Dear COTE Community,
As we wrap up A’23, the AIA Conference on Architecture, I am buoyed by the inspiring work and energy of this community. COTE’s three official sessions brought together 22 speakers, over 30 facilitators, and 800+ participants, while the countless additional programming led by many of you centered themes of climate action, climate justice, and the agency of architects to drive change throughout the conference.
At Performing Beautifully, we reflected on the history of the COTE Top Ten Awards and the continued importance of charting the rapidly evolving leading edge of sustainability. 2024 COTE Chair Michelle Amt described how we are working to make the awards more accessible to a broader range of projects while continuing to recognize outcomes, not just design intent. Jurors Katie Ackerly and Avi Rajagopal lauded this year’s winners for demonstrating leadership across all ten principles, discussed how exemplary performance may look very different depending on each project's typology, and emphasized that the winners weren’t just about impressive metrics but also about uplifting users and communities. Each of the winning teams generously shared lessons and successes from their projects, illustrating net zero design, innovative approaches to resilience, and designs that truly give back to the community beyond the footprint of the project. Read more in Michelle’s article..
The Top Ten Toast – hosted by repeat winner Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects – was a celebration of this year’s COTE Top Ten winners and of the positive impact of the AIA/ACSA COTE Top Ten Competition for Students. AIA President Emily Grandstaff-Rice offered remarks celebrating the sustained and heartfelt work of the COTE Community, which began before sustainability was mainstream and has continued in full force through today. COTE LG member Robin Puttock charted the growth of the student competition, which this year includes a record 959 students from 45 states, eight countries, and 74 schools! We celebrated the impact that former COTE Chair Marsha Maytum has made on the strength of the student competition, the lives of many of the student winners, on the COTE Community, and beyond.
We gathered at the COTE Open Forum to hear inspiring words from ILFI CEO Lindsay Baker, who invited us to join the movement and challenged us to “stop asking, 'Is this profitable? Is this going to be good for my firm?' and instead ask, 'Does this work for the climate? Does this work for communities?'" LG Members Ganesh Nayak and Arathi Gowda prompted us to consider how we define and implement climate action and climate justice in our work and the role of COTE in federal and local advocacy. Breakout leaders who are too many to name here led robust discussions about the Inflation Reduction Act, Advocacy, Climate Action and Climate Justice, the AIA 2030 Commitment, Resilience and Adaptation, COTE Chapters, and the Framework for Design Excellence. We shared with each other our experience, our enthusiasm, our expertise, and our collective commitment. In this issue, you can read more perspectives on the COTE Open Forum from Ganesh Nayak (the LG perspective), Wei Wang (the YAF perspective), and Bunny Tucker (the COTE Network perspective).
Fueled by the energy of gathering, the COTE Leadership Group continues to focus on our priorities for 2023: to Advance Climate Action and Climate Justice, Empower AIA Members to realize outcomes, and Strengthen the COTE Community. I hope you are all inspired to take action. If you would like to share your takeaways from conference and your hopes for how COTE can continue to make impact, please let us know at cote@aia.org.
Lori Ferriss, AIA, PE
2023 COTE Chair