Photo Caption & Credit
Photo: William Zbaren and Krueck Sexton Partners

While traditional building codes focus strictly on life safety and collapse prevention, today's architects face a growing mandate: functional recovery–the building remains fully or close to fully functional during and after a hazard event. A building that survives a disaster but must be demolished a short time later due to structural racking or water damage is a failed investment. This course shifts the design paradigm from basic code compliance to comprehensive building and community preservation.

Through an exploration of natural hazard--wind, water, fire, and seismic events--participants will learn how material selection directly influences building durability and recovery. By analyzing real-world case studies, architects will understand how structural steel’s unique physical properties protect building infrastructure. Architects will gain actionable strategies for planning and designing resilient buildings using structural steel.

Learning Objective 1

Differentiate between traditional life-safety code compliance and emerging functional recovery goals, identifying how structural steel framing preserves building infrastructure, protects owner capital, and speeds post-disaster re-occupancy.

Learning Objective 2

Assess how structural steel responds under multiple types of natural hazards using case studies to inform resilient structural system selection.

Learning Objective 3

Evaluate design choices through the lenses of infrastructure, economic, social, health, and environmental resilience, recognizing how steel's characteristics support these frameworks.

Learning Objective 4

Understand how the sustainable characteristics of structural steel enhance a building’s environmental resilience and in turn the long-term resilience of the building.

Presenter Name

Larry Flynn

Presenter Bio

Larry brings 20 years of experience at the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) to his current role as Architectural Liaison and Resource Specialist. In this position, he equips architects with curated resources that save time, mitigate risk, and inspire innovative building designs. An award-winning industry journalist and a passionate advocate for resilient design, Larry also serves on multiple regional and national resilience committees.

Photo caption and credit:
The Labor of Architecture (book cover photo). credit: Monthly Review Press

Doors Open at 6 PM | Book Talk will begin promptly at 6:30 PM

A book signing by the author will occur after the talk. Books will be available for purchase.

What does it mean to think of architects not simply as creative professionals, but as workers?

Join AIA|DC’s Advocacy Committee for a conversation with architect and labor organizer C.G. Beck, author of The Labor of Architecture: Creativity, Design, and the Building of a New Class Consciousness. Beck challenges the profession’s longstanding image of the architect as an individual creative “genius” and examines the realities of architectural labor—including precarity, inequity, workplace conditions, and the growing movement toward collective action and unionization.

The conversation will explore what architects have in common with workers in other industries, how labor organizing can reshape architectural practice, and what a more collective and solidarity-based profession might look like.

The discussion will be moderated by Susan Piedmont-Palladino, Director of Virginia Tech’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC), and will include an opportunity for audience questions.

The event is open to AIA|DC members and the general public. C.G. Beck will be available for a book signing, and copies of The Labor of Architecture will be available for purchase at Solid State Books.

Presenter Name(s):

C.G. Beck (Author), Susan Piedmont-Palladino (Moderator)

Presenter Bio(s):
C.G. Beck is an architect, labor organizer, and teacher based in Brooklyn, New York. He served on the organizing and bargaining committees for the first private-sector architecture union in the United States and continues to organize workers through campaigns with the Architects Workers Union (AWU) and related labor initiatives. Beck also teaches at The New School, where he combines his professional experience with critical engagement on labor, design, and collective action. His work dismantles conventional narratives about architectural practice to foreground architecture as labor embedded in broader social and economic systems.

Susan Piedmont-Palladino is an architect, professor of architecture, and the Director of Virginia Tech’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC), the urban extension of the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design. A graduate of Virginia Tech and the College of William and Mary, she has lectured on urbanism, sustainability, and communications, to public, professional, and academic audiences in the US, Europe and Latin America. Since 2003 she has been a consulting curator at the National Building Museum and the author of several books, including companion books for exhibitions and initiatives she curated, such as Tools of the Imagination: drawing tools and technologies from the 19th century to the present, Green Community, Intelligent Cities, and Timber City. She served as co-curator for Justice is Beauty: The Work of MASS Design Group. Her book, How Drawings Work: A User-Friendly Theory, published by Routledge in 2019, takes a fresh and unconventional look at the languages of graphic communications. Her current research focuses on how American public spaces are shaped and re-shaped by our shifting values of openness and security.

Learning objective 1
Identify historical and contemporary factors that shape labor conditions in architectural practice, including professional credentialing, workplace structures, compensation, precarity, and the traditional “creative professional” model.

