(continued)

The Spirit of Space and Environment

Another keynote address was presented by Daniel Libeskind, who spoke on "Environment and Place," with a visual tour of five museums. "I believe we are living in a renaissance of architecture," he said. By collecting stories and images, he studies the invisible tracks and history of a site.

His works include the Imperial War Museum, Manchester, England, a sculptural form on an industrial waterfront. The building derives from three major curves that are pieces of a "shattered globe" artfully reassembled to represent the artifacts and sentiments that have created 20th-century warfare.

The Jewish Museum in Berlin is Libeskind's look at how the Jewish heritage was destroyed and how spiritual loss was experienced by the city. It is a series of jagged empty spaces where one can contemplate light and space, and feel "depressed and lucky to be alive at the same time."

New Urbanism: Regional Visions

In one of the convention's many panel discussions, two founders of the Congress for New Urbanism shared their sometimes overlapping, sometimes differing views on city design and planning. Andres Duany, FAIA and Peter Calthorpe, FAIA discussed urban boundaries, growth management, transportation and land use, and other social, environmental, and economic issues.

Duany and Calthorpe outlined the regional planning model known as the "Transect Concept," which sets a pattern for "smart growth" without suburban sprawl.

The fundamental element in this concept is a continuum of zones from the city business district core outward through a high-density, mixed-use city center; a general-use area, including multifamily housing; an edge area of single-family housing and schools; and, finally, reserves of green space that might be developed and preserves that cannot be developed. City growth is contained within its boundaries through infill development rather than outward sprawl.

Duany explained that development within each zone has its own fixed range of options and requirements. Despite criticism that New Urbanism tends to be unduly restrictive, he responds that people still have a choice about where to live.

Calthorpe said the concepts of connectivity and diversity can be applied to regional planning as well as at the neighborhood scale. Where neighborhoods depend on pedestrian access for connectivity, regions rely on transit systems. Where neighborhoods have clinics and K-12 schools, regions have hospitals and colleges.

Neighborhoods and regions, Calthorpe said, have distinct edges that need to be preserved. Where those edges are blurred, you don't see green fields, you see paved suburban strip development and abandoned manufacturing sites. The key to changing these back into neighborhoods is to reconstruct nature, provide a mix of uses, and recreate the sense of neighborhood boundaries.

The biggest difficulty is to incorporate employment districts with the commercial and residential districts. Huge single-corporation business parks make it hard to maintain a neighborhood scale.

The best way to handle planned urban growth, Calthorpe concluded, is through regional-scale planning that gives people a range of choices. Then they can choose what they want, whether it's a walkable neighborhood, a bustling city center, or the outer open spaces.

Institute Business

Delegates to the AIA convention elected Thompson E. Penney, FAIA as first vice president/president-elect. Penney's term as vice president begins in December 2001, and he will become AIA president in 2003.

As president and CEO of LS3P Associates Ltd. in Charleston, South Carolina, Penney currently represents the South Atlantic Region on the AIA's board of directors.

LS3P is a 185-person architecture, land planning, and interior architecture firm, which has grown, under Penney's leadership, to become a regional firm recognized by Engineering News-Record as one of the fastest rising of the top 500 design firms in the United States.

In other business, the convention passed a resolution supporting educational and licensing standards. The AIA will work with architecture schools to create minimum standards for professional degrees, licensure, and AIA membership and to begin offering of the licensing exam in the final semester of accredited degree programs.

This resolution calls for separating the architectural licensing exam into two separate portions, one for academic knowledge upon graduation, and the second to test professional knowledge at the end of an internship.

Delegates also passed a resolution to help national leaders develop the National Energy Policy for Building Codes and Standards. The AIA will support a program of national initiatives to improve energy efficiency, develop alternative energy sources, and improve capital investment in infrastructure.

In response to a serious financial situation (a decline of net assets from $9 million in 1996 to negative 5.6 million 2001), the AIA board of directors approved a plan to bring the budget down to earth, increasing revenue and tightening spending. The decline was attributed partly to poor management and partly to investment in the ill-fated Web-based information service, AECdirect, which had been expected to be a profitable "dot com."

The AIA lost $4.4 million in the Web venture, in which it owned a 60 percent share; the other 40 percent was owned by Bentley Systems, Construction Market Data, Hanley-Wood, iPIX, and Construction Information Group (McGraw-Hill).

Part of the revenue increase will come from McGraw-Hill, whose publication Architectural Record will continue to be the AIA's official publication for another five years.

The AIA was founded in 1857. Through education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach activities, the institute's 66,500 members work to achieve a more humane built environment and a higher standard of professionalism for architects.

The community of Seaside, by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. Photo: Donald Corner and Jenny Young A plan for the mixed-use Bay Meadows community by Calthorpe Associates. Image: Calthorpe Associates Small neighborhood parks in the planned Bay Meadows community are surrounded by apartments and condominiums. Image: Calthorpe Associates Architect Daniel Libeskind spoke on "Environment and Place" at the May, 2001 AIA National Convention. Photo: The American Institute of Architects Newly elected Thompson E. Penney, FAIA, chief executive officer of LS3P Associates, will become AIA president in 2003. Photo: Alterman's Studio, Charleston The new primary school in Lake City, South Carolina by LS3P Associates. Photo: Rick Alexander & Associates   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.