In honor of David J. Varner, FAIA, the Path to Licensure Program was developed to aid individuals in their pursuit of professional licensure. As a Fellow of the AIA and a former Office Director for SmithGroup’s Washington DC office David believed that architects should serve society in diverse and meaningful ways. David’s zest for life and a love for travel, history, and the built environment was infectious and the David J. Varner Path to Licensure Program honors his legacy by fostering curiosity, commitment to lifelong learning, and developing connections within the AIA|DC community.

This year, 22 participants completed the program, which consisted of eight monthly sessions covering the Architectural Experience Program (AXP) process, understanding exam eligibility/state licensure board requirements and all six divisions of the Architectural Registration Exam (ARE). During each of the interactive sessions participants presented exam material, discussed test-taking strategies and heard from guest speakers on career experiences and their approach to taking the exam.

Please join us as we celebrate the achievements of this group and of a wonderful inaugural year of the David J. Varner Path to Licensure Program. We will have drinks and appetizers for you to enjoy.

If we pay enough attention to the ordinary, we see the extraordinary. The shipping container is an accidental icon of our modern age: the eight-foot-by-forty-foot corrugated steel box that brings the world to our doorstep. The design studio LOT-EK is a visionary practice at the intersection of art and architecture that specializes in upcycling. The shipping container is the thing that has captured their imagination for over a quarter-century: they have remade containers into homes, schools, galleries, libraries, and more. With hundreds of millions of obsolete and unused containers around the world, this is a new and necessary architecture of the future, that repairs and regenerates the unnatural environment that we have inherited from the past. We Start With the Things We Find is a feature-length documentary of this vision, and of the soulful lifelong partnership of the people, designers Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, behind it.

Presented as part of the 2024 DC Environmental Film Festival:

DCEFF has been the premier Festival showcase of environmental films since 1993. Each March in Washington, DC, we bring the world’s largest green film festival to massive in-person audiences. Since 2020, we have focused on extending our reach beyond DC to the entire world with our virtual Festivals and ever-growing Watch Now catalog. In 2023, we were extremely excited to return to venues across the DC Metro for in-person screenings and events — in addition to continuing to offer year-round virtual programming for our audiences around the world.

This event has been rescheduled to an undecided later date.

Join us for this gallery talk in conjunction with the exhibition, Cooling the Planet one Step at a Time: 15 Ways to Reduce Your Home Carbon Footprint.

The thought of lowering your carbon footprint and doing good for the environment can seem overwhelming at first. In this talk Jaime will present 10 strategies for tackling this challenge at home and will provide resources for creating your own personal decarbonization roadmap. You will walk away feeling empowered with the knowledge and tools to get started!

Jaime Van Mourik, Associate AIA, LEED AP, is the director of the U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home program in addition to serving as the Zero Energy Design Designation lead for the DOE Building Technologies Office. Each day she is working toward a zero carbon emissions future for all homes.

Jaime is passionate about educating people of all ages about the impacts of the built environment on their lives. She believes that providing knowledge and opportunities for action will result in true transformation. Prior to coming to DOE, she served as the vice-president for education solutions at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) where she led a team to create and deploy education solutions for every learner whether that be a young child, a student pursuing a post-secondary degree or a professional looking to advance in their career path. She collaborated with higher education institutions and advocates across the country to develop and deliver innovative learning platforms that integrate sustainability and green building concepts into curriculum and create pathways to professional credentials. She has extensive experience leading colleges and universities looking to “go green,” guiding them through the planning and implementation process and advising on how the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system can help shape sustainability initiatives in teaching, research and practice.

She holds a bachelor's degree in architecture from Virginia Tech and master's in architectural history from the University of Virginia and teaches part-time at The Catholic University of America.

Fourteenth Biennial Symposium
Co-hosted by the Latrobe Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians & D.C. Preservation League

Boozy brunch, spongy injera dinners, empanada midnight snacks—modern residents of the nation’s capital enjoy a dynamic food center, noted for its variety of culinary experiences and foods authentic to the region, including half smokes, mumbo sauce, and crabcakes. Less explored is how this culinary geography intersects with the built environment, and how those intersections have changed over time. From farms and agricultural homesteads that supplied historic markets to ethnic food enclaves fostered by DC’s role as the capital, the city is an experiment in democracy, architecture and flavor. How has the Washington metropolitan area facilitated the production and dissemination of foodstuffs across the region? How have patterns of work shaped patterns of eating? How does a focus on food generate new types of research methodologies? 

