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AIA26 Conference - AIA HCD & AIA Right to Housing Working Group Tours

  • 1.  AIA26 Conference - AIA HCD & AIA Right to Housing Working Group Tours

    Posted 06-22-2026 03:38 PM
    On behalf of the AIA Right to Housing Working Group, a few of our members led two tours for the AIA26 Conference -- with Casa Familiar, Inc., an environmental justice nonprofit in San Ysidro, and the legendary Ted Smith, pioneering architect of shared housing in San Diego's Little Italy.

    Tour: Casa Familiar Walking Tour: Social Impact Design Innovation
    Local Tour Leader: Georgette Gomez w/ Casa Familiar partners
    Co-Organizer: Ceara O'Leary and Karen Kubey

    We toured Beyer Station Cultural Corridor, La Semilla Climate Resiliency Center, Living Rooms at the Border (architects: Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman), Avanzando San Ysidro (an in-progress, 2-site community land trust providing 103 units of permanently affordable housing; architects: Yellow Giraffe Architects), and The Front (a mixed-use community gallery). Casa Familiar exemplifies the right-to-housing concepts of "culturally adequate" and "habitable" housing.

    Tour: Social Impact Design Initiatives in Little Italy and Along the Waterfront
    Local Tour Leaders: David Marshall, AIA and Ted Smith
    Co-Organizer: Karen Kubey and Adrianne Steichen, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP BDC and HOMES

    As the gruop toured Seaport Village on the waterfront, and in Little Italy the LIND Block (developed and designed by Smith with a group of architect-developers in the late 1990s, and providing affordable co-housing to this day), and the 20 Year Block (a nearby second example by a group of architect-developers). Smith's work demonstrates a novel path to the right-to-housing aspect "affordability," made possible by mastering building code loopholes and taking charge of financing and development.

    The second tour was originally co-conceived by the late Philip J. Bona, FAIA. May his memory be a blessing.

    Through public programs, the AIA Right to Housing Working Group asks: "What does the right to housing mean in practice?" and "How might architects contribute?"

    Full list of Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community (HCD) sessions: https://lnkd.in/gjwk8RmC

    Thanks for joining our tours, Chelsea Johnson, AIA, LEED AP, Kristen Chin, AIA, Kathleen Dorgan!
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    Ismar Enriquez AIA
    Practice
    Pasadena CA
    ------------------------------
    26.09.14 CRAN Symposium Final


  • 2.  RE: AIA26 Conference - AIA HCD & AIA Right to Housing Working Group Tours

    Posted 30 days ago

    Thank you for sharing Ismar!  



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    Matthew Hutchins AIA
    CAST architecture
    Seattle WA
    ------------------------------

    26.09.14 CRAN Symposium Final


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