We continue our Voices of Advocacy series where we interview leaders from the COTE community who are advocating for important policy change. By sharing the stories of those doing substantive work, we hope to de-mystify the process. Throughout the series, you will hear stories from across the country that speak to varying advocacy issues and their local nuances.
An interview with Arathi Gowda, Principal, FAIA, LEED BD+C, AICP, LFA about being a citizen architect, the importance of building coalitions, and why architects should lift and raise
Joyce Raybuck and Hope Schmelzle
Arathi Gowda leads Perkins & Will’s East Coast Regional Regenerative Design Practice and is a firmwide resource to support high performance projects. She is an advocate for collective climate action and is the current chair of US Architects Declare and a member of the AIA Government Advocacy Committee.
Getting involved in advocacy
How did you get involved in advocacy?
For my generation… it is no longer… we're only making something beautiful, but we're trying to lift and raise at the same time, and… I think that's part of what motivated me in advocacy. I saw teammates just knocking their head against the wall on certain issues spending a lot of extra time they did not have trying to advocate with their clients. That's where advocacy occurred to me, probably in my early 30s. This movement was growing within architecture to lift and raise, and it was very specific to sustainability to start with.
I was in Chicago when the AIA 2030 Commitment was first developed. The spreadsheet was co-authored by two very strong professionals, Rand Eckman and Marya Graff, and a few of us were commenting on that in a committee. They were leading the first 2030 Commitment Working Group, and I took the keys from Scott Farbman. After this committee, I got elected to the board at AIA Chicago and became the inaugural Vice President of Advocacy. We set up a structure where the board was open to member issues instead of being closed-door. We were always asking, where can we have the most influence as architects? This structure allowed people to feel heard and build coalitions. That led to a lot of positive energy and we created something called the Energy Code SWAT team.
Building Coalitions to Move the Work Forward
Tell us more about the Energy Code SWAT team
As I mentioned, a question we kept asking ourselves as a membership organization is what can we influence as architects? We would try to say, hey, maybe we should work with someone else. This led to a lot of different, good things like the Energy Code SWAT team, which I think people are still jealous of. It’s still convening in Chicago, with USGBC playing host, along with AIA. The Committee also includes heads of allied organizations such as ASHRAE and Carbon Leadership Forum. This shows the power of the village to help with energy code adoption, getting people at the table for city council meetings, or the state supporting bills. We had some actions where we shared very simple instructions such as, this is how you fill out a ballot slip and disseminated that information because some state senators would go to vote on legislative bills that were very impactful for raising the floor in architecture and nobody knew how to use the antiquated website. I think advocacy must be hard-headed and strategic, just as we are in design.
One outcome that broke while I was in Chicago was the Clean Energy Jobs Act that the Energy Code SWAT team was involved in. It was touted as the most climate-just energy bill in the country at the time in 2021, helping legislation align investment with opportunities for equity and realigning where some of those things come to fruition in terms of jobs, training, and renewable deployment. Since then, Governor Pritzker has moved that legacy forward. I wasn't involved, I am sure the Energy Code SWAT team was, because I saw it in the email chatter that the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act was passed in 2026. People are getting very impacted by utility rate hikes, and so it was wonderful to read that, and know some of my friends were continuing to advance the advocacy work. It shows, too, when we work in coalitions, change is much more durable.
Lift and Raise – Set it and Forget it
You mentioned lifting and raising to advance architecture, could you share more about this?
We cannot just stay in the office and make something beautiful in a vacuum. I mean, we would love to. It would be so wonderful to do that and just be relaxed and be artistic all day. But obviously, we're seeing what's happening in terms of the climate, in terms of affordability, in terms of poverty, and what that means to be an architect when not everyone can afford our services. So, to me, lifting is just integral to being a citizen architect and allows us to raise the caliber of our design work. We don't have time to make all those arguments, because we are the most good-natured person in the room, and I've seen that in over 20 years of practice. We're trying to make things more community-based, more beautiful, because we know if we're going to spend this much money, it needs to be beautiful, we're trying to make it more sustainable as a fundamental design element. I kept thinking, it's really hard to convince people to do a net-zero building. So, if I go back to the beginning of that journey in Chicago, with the AIA 2030 Commitment, and talking about energy codes with that group, we thought if we lift this up, then we can argue less, and these ideas will become more common knowledge. Let's set it and forget it, let's raise the floor on that, and then be able to focus on the higher-level questions that are of interest to designers and resonate with our communities.
"...lifting is just integral to being a citizen architect and allows us to raise the caliber of our design work"
Architects as Helpers
What motivates you to do this work as an architect?