Learning objective 2
Examine how issues of class, power, equity, and collective bargaining intersect with the daily work and professional identity of architects and designers.

Learning objective 3
Discuss the potential role of collective action, worker organizing, and unionization in improving workplace conditions and reshaping the architectural profession.

Learning objective 4
Evaluate how architects can apply principles of solidarity and advocacy to their own practices, workplaces, and broader engagement with the built environment.

Photo caption and credit: Photo Courtesy of HITT

Please join us for a guided tour of HITT Contracting’s new headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia. Designed in partnership with Gensler, the six-story, approximately 270,000-square-foot building serves as both a corporate workplace and a living laboratory for construction innovation, sustainability, and high-performance design.

Representatives of the project’s design, construction, and building enclosure teams will introduce attendees to the headquarters and discuss the development of its innovative prefabricated fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite wall enclosure. The tour will examine the design and performance of the HyperWall™ system, including its factory-integrated jumbo glazing, lightweight construction, thermal and acoustic properties, connection detailing, and installation sequencing. Attendees will also learn how prefabrication and close coordination among the design, fabrication, glazing, and construction teams helped improve quality, accelerate enclosure installation, reduce on-site labor, and lower embodied carbon compared with conventional precast concrete systems.

The tour will provide a firsthand look at one of the first applications of this FRP composite enclosure technology in the United States and demonstrate how emerging materials and off-site fabrication can advance the performance, safety, and sustainability of the building envelope.

Presenter Name(s):

Dean Mouritzen, Project Executive

Dean Mouritzen has more than 18 years of experience in the construction industry, delivering a wide range of projects at HITT Contracting, including ground-up commercial core and shell base building work across the corporate office, multifamily, and mixed-use sectors. In his role, Mouritzen provides day-to-day oversight of new construction projects, supporting his team through project challenges and ensuring client success by managing relationships, monitoring satisfaction and team effectiveness, and overseeing resource allocation. He is responsible for project financial, quality, safety and schedule goals, as well as preconstruction and budgeting services, subcontractor procurement, change management and project closeout. Mouritzen holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech and currently serves as an officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve for more than 12 years, following seven years of service in the Maryland Air National Guard. He is affiliated with Associated Builders and Contractors and the Washington Building Congress.

Andy Loff, Chief Executive Officer

Andy Loff is a hands-on serial entrepreneur with 25 years of experience spanning structural engineering, advanced composites, construction, manufacturing, business development and technology commercialization. He has founded and helped grow multiple engineering and fabrication companies, including Composite Advantage, Axcess Infrastructure and Building Composites, translating innovative material technologies into practical, scalable solutions for the built environment.

As founder and chief executive officer of Building Composites, Andy leads the development and commercialization of HyperWall, a high-performance composite building-envelope system. His work combines structural design, product development, manufacturing strategy and construction execution, with an emphasis on bringing new technologies from concept through testing, production and field installation. Comfortable at every level of the industry—from executive functions to manufacturing floors and construction sites—he is known for an authentic, pragmatic leadership style and for building high-performance teams capable of turning complex ideas into commercial results.

Andy earned a degree in Composite Materials Engineering from Winona State University and is a licensed professional civil engineer in 14 states. His areas of expertise include structural engineering, composite materials, product development, operations management, business development, and construction operations.

Learning objective 1
To understand the composition and performance characteristics of a prefabricated FRP composite wall panel system, including its structural, thermal, moisture, acoustic, and fire-resistance requirements.

Learning objective 2
To evaluate the design and detailing of FRP wall panels, factory-installed glazing, panel joints, attachment systems, transitions, and interfaces with adjacent enclosure assemblies to maintain continuous air, water, and thermal control layers.

Learning objective 3
To examine how off-site fabrication, BIM coordination, quality-control procedures, transportation planning, and installation sequencing can improve enclosure quality, jobsite safety, schedule efficiency, and constructability.

Learning objective 4
To compare FRP composite panels with conventional precast concrete enclosure systems with respect to weight, structural loading, installation requirements, embodied carbon, durability, and long-term building performance.

Architecture+, this year’s Architecture Uncensored event, explores the opportunities, challenges, and rewards of pursuing careers that extend beyond traditional architectural practice. Through a panel discussion featuring current and former architecture professionals working across academia, real estate development, visual arts, nonprofit leadership, public policy, board service, and more, attendees will hear how architectural training can translate across industries. Panelists will share their experiences balancing multiple professional paths, navigating career transitions, and redefining their professional identities. The conversation will highlight how architectural skills and ways of thinking can serve as a foundation for meaningful, unexpected, and evolving career opportunities.

