Step into the role of an architect and design a home for a prospective client!  This digital modeling course introduces students to 3D modeling for architectural, interior design and landscape architecture. Students will repurpose and reimagine old buildings for new purposes. Students will have a portfolio suitable for college admissions at the end of this course.  All levels of experience are welcomed.

Virtual classes for Fall 2025

Saturdays, 10:00 am - 11:30 am

• October 11
• October 18
• October 25
• November 1

• November 8

  (note: there is no class on November 15)

• November 22 

Canstruction 2025 will take place at the National Building Museum Sunday, November 23rd, 2025 to Monday, December 1st, 2025.

About Canstruction: 

Canstruction is a nationwide program that aims to raise awareness about hunger. In DC, Canstruction is organized by the Washington Architectural Foundation as a creative design-build competition that benefits the Capital Area Food Bank through donations of canned goods. Teams from architecture and design firms from Washington, DC use their skills to build sculptures out of cans of food which are displayed for a week in the Great Hall of the National Building Museum. The nutritious shelf-stable food is donated to the CAFB for distribution to those in need after the event.

This program is generously sponsored by BluEdge, Capital Area Food Bank, DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, Giant, National Building Museum, TW Perry, and Washington Architectural Foundation.
 

Since its inception in 1997, the National Building Museum’s Spotlight on Design has presented the work of luminaries in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, and design. This lecture series presents a unique window into the creative journey and cultural influences of visionary practitioners, illuminating the powerful role of design in shaping the built environment.

Schedule

Nader Tehrani
September 17, 2025 | 6:30 - 8:30 pm

MVVA
October 7, 2025 | 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Deborah Berke
February 4, 2026 | 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Howeler + Yoon
March 5, 2026 | 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Interested in Housing Issues?

The National AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community (HCD) is a network of architects and allied stakeholders that promotes equity in housing, excellence in residential design, and sustainable, vibrant communities for all—through education, research, awards, and advocacy.

Locally, the AIA|DC Board of Directors is considering the formation of a “Housing the DMV Region” Committee and is seeking local interest in the initiative.

The Washington, DC region faces some of the most dynamic and complex housing challenges in the nation, driven by rising costs, outdated zoning frameworks, infrastructure gaps, and mismatches between supply and demand. These challenges span a uniquely fragmented regional landscape that includes the District of Columbia and surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia—each with its own planning authorities, development priorities, and political leadership. The need for coordinated action has never been greater.

The vision for the AIA|DC Housing the DMV Region Committee is to serve as a strategic platform to advance housing solutions that are equitable, implementable, and centered on design excellence, policy alignment, and community benefit.

As architects, we are uniquely positioned to navigate complexity, synthesize diverse inputs, and translate vision into built form. This committee will build on that expertise—not only by curating and amplifying ongoing research and activities, but also by leading targeted initiatives that drive innovation in housing design, construction technologies, zoning reform, and entitlement processes.

 

Fall into fall and meet next year’s AIA|DC Chapter President, Ellen Hatton, at a vibrant networking event designed to foster new connections and inspire future collaborations.

Connect with local AIA and ICAA members while enjoying food, drinks, and great company in Georgetown at the offices of Barnes Vanze Architects.

Event in collaboration with the Washington Mid Atlantic Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. 

To enter the space, the front door is directly on Potomac Road, look for the blue awning and the glass door.

Let your imagination run wild at our Toy Architecture: Winter Wonderland workshop! Whether your child dreams of designing an icy carousel, a sparkling skating rink, or a forest of twinkling trees, this hands-on event is the perfect way to build magical memories together.

This workshop is designed for kids of all ages, and parents are encouraged to jump in and build alongside their children. (Note: All children must be registered, either individually or using the sibling rate.)

Through playful, creative exploration, children will learn the basics of design, engineering, and spatial thinking—all while having fun with miniature materials and imaginative themes.

 Each family will receive a set of tiny lights to bring their creations to life!

Join the design and construction team behind Stead Park Recreation Center for an engaging learning session that explores the transformation of a historic carriage house into a modern, net-zero ready community facility in the heart of Dupont Circle. This session will highlight the project’s unique challenges and innovative solutions, from navigating historic preservation requirements to implementing high-performance building systems. Attendees will gain insight into sustainable design strategies, adaptive reuse practices, and how the team balanced community needs with ambitious energy goals, while ensuring health, safety, accessibility, resilience, and lasting value for the broader community and future generations. This case study offers lessons applicable to a wide range of projects.

Presented by:

Gabe Oliver
With over two decades of experience in design and construction, Gabe brings a collaborative, solutions-oriented approach to project planning and delivery. As Partner and Senior Vice President at GCS-SIGAL Gabe is known for fostering strong partnerships with clients, designers, and trade contractors, emphasizing early alignment and strategic planning to set projects up for long-term success. His leadership has contributed to numerous award-winning projects across the region.

Teresa Hamm-Modley
Teresa is a licensed architect with VMDO DC, a firm known for its thoughtful, community-centered design. With a background in construction and passive house design, Teresa’s passion for combining high performance details and energy-efficient strategies with transformative design has been translated into numerous local projects throughout the DMV. Her work reflects a unique blend of rigor and empathy, making her a trusted advocate for communities and a leader in shaping spaces that inspire.

