In this issue:
·AIA Presidents Call for Global Response to Climate Change
·AIANY 2007 Grants Awards at Annual Meeting
·Southpoint Goes North
·AIANY Members Teach at Harvard GSD’s Executive Education Program
·Passing: Margaret Helfand, FAIA

AIA Presidents Call for Global Response to Climate Change

At the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2007 National Convention in San Antonio, the presidents of 16 national, regional and international architectural associations spoke in one voice to urge the design and construction industry to adopt well-defined global sustainability goals as the benchmarks of their practice. They established the San Antonio Declaration:

We the undersigned, presidents of our respective national architectural institutes, acknowledge the critical nature of global climate change and the urgent need to mount a global response. Statistics clearly show the preponderant responsibility of the design and construction industry for energy consumption and carbon emissions in building construction and operations.

Over the past 35 years, a long list of increasingly urgent calls for responsible action have been issued on the world stage: from United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972; to the Bruntland Report, “Our Common Future” produced in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development; to the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992; to the Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable Future, UIA/AIA World Congress of Architects, Chicago, 18-21 June 1993; to the three environmental principles of the United Nations Global Compact.

We call on all architects, engineers, contractors, developers and educators to adopt and implement these sustainability goals as the benchmarks of their practice.

AIANY 2007 Grants Awards at Annual Meeting

AIANY bestowed eight awards and six citations for excellence at the Chapter’s 140th Annual Meeting at the Center for Architecture. The recipient of the Medal of Honor — AIANY’s highest award — went to Weiss/Manfredi Architects.

Other awards included the Public Architect Award to Stephanie Gelb, AIA, Vice President of Planning and Design for Battery Park City Authority; the AIANY Award of Merit for non-professional contributions to the profession went to Adam Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art; the George S. Lewis Award for contributing to the betterment of New York City went to Friends of the High Line; the Harry B. Rutkins Award for Service to the Chapter went to Andy Frankl, President and CEO of Ibex Construction; the Oculus Award for excellence in architectural journalism went to The Architect’s Newspaper; and the Andrew J. Thomas Pioneer in Housing Award to Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, a NY-based firm specializing in affordable and sustainable housing. David Dunlap, of The New York Times, is this year’s Honorary Member.

Special Citations were bestowed on: Susan Szenasy, Editor-in-Chief of Metropolis; plaNYC represented by Rohit Aggarwala of the Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability; and Jared Della Valle, AIA, LEED AP, and Andrew Bernheimer, AIA, for their innovative work in the NYC Housing, Preservation and Development agency’s New Foundations Program in East New York.

Three Vice Presidential Citations were also awarded. Annie Kurtin, AIANY’s Communications and Policy Coordinator, received the Vice Presidential Citation for Public Outreach; Ralph Steinglass, FAIA, Chair of the AIANY Professional Practice Committee, received the Vice Presidential Citation for Professional Development; and Umberto Dindo, AIA, Chair of the AIANY Architecture in Education Committee, was awarded the Vice Presidential Citation for Design Excellence.

Southpoint Goes North
By Carolyn Sponza, AIA, AIANY Vice President for Professional Development, Southpoint competition organizer

An abbreviated version of the Center for Architecture’s 2006 exhibition Southpoint: from Ruin to Rejuvenation is navigating its way around other New York Chapters, courtesy of a traveling program funded by AIA New York State. Exhibiting work from the Emerging NY Architects (ENYA) Committee’s biennial design competition of the same name, the show has traveled to the AIA Buffalo and AIA Rochester chapters, which have both hosted opening receptions and presentations given by the competition’s coordinators. This is the second ENYA biennial competition to tour chapters statewide — the first was the Groen Hoek competition, launched in 2003.

At the Rochester opening, Carolyn Sponza, AIA, Vice President for Professional Development AIANY, presented the competition planning process and lessons learned that any planning group might apply to future competitions. After the presentation, attendees discussed how the concept of either an ideas or built competition for young architects could be translated locally in Rochester. The Chapter had recently hosted a design competition for “the house of the future” in conjunction with Rochester magazine.

If you missed the exhibition at the Center for Architecture, the traveling version of Southpoint: from Ruin to Rejuvenation will be moving closer to home in July, opening at AIA Long Island. Also, keep an eye out for the launch of ENYA’s new biennial competition in September 2007. Visit the ENYA Competitions website and sign up to receive e-mail updates.

AIANY Members Teach at Harvard GSD’s Executive Education Program
By Stephen Kliment, FAIA

This summer’s Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) Executive Education Program lists some 40 courses ranging from one to three days, and covering design ideas and technologies; business practices such as financial management, contract fundamentals, writing, and leadership; planning and real estate development. Instructors for the summer program include the following AIANY Chapter members (course names are in parentheses)
· Randolph Croxton, FAIA (Architecture and Sustainability: Integrating Built and Natural Environments; also The Sustainable Campus: Restorative Pathways of Growth on Campus)
· Julia Monk, AIA, (Hotel Design and Development: Hospitality for the Future)
· Gregory Beck, AIA (Experience Architecture)
· William Pedersen, Jr., FAIA (The New American Courthouse)
· Walter Chatham, FAIA (Alternative House Practices: Designing Development Homes)
· Stephen A. Kliment, FAIA (Writing for Success in Architecture and Engineering Design Practice)
· Raymond C. Bordwell, AIA (Public School Planning and Design)
· J. David Hoglund, FAIA (Planning and Design for a New Generation of Seniors: a Focused Look at Retirement)
· Robert A. Klein, AIA (Strategic Facilities Planning: Aligning Real Estate and Facility Assets with Business Goals)

For details on these and other courses, visit the website and click on Summer Programs. Or call 617.384.7214.