Learning objective 1
Identify ways architectural education, training, and professional experience can translate into careers and leadership roles beyond traditional architectural practice.

Learning objective 2
Explore how skills developed through architecture, including design thinking, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration, can create value across different industries and professions.

Learning objective 3
Evaluate strategies for balancing dual careers, managing competing professional priorities, and navigating transitions between architecture and other fields.

Learning objective 4
Recognize how cross-disciplinary experiences can influence professional growth, expand career opportunities, and help individuals develop evolving professional identities throughout their careers.

Presenters:

Click here to view presenters bio

October 27–28, 2026 | MLK Library Conference Center + Around Washington, DC

Architecture is shaped by change and has the power to shape our city in return.

On October 27 and 28, AIA|DC’s annual conference, DesignDC 2026, brings together architects, designers, developers, policymakers, and the broader AEC community to explore this year’s theme: Architecture as a Tool for Change.

Across two days of inspiring education, provocative conversations, and behind-the-scenes tours, DesignDC will examine how architecture and design can respond to, and help drive positive change in Washington, DC and beyond.

Tuesday, October 27 | Learn + Connect

Join us at the MLK Library Conference Center from 10:00 a.m.– 5:30 p.m. for a full day of education focused on the challenges and opportunities reshaping architecture and the built environment.

Explore:

• AI and the future of architectural practice in an ever-changing profession
• Innovative approaches to DC’s housing crisis
• Designing for the needs of an aging population
• Community-centered design and best practices for meaningful engagement
• How architects and designers can become effective advocates for the built environment

The day features a keynote, plenary sessions, and specialized breakout programs offering perspectives across different areas of practice, all designed to spark new ideas and give you tools you can put to work.

Wednesday, October 28 | Get Out + Explore

Take the conversation into the city with four architect and cultural leader-led tours showcasing Washington’s evolving built environment. Explore civic spaces, multifamily and co-living developments, and other projects that demonstrate how design can respond to changing communities and create new possibilities for the city.

Earn CEUs. Find Inspiration. Shape What’s Next.

Earn up to 10 CEUs while connecting with colleagues, discovering innovative projects, and exploring the role architecture can play in creating a more resilient, inclusive, and forward-looking Washington.

Early Bird Registration is open from September 1-18, 2026 

Don’t wait to register. Early Bird rates are available for a limited time. Join your colleagues at DesignDC 2026 and be part of the conversation about how architecture can be a tool for meaningful change.

This course examines the growing use of mass timber in K-12 school design, with a focus on the key drivers influencing its adoption, including speed of construction, sustainability, cost-efficiency, and code compliance. Attendees will gain insight into the national school construction market, understand how International Building Code (IBC) provisions support the use of mass timber in Types III, IV, and V construction, and compare costs and building configurations across material systems. Additional topics include fire performance and code allowances, acoustic and durability considerations, structural design strategies for long spans in gymnasiums and cafeterias, as well as practical tips for space planning and integration. The session concludes with case studies illustrating the successful implementation of mass timber in school projects across the country.

Learning Objective 1

Describe how current IBC code provisions allow for mass timber use in K-12 schools, including allowable building heights, areas, and stories for Types III, IV, and V construction.

Learning Objective 2

Identify key market drivers—such as speed of construction, sustainability, and aesthetics—that make mass timber an appealing choice for school design.

Learning Objective 3

Compare mass timber to steel and concrete systems in terms of cost, construction schedule, and performance, using real-world case studies and structural strategies.

Learning Objective 4

Understand best practices for acoustics, durability, fire resistance, and long-span structural solutions to meet the unique needs of K-12 learning environments.

Presenter Name

John O'Donald II

Presenter Bio

Regional Director for Washington DC, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia. John worked as a structural engineer for 10 years in the Mid-Atlantic before joining WoodWorks. For the last 5 years, john has assisted on numerous projects providing education and project support to architects, engineers, contractors and developers.

The Fellows Public Program Committee and the Emerging Architects Committee welcome Fellows, 2027 Nominated Fellows, Emerging Architects, and the AIA/DC community to gather for drinks and snacks at the rooftop terrace at Corgan Associates' new DC offices. A great opportunity to meet other architects in different phases of their careers and enjoy drinks, some games, and snacks.
 