Learning Objectives: 

• Understand the DC’s energy standards and historic preservation requirements and learn how to navigate achieving both with a cohesive high-performance design.
• Anticipate challenges of working with existing buildings on a tight site and identify relevant design solutions that prioritize energy use reduction, smart building systems, and proper envelope treatment to meet net zero energy requirements.
• Discover simple design strategies that are available pathways to meeting Net-Zero energy using limited public budgets.
• Identify challenges and solutions to achieving net zero energy details in the field and thoughtful quality control measures and team collaboration throughout construction.

HSW Justification: 

This course qualifies as HSW by addressing energy-efficient design strategies that improve safety, occupant health, and building performance. It also covers envelope, systems, and construction practices that support durability and sustainability.

Join this free(!) Back to School event hosted by U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) with COTE chapters from AIA Northern Virginia, AIA|DC, and AIA Potomac Valley for this Tri-COTE event. Team members from USGBC will share key information related to the release of LEED v5, important differences from past LEED versions, and intent of the newest rating system. USGBC has graciously offered to host us at their Headquarters office in Foggy Bottom. The event will be hosted at the building’s rooftop penthouse, with light snacks and refreshments provided. We hope to see you there!

HSW Justification:

This course addresses how buildings can measure their impact across a variety of measures in the LEED system. This content is eligible for HSW as it fits the definition of “Health,” clearly impacting “the physical, emotional, and social well-being of occupants, users, and any others affected by buildings and sites,” and “Welfare,” focusing on design that “benefits the environment.” Specifically, the content of this course addresses topics relating to human health, environmental responsibility and the expansion of the LEED v5 program’s efforts to address a greater range of metrics as our industry has continued to advance our understanding of our impact.

Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the three pillars which LEED v5 focuses: decarbonization, quality of life, and ecological conservation.
• Learn about new prerequisites for the credit categories of climate resilience, carbon assessment, and human impact.
• Understand primary updates of LEED v5 from previous versions of LEED.
• Insight into LEED Rating System: Prerequisites & Credits and the credit categories associated.

Beyer Binder Belle will be giving us a tour of their beautiful restoration and adaptive reuse work on the Carnegie Library near Mount Vernon Square. The library opened in 1902 as one of the thousands funded by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Designed by New York-firm Ackerman and Ross, the 63,000-square-foot library is a handsome Beaux-Arts assembly; the building, which follows a rectangular plan, rises from a granite base and transitions to Vermont Marble and is punctured by monumental arched windows and narrow rows of clerestories. A riot of masonry detailing occurs at the southern elevation’s primary entrance with a portico of Ionic columns flanked with pedimented end pavilions—tympanums, festoons, and medallions are stitched between the larger architectural elements. The roofline is pronounced with bands of dentils and brackets, as well as acroteria.

Group to meet at the front steps of the Apple Store at 6:00pm for the start of the tour. 

Presented by:

Jill Cavanaugh and Brad Cambridge

Learning Objectives: 

• Attain a brief history of the Carnegie Library and the context in which it was constructed.
• Learn about the architecture component of restoration in this buildings adaptive reuse.
• Learn about the revisions to the building needed to accommodate its current uses.
• Explore the urban design components and how they relate between the building and the park in which it sits.

Join us for the opening of our latest exhibition, Boliglaboratorium: A Danish Housing Lab.

Boliglaboratorium: A Danish Housing Lab showcases six groundbreaking projects by Danish architecture firms that explore ways in which housing can respond to some of the greatest challenges of our time. Housing across the world today is affected by climate change, resource scarcity, new family patterns, rise of loneliness, and shrinking rural communities. Big cities are struggling to keep up with the influx of newcomers.

On view through December 2025 and in partnership with the Scan Design Foundation, the models presented in this exhibition are real-life housing projects across urban and rural Denmark that experiment with new blueprints to build for modern life. The Housing Lab was first exhibited in Copenhagen in 2023 as part of the UIA World Congress of Architects. A Pacific Northwest tour in the United States was presented by Scan Design Foundation, in partnership with the Danish Embassy in Washington DC, from November 2024 to May 2025. Scan Design Foundation’s mission is to support the cross-cultural exchange between Denmark and the U.S.

We welcome your presence at this opening and invite you to attend. Drinks and light hors d’oeuvres will be served. 

We are delighted to welcome Ambassador Stig P. Piras, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Denmark, who will be joining us for the opening of the exhibition.

About the Ambassador

Ambassador Stig P. Piras is the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Denmark in the United States.

Ambassador Piras has had an extensive career in both the Foreign Service and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark.

Before arriving in Washington D.C., he was Danish ambassador to the Republic of Iraq from 2020-2022. Ambassador Piras has also been, Deputy Director for Asia and Latin America, Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (2017-2020), and Deputy Head of Mission, Counsellor, at the Embassy of Denmark in Ankara, Republic of Turkey (2013-2017).

Ambassador Piras has previously worked at the Embassy of Denmark in Washington D.C., when he held the position as First Secretary for three years (2005-2008)