agency budgets two years into the future, which leads to the distribution of “kicker” checks or, alternatively, special sessions to cut back funds already committed by the legislature. Several bills that were presented for consideration during this special session were of interest to AIA Oregon. Despite the advocacy of Governor Kulongoski, HB 3610, which would have required that State agencies submit greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals to the Oregon Global Warming Commission, failed. On the other hand, HB 3619, which establishes a tax credit for renewable energy resource equipment manufacturers, did pass. HB 3612 also passed; this bill requires State agencies to reduce the amount of energy used in their buildings by at least 20 percent by June 30, 2015. Two senate bills – SB 1085, which would permit urban renewal plans to include school construction/renovation, and SB 1091, which would have created an environmental investment tax credit – never received a hearing and failed, respectively.

Both Saundra and Cindy are incredibly dynamic ambassadors and advocates for Oregon architects. We’re fortunate to have them working on behalf of our profession and we thank them for visiting with us in Eugene.