As AI-assisted plan review tools move from pilot programs to everyday practice, architects and design professionals are left wondering: what do code officials actually think? This candid panel brings together building department officials and AI representatives from jurisdictions actively using AI in their plan review processes to share what's working, what isn't, and what design teams can do to submit better, faster-approved applications. From automating completeness checks to flagging code conflicts before a set ever reaches a reviewer's desk, the conversation goes beyond the promises of AI technology to get real-world insight from the people on the other side of the counter.

Janet Heit is Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Austin's Development Services Department, where she leads the customer experience team, permitting intake, and the finance division, managing a $100 million annual budget. Under her leadership, the department cut permitting intake turnaround from 5–7 days to just one day through process redesign, digital forms, and data-driven staffing strategy. She also led the first U.S. implementation of Archistar, an AI-assisted plan review compliance tool, realizing a 50% reduction in zoning review time while improving consistency and accuracy. She brings a rare mix of operational discipline and design thinking to modernizing government services through technology.

Robert Peek is the Director of Development System Performance with the Denver Permitting Office. He previously held the same role within Denver’s Community Planning and Development Department, where his work was sponsored by the Mayor’s Office. Before that, Robert served as a Process Improvement Specialist with the City’s Peak Academy, focusing on streamlining city operations. Earlier in his career, he worked in advocacy and clean energy, including several years in operations at a home energy efficiency company.

Learning objectives:

Learning objective 1: Identify the AI-assisted plan review tools currently in active use across participating jurisdictions and describe how they integrate into existing permitting workflows.

Learning objective 2: Evaluate how AI adoption in plan review affects project timelines, reviewer workload, and approval predictability and set realistic expectations when advising clients on permitting schedules.

Learning objective 3: Articulate the policy, equity, and accountability considerations that code officials weigh when implementing AI tools, informing architects' engagement in local advocacy and permitting reform efforts.

Learning objective 4: Discuss the advocacy and engagement strategies that drove each agency to begin implementing AI tools

This interactive session explores the art and practice of architectural stone masonry and its application in historic buildings throughout the DMV region. Project managers and skilled stone masons from Lorton Stone will introduce participants to the role of architectural stone in the built environment and discuss common repair techniques, including crack repairs, dutchman repairs, mortar repairs, and full stone replacement. Through examples of recent restoration projects, attendees will gain insight into the craftsmanship and expertise required to preserve historic masonry.

The program will then transition to a case study of the ongoing restoration of Baltimore City Hall, where architects, preservation professionals, and stone masons have collaborated for nearly a decade to restore the building's historic marble façade. The session concludes with a live stone carving demonstration, followed by an opportunity for attendees to try carving stone themselves using a pneumatic chisel under the guidance of experienced artisans.

Presented by: Christine Djuric (christine.djuric@baltimorecity.gov); Carmen Bouzas (carmen@lortonstone.com); Ivan Sierio (ivan@lortonstone.com)

Learning Objectives:

Learning objective 1: Describe common architectural stone repair techniques, including crack repairs, mortar repairs, dutchman repairs, and full stone replacement, and identify appropriate applications for each.

Learning objective 2: Evaluate how stone deterioration impacts façade performance, public safety, and preservation of historic structures.

Learning objective 3: Compare the advantages and limitations of various stone repair strategies and their effect on long-term building durability and maintenance.

Learning objective 4: Analyze the Baltimore City Hall restoration project to understand how preservation and repair decisions support building envelope performance, historical integrity, and occupant/public welfare.
 

Promotional flyer and graphics were designed and created by Barika Akdogan and the AIA|DC Women in Architecture & Design (WIA) Committee.

Professionals of all experience levels will engage in short, speed mentoring sessions with small groups of seasoned professionals and industry peers. Don't miss this unique opportunity to accelerate your career, gain fresh perspectives, and build lasting connections within the architecture and design community. Reserve your spot today!
 

Learning objective 1: Gain insights, advice, and industry knowledge in rapid, engaging sessions designed to maximize learning in a short amount of time.

Learning objective 2: Embrace fresh ideas, innovative approaches, and the latest trends shaping the future of architecture and design.

Learning objective 3: Expand your professional network by connecting with mentors and mentees from diverse backgrounds.

Learning objective 4: Summarize the best ways to engage with a mentor and develop a symbiotic relationship.

Special Instructions for Attendees/FAQs (if applicable):
Parking Garage will stay open until 9PM. Closest Metro Stations: Farragut West (Silver, Orange, Blue) and Farragut North (Red).