When you thrive, we thrive

President’s message: When you thrive, we thrive

As an architect, you do not and cannot operate in a vacuum. You are integral to the profession and your community. As young architects, your viewpoint is crucial to helping the profession acknowledge our shared challenges — equity and sustainability at the top of the list — so we can all find solutions and move forward to a more equitable and sustainable future.

The AIA’s 2021-2025 Strategic Plan focuses on those two areas. We want to position architects as community leaders to drive wide scale adoption of practical design solutions that will rapidly address and mitigate the impact of climate change. We also want to eradicate racial and gender inequity within the built environment and profession.

We have been investing in programs and resources to support these goals and need your unique perspectives and experiences to enrich and hone them. Within our Framework for Design Excellence, we have programs and resources to help you design, construct, and evaluate projects holistically to achieve a zero-carbon, equitable, resilient, and healthy built environment. These include the 2030 Commitment and the Materials Pledge. We recently updated our Guide for Equitable Practice with a supplement on Justice in the Built Environment. Next to Lead is a pilot association leadership program that removes barriers to AIA leadership positions for ethnically diverse women.

While we are committed to reaching our sustainability and equity goals, we also remain committed to supporting architects at every stage of their careers, providing them with the tools and knowledge to lead the industry forward. But ideas are not enough — I invite you to collaborate with us to create change with action.

It could be bringing these programs to your firms. It could be working toward a more supportive and inclusive culture within the profession by removing barriers and unconscious biases or creating a better work-life balance for everyone. Invite those around you to join your efforts. I will never forget those few mentors along the way who saw something in me I didn’t see in myself. They invited me to the work in the AIA in specific ways that aligned with my passions and expertise. Apart from them, I seriously doubt I would be an engaged AIA member today, much less president of the national organization. Who is it around you who just needs a nudge? However you choose to get involved or share your talents, we know that when you thrive, the profession thrives.

For our profession to fulfill its full potential to lead the change society seeks and needs, the next generations — you — need to be front and center as we look for ways to achieve the change we seek by using the power of design to create, promote, and advance the health, safety, and welfare of everyone, everywhere.

“...[We] remain committed to supporting architects at every stage of their careers, providing them with the tools and knowledge to lead the industry forward. But ideas are not enough — I invite you to collaborate with us to create change with action.”

— Daniel S. Hart, FAIA

Daniel S. Hart, FAIA, PE

Hart is the 2022 AIA president. He is the executive vice president of architecture and serves on the board of Parkhill. He was an adjunct instructor of architectural engineering at Texas Tech University and the founding president of the college’s Design Leadership Alliance.