Contract - July/August 2014 - 24

Clockwise from top left:
Contract magazine's 2008
designer of the year Phil
Freelon, FAiA, is pictured with
Contract Managing editor
Murrye Bernard, Assoc. AiA,
and editor in Chief John
Czarnecki, Assoc. AiA, at
the convention; theaster
Gates delivered a keynote;
2014 AiA President Helene
Combs dreiling, FAiA, joined
emcee stephen Chung,
AiA, onstage; Jeanne Gang,
FAiA, delivers a keynote to
a packed auditorium; and
Chicago Mayor rahm emanuel
welcomed attendees.

AIA Convention Inspires Attendees to Design With Purpose

With the theme "Design With Purpose," the 2014 American Institute
of Architects (AIA) National Convention in Chicago in June drew the
largest AIA convention attendance in five years with approximately
19,000 attendees. Contract Editor in Chief John Czarnecki, Assoc. AIA,
served as the national chairman of the convention, which 2014 AIA
National President Helene Combs Dreiling, FAIA, presided over.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel welcomed attendees and announced that
the city will host an inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial in fall 2015.
Chicagoans Jeanne Gang, FAIA, and Theaster Gates both delivered
opening keynotes. Gang, a MacArthur Fellow, described large-scale
planning efforts that she and her firm are leading. And rather than focus
on any one building that she is designing, Gang took a broader view of
the role of an architect today. "We are all in the process of aligning
global issues with the opportunities available to all of us in design,"
Gang said. "Social change is reliant on spatial change, and spatial
change is dependent on social change to realize itself."
Theaster Gates, an artist, entrepeneur, and urban planner,
described a few of his key projects that are breathing new life into
some of the most economically challenged neighborhoods of Chicago.

PHotoGrAPHy: Kristen riCHArds For ContrACt (toP leFt); MAtt MArtin tv, Courtesy AiA (All otHers)

industry news

Ed Mazria, AIA, founder and CEO of Architecture 2030, gave attendees
an update on the Architecture 2030 Challenge goal of net carbon
neutrality by 2030. And in the closing keynote, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh
inspired the audience with stories of both how Zappos "delivers
happiness" and his other passion: the Downtown Project in Las Vegas,
which is a significant redevelopment of the oldest part of the city as a
new hub for tech entrepeneurs to live and work.
The convention closed with an emotionally charged presentation
of the AIA Gold Medal to Julia Morgan, FAIA. Morgan was honored with
the award posthumously, and is the first female recipient. After a video
about Morgan, 86-year-old architect Beverly Willis, FAIA, founder of the
Willis Foundation, delivered a stirring speech in honor of her and all
women architects. "As recently as 1978, the president of the AIA
declared to the press that he would never hire a woman architect," Willis
said. "On behalf of these women architects, I express our collective and
respectful anger. Historically important women designers are still not in
the history books, [but] this is a proud moment for us all." -Staff

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july | august 2014

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Contract - July/August 2014

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