I came from a family that volunteered growing up I’m a child of immigrants who volunteered, every weekend, building community. My parents helped to found and build the first Hindu temple in North America which was a powerful example of community building. I think there's a lot of spirit in the advocacy movement to be the helper. The cool thing about the skills we learn as architects is buildings touch everything. So, that passion for architecture combined with the spirit of being a helper has powerful potential. For example, I was on the Chicago Decarbonization Task Force that was a mayoral appointment where we worked on Chicago’s Climate Action Plan. It was dubbed, and remains, the most equitable climate action plan of any major city in America. The plan looked at how we can invest in different parts of the city, how we can reduce impacts of heat island, simple elements like deploying trees – which historically were very dependent on an unequal distribution. Additionally, reducing reliance on gas, increasing electrification, and controlling utility costs. So, it was a both-and solution and really thinking about meeting people where they are at…Today, I’m living in the District of Columbia, where I am supporting the mayor here too on similar issues, helping the community.
Advocacy Strategies
Can you share some advocacy strategies that have worked for you?
Really meeting people where they're at, in terms of political speech, we've seen that again and again, like design communication, is critical. Part of this is to talk like a human. An idea that I learned in Chicago is how do we speak across the aisle and really think about things that are of concern to people. The Midwest has a reputation for being “more conservative” then the coasts, but we demonstrated that significant progress is possible with the right advocates.
Last year, our local utility made an 18% rate hike in the District of Columbia. So, when the AIA DC advocacy team helped organize our first city council – town hall member meeting our council members were receptive to several of our ideas. During our City Hall Day we met each of the council members to talk about issues related to architecture. This is a moment where we can say - hey all of these things you’ve been talking about, raising the energy code, electrification, renewables… these are mechanisms within government to keep consumers safe. To help make sure that heating or cooling isn’t turned off, which is now a health safety welfare issue. Another initiative we discussed is the single stair solution, which is very helpful for affordable housing, and championed by our AIA members whose practices center on multi-family housing. Both the issue of utility cost and affordable housing were well received.
The most effective community campaigns really do meet people where they're at, and they explain things. You heard that in the Illinois bills (Clean Energy Jobs Act & Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act), that it was about jobs and affordability. If you didn't understand anything else about the bills, the first one was about jobs, and the second was about affordability. They also happened to center sustainability. I think the important thing to realize in this moment is it can't just be what we want as architects, but when we find these moments of opportunity that have high impact for communities, we really can make a lot of progress.
"... really meeting people where they're at...like design communication is critical. Part of this is to talk like a human."
Advice for New Advocates
What advice do you have for those interested in getting involved in advocacy?
It's interesting, because people think that policy work takes a long time, which it does, but building a building also takes a long time, and you never do it alone, right? So, my advice would be, always bring a friend, or if you can't make it, suggest a friend, and my story was really about some people suggesting that I step into the light.
Also, I think it is important for people to think about, who is the person that helps direct your energy so it turns into fruit versus frustration? Which is where we fail in movement making. We get frustrated, and then we feel…fine, it's going to be this way always, but obviously, it's not. It's just putting our energy in the right direction. Rand Ekman was that person for me, pulling me into the 2030 Commitment as part of AIA Chicago. It's extremely hyper-local who those people are, but if I had to really simplify the equation, it is find the senior architects in your city and they have a network. Get them to help you plug into things and find the aligned coalitions tuned to the political climate.
"...who is the person that helps direct your energy so it actually turns into fruit versus frustration?...It's just putting our energy in the right direction."
Planting Seeds
What gives you hope?
I think my advocacy story was planting a lot of seeds… everything I've done has been with a group of people and the work continues. As I look to the people who are even hungrier than me, those coming up in the profession, I hear people say they want to get involved…so it’s an exciting time. That gives me a lot of hope. I also think we are getting into a new phase of government advocacy at AIA on the national level. We are starting a climate and resilience subgroup to create talking points for all these committed people across the country to adapt to their own jurisdictions. We are learning how to work asynchronously to advance ideas together so we can keep making progress while working on built projects. I think the thing about the moment we’re in now is sometimes it must get really bad for it to get really, really good. We are in that moment now. Time to be the helpers.
This series was created by the COTE Advocacy Committee. A nationwide cohort of volunteers who actively support legislative engagement by exchanging ideas, linking committee work, and amplifying calls to action. If you have an advocacy story you would like to share, please reach out to us at cote@aia.org.
Joyce Raybuck, AIA, LEED AP is a Principal at BNIM in Kansas City and currently serves on the COTE Leadership Group.
Hope Schmelzle is an architecture student at The University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design currently studying abroad in Spain and headed into her third year.