By Michelle Amt FAIA
Just like that, a year has gone by. In that time, the COTE Leadership Group began the work to update COTE’s vision, mission and goals for 2025 – 2030. We also progressed initiatives, and launched new ones, around the themes I outlined in January:
Supporting deeper integration of the Framework for Design Excellence (and its associated metrics) within the AIA and throughout academia.
- We continued to provide feedback on alignment efforts between AIA Working Groups and Knowledge Communities. Beth Brandt, 2024 COTE Network co-leader, and Lori Ferriss, 2023 COTE Chair, have joined a Committee on Climate Action and Design Excellence (CCADE) working group that is updating the Framework for Design Excellence.
- Our proposal (and seed funding) for an online tool that reunites the Framework with its metrics and eventually takes the place of the Super Spreadsheet and the Common Application for Design Excellence continues to take shape. COTE remains excited by its potential to transform practice, provide metrics around impact, and potentially streamline awards submissions.
- We celebrated the winners of the 2024 cycle and opened the 2025 cycle of the AIA COTE Top Ten Student Competition, under the leadership of Robin Puttock.
Charting the leading edge of holistic sustainability and integrating it into the policies and tools of the AIA.
- We delivered the twenty-eighth cycle of the COTE Top Ten Awards Program thanks to the hard work of Lyndley Kent, Seonhee Kim, and Joyce Raybuck. This year brought some unanticipated surprises, including award announcements in June, not Earth Day, and for the first time in the history of the program the jury awarded only nine projects.
- Architects are Environmentally Responsible, updates to the AIA Policy Statements begun by the 2023 COTE Leadership Group, was approved by the Board in 2024.
- Our new climate action-climate justice resource, under the leadership of researcher Adele Houghton and COTE LG member Ellen Mitchell, is almost completed with a scheduled 2025 release. We wish that Ganesh Nayak, a guiding light in its development, could be here to celebrate its completion with us.
- In addition to informing AIA policy positions and organizing collective action, COTE Advocacy, under Arathi Gowda’s leadership with Carlos Augusto Garcia, has begun a resource to help architects who are engaging in political advocacy with introductory talking points. Joyce Raybuck will be picking up the mantle in 2025.
- We are publishing an RFP for a three-part resource whose purpose is to accelerate the adoption of the Framework for Design Excellence and improve zero carbon, resilience, health and equity outcomes of the built environment. The resource will update Lessons from the Leading Edge and The Habits of High-Performance Firms to reflect what we’ve learned from the AIA COTE Top Ten Awards Program in the ten years since these resources were published. These will be complemented by a new section, which will move away from exceptionalism and focus on the successes (and failures) of firms practicing in regions/contexts/typologies that have been historically resistant to climate action/high sustainability goals. Reach out to cote@aia.org if you are interested in being involved or have a case study you feel would enrich this resource.
Connecting the component chapters in the COTE Network to facilitate and support communications, advocacy, education, and engagement.
- With Beth Brandt, we brainstormed a vision for the COTE Network by 2030 and ways COTE national could help to strengthen the COTE Network, in addition to the support Dan Jaconetti has given as the Network liaison for the COTE Leadership Group
- COTE communications tirelessly organized AIA24 activities, facilitated COTE Book Talks and Book Reviews, and has published bimonthly issues of COTE News. In 2025, under Dan Stine’s leadership, we’ll be co-hosting a day-long symposium with the Technology and Practice (TAP) AIA Knowledge Committee at the AIA 2025 conference.
In my last chair letter, I talked about the importance of getting better together. The truth is, this only happens if there is someone providing the opportunity to connect, learn, and grow. I’d like to thank the fantastic AIA staff who do just that:
- Kathleen Lane (Managing Director, Climate Action & Design Excellence)
- Lisa Ferretto (Senior Director, Climate Action & Design Excellence)
- Eana Bacchiocchi (Climate Action Programs Manager)
- Paola Capo (Senior Manager, Climate Action and Resilient Communities)
- Luz Toro (Senior Manager, Resilience)
I’ve witnessed these wonderful people work tirelessly behind the scenes to wrestle the sometimes blinding—and often intermittent—enthusiasm from volunteers into lasting programs and useful resources that have redefined good design and made the world better. Amid AIA’s budget challenges this year and the inevitable growing pains associated with aligning initiatives, developing new forms of knowledge management, and rethinking member engagement, the Climate Action and Design Excellence staff have remained steadfast advocates for COTE’s mission to empower architects, allied professionals, and the public to achieve climate action and climate justice through design. We are in good hands.
I’m excited by what is in store for COTE in 2025 under the leadership of the unstoppable Robin Puttock, who will continue to strengthen the connection between COTE and the future architects, designers, and change agents our profession needs. Let’s get started!