The end of the year and the start of the next is a natural time for reflection. As I write my first AIA Committee on the Environment chair letter, it is late November. At COTE, there is a lot of reflecting going on. We are looking back on our past year, planning for the next one and perhaps most importantly, strategizing about the role of COTE in the context of the next AIA 5-year mission/vision cycle: the all-important five years leading up to 2030. I look forward to presenting the results of this thoughtful process in the next issue of COTE News.
Another noteworthy point as we begin this year: 2025 marks the 35th anniversary of COTE’s founding. For those who are curious about COTE’s influential history, I encourage you to read Joyce Raybuck’s May 2024 article highlighting the legacy of COTE. Initially formed to address environmental concerns, COTE has evolved into a committee that has influenced how the profession evaluates design excellence in both practice and in academia. When thinking about the evolution of COTE, I can’t help but think of all of the COTE Chairs who have come before me, the role they played, their leadership, and how extraordinarily humbling it is to take on this responsibility.
As a practicing architect and academic, I am passionate about the two-way connection between students and architects / allied professionals. Prior to the COTE Leadership Group, I served on the AIA Higher Education Advisory Team (HEAT) and the COTE Top Ten for Students Working Group, both groups focusing on the relevance of the AIA in relation to academia. On the COTE TT Student Working Group, I was introduced to the people who manage and evolve the highly successful AIA/ ACSA COTE Top Ten for Students Competition, now attracting more than 1,000 entries per year and, in 2025, will for the first time, recognize collegiate student winners in both the foundation level (first two years including community colleges) and the advanced level (year three and beyond). The goal of this most recent innovation is not only to encourage wider access to the competition, but also to encourage more faculty to include the Framework for Design Excellence principles into their foundation studio curricula. We are optimistic that this will encourage a ripple effect in the academy as a whole.
Similar to this recent evolution of the student competition, the COTE LG has also started ideating ways to make the Framework for Design Excellence more accessible to more architects. Just as we strive to meet students where they are, we believe it is important to meet practitioners where they are as well. The goal of this approach, though still being defined (stay tuned for the next COTE News), is to address the many layers of practice including geography and climate, firm size, experience and resources as well as local codes and policies. Luckily, we are not starting from scratch. A strong foundation to support this effort exists including the highly effective COTE Network of local and state groups and AIA’s updated communication tool, the Community Hub. In addition, several other resources are in process such as the Framework Tool and three COTE publications and publication updates which will share lessons learned as well as habits of high-performing firms. Finally, we are happy to report that through the efforts of many, including the phenomenal 2024 Chair, Michelle Amt, COTE has been working to build collaborative networks among many of the AIA Climate Action groups. I look forward to deepening these relationships in the year ahead.
I would like to close this letter with acknowledgements of those coming and going on the LG. First, I am thrilled to announce the three new members who will be joining us on the LG in 2025: Katie Ackerly, Lindsey Falasca, and Alyssa Murphy (please see profiles in the Jan/Feb 2025 issue of COTE News). We look forward to working with you! I am also excited to announce our 2026 Chair-Elect, Ellen Mitchell, who will bring her passion and expertise for Climate Action / Climate Justice to our group in the years to come. Next, I would like to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to Michelle Amt for her thoughtful and steady leadership through a year of change at AIA, a masterclass for those of us on the LG. I would also like to recognize three members who will be leaving us this year as they “cycle off”: Lori Ferriss (2023 Chair), Arathi Gowda, and Carlos Augusto Garcia, each of whom possess astounding expertise and wisdom. I look forward to seeing what each of them pursue in the coming years. Finally, I would like to remember our dear friend, and COTE LG member, Ganesh Nayak , a national leader in holistic inclusive design, who passed away in July. Though we deeply miss his joyful presence, we are comforted in the knowledge that his legacy glows bright.
Robin Z. Puttock, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, is an Assistant Professor at Kennesaw State University and a practicing architect with over twenty years of professional, national award-winning, sustainable design experience. She is the editor and contributing author of the upcoming Teaching Carbon Neutrality: A Compilation of Award-winning Architectural Design Studio Methodologies (Routledge 2025) and is the project architect of many LEED certified buildings as well as the first US Department of Education Green Ribbon School recognized by President Barack Obama. Robin serves as the 2025 Chair of the National AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Leadership Group.