AIA Committee on Architecture for Education
January Letter from your Chair
Greetings everyone, and welcome to 2011!
In light of the recent and ongoing economic climate, I know that last year was an incredibly challenging year for all of us professionally; it was also a challenge for the AIA, and specifically for the CAE, mainly due to the restructuring of the Knowledge Communities as a part of AIA's strategic plan for 2010. Last year, the level of support each of the Knowledge Communities receives from AIA staff was greatly reduced. The CAE, under the inspiring leadership of our 2010 Chair John Weekes, managed to turn what started out looking like a bag of lemons into sparkling lemonade, succeeding in making our Knowledge Community better, stronger and faster....we will be sharing highlights and further detail about 2010's accomplishments through KnowledgeNet over the next month so that all of you will have a chance to comment, post, and add to the conversation!
This Year's Theme: "Investing in Education"
The idea of "Investing in Education" is something we've been talking about for years - ever since people started to notice the deterioration of our country's school buildings in the '90's. The connection between high quality learning environments and positive educational results in all types of learning facilities - Pre K-12, Corporate, Higher Ed, and Non-Traditional learning environments, like museums and libraries - is frequently underestimated and undervalued. This year, we'll enter into the conversation again, look at new evidence supporting the relationship between great environments and increased performance, and invest our time, our efforts, and our ingenuity in the quest for a greater understanding of the issues that we can share with our all of our clients, including local school districts, government entities, and, most importantly, today's learners of all ages.
The Near Future - Events & Programs
What's coming up?! We have lots of enriching programs planned for the year - educational webinars, great new articles on the CAE home page each month, and the CAE Honor awards program, which recognizes innovative learning environments (projects are due January 10 - so hurry and get your entries submitted!). The CAE has teamed with CEFPI to provide an educational opportunity in Phoenix in March; Moving Sustainability Forward - this excellent conference was originally presented in Washington DC last month, and is being repeated so that more people can benefit from it. Also, plan to join us in Chicago in April for the School and College Building Expo 2011. The CAE provides the programming for this conference, and it's going to be terrific! In May, plan to arrive at the AIA National Convention a day early for the pre-convention tour of innovative learning environments around the New Orleans area. Finally, plans are in the works for this year's CAE Fall conference, which will explore the theme for the year.
You will be of course be receiving emails with more details on upcoming events during the course of the year, but check the CAE webpage for regular updates on all events and programs.
Get Involved!
Over the past 94 years, (yes, CAE was created in 1917), the CAE has grown to approximately 7,000 members. It is the only all-volunteer educational planning and design organization in the United States, and the largest.
Within the CAE, there are 4 Sub Committees:
- PreK-12
- Higher Education
- Libraries, Museums and Alternate Learning Environments
- Corporate Learning and Convention Centers
Inside these subcommittees, more than 200 people are engaging on a regular basis in dialogue about how to create more effective environments for learning. We are interested in what the other 6,800 of you are doing - come join the discussion!
Also, CAE manages our own webpage on the AIA.org site - it's terrific, current, and educational. (If you haven't checked it out in a while, I think you'll find it to be interesting and informative.) A great way to get more involved in the CAE is to volunteer to assist with the webpage!
Contact Steve Shiver (SShiver@nacarchitecture.com) if you can help.
Our Goals
As always, our goals are to provide a value to our members in the following three areas:
- Advocacy; Building a broader understanding and support in the public realm of the importance of design in successful learning environments
- Thought Leadership; Developing and disseminating new ideas relative to the design of learning environments
- Member Service; Providing forums for the professional development of architects engaged in the design of learning environments
I am pleased to announce that the 2011 incoming member of the CAE Advisory Group will be Paul Hutton of Hutton Architecture Studio in Denver, Colorado. Paul will be a great addition to the group and will serve until 2015. The Advisory Group also includes Butch Reifert (2008 - 2012) from Mahlum in Seattle WA, Caroline Lobo (2009 - 2013) from the Orcutt Winslow Partnership in Phoenix AZ and Peter Lippman (20010 - 2014) with JCJ architecture in New York City. Our past two Chairpersons, John Weekes of Dull Olsen Weekes Architects in Portland OR, and Timothy Dufault of Cuningham Group in Minneapolis MN also continue to share their wisdom on the Advisory Group. Our Subcommittees also have fantastic chairs who work tirelessly; all of us have the best interests of the CAE at the top of our agendas.
My best to all!
Jeanne Jackson
2011 Chair, Committee on Architecture for Education