Click here for full symposium schedule

Click here for more details

Presentation Team:  

Leaders/Staff from five K-12 programs in the jurisdictions of Boston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.

• Host: Mary Fitch, AICP, Hon. AIA  Executive Director, AIA DC/Washington Architectural Foundation (WAF)
• Taylor Johnson  Design Education + Engagement Manager, Boston Society for Architecture/BSA Foundation
• Joanna Schmickel, FAIA  Program Director, WAF “Design Like a Girl”
• Tiffany Shepherd, CAE  Deputy Director, AIA Kansas City “Explore Architecture”
• Heidi Sohng  WAF Youth Programs Manager 
• Michael Spain, Assoc. AIA. NOMA  Director of Design Education, K-12 Design Education Program, Center for DesignPhiladelphia
• Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, FAIA  Past President, Architecture for Communities Los Angeles
• Moderator:  Michael Armstrong  Board of Directors, Washington Architectural Foundation; Chief Executive Officer, National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB)

Agenda Format 

• Five 45-minute modules:  Local Program Case Study/Topic Panel/Attendee Q&A
• Lunch provided by AIA National

AGENDA
9 a.m.   Opening Remarks and Introduction:  Washington Architecture Foundation (9 am start)

• Case Study #1:  Boston (Johnson)
• Panel #1:  Developing Relationships with School Districts: Boston, DC (Sohng), LA, Philadelphia
• Q&A

Break

• Case Study #2: Kansas City 
• Panel #2: Recruiting and Keeping Volunteers: Boston, DC (Fitch), Philadelphia
• Q&A

Break

• Case Study #3:  Los Angeles (Wahlroos-Ritter)
• Panel #3:  Fundraising Sources and Approaches: Kansas City, DC (Fitch), Los Angeles
• Q&A

Lunch    

• Case Study #4: Philadelphia (Spain)
• Panel #4: Community Engagement, Outreach and PR:  Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia
• Q&A

Break

• Case Study #5: Washington, DC – “Design Like a Girl” (Schmickel)
• Panel #5: Operations, Infrastructure, Governance (All Panelists)
• Q&A

Comments/Reaction: Devon Davis Manager, K-12 Initiatives & Engagement, AIA

Closing Remarks: Washington Architecture Foundation (4 p.m. adjourn)

Construction tour of a 1911 Capitol Hill home undergoing an extensive modernization and restoration. The house was designed by noted architect Clement A. Didden and was previously used as a boardinghouse and a rectory over it’s lifetime. The tour will be led by the architect and builder on the project, Colleen Healey, AIA and John Allen of Allen Built, Inc. The tour will focus on approaches to working with historic homes including casing detailing & preserving, creative solutions to modernizing a classical floor plan, working around existing infrastructure and upgrading the energy efficiency (including AeroSeal technology) within a historic context. The project is in final stages of construction.

Presented by:

Colleen Healey, Healey Architecture
Colleen Gove Healey, AIA has almost 20 years of architectural experience in the DC Metro region and throughout the East coast. She has won over 50 local and national design awards for both residential and commercial design. Colleen’s work is published in dezeen, Home and Design, Interior Design Magazine, Enki, Washingtonian Magazine, Dwell, Architecture DC, Residential Design Magazine, AD, Living Etc and The Washington Post

John Allen, AllenBuilt

John Allen is President of AllenBuilt, Inc, a boutique, industrious general contractor and design/build firm serving the Washington DC metro area. They develop and build creative solutions for one-of-a-kind commercial and residential projects.

Organized by:

Capital Area Custom Residential Architects Network

The Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA|DC) and Washington Architectural Foundation (WAF) are proud to present Awards for Great People. Each year, our Fall Design Fête celebrates these individuals and their work in making Washington better through their contributions as architects, advocates, educators, clients and partners.

Centennial Medal
Glenn Brown Award
John 'Wieb' Wiebenson Award
Emerging Architects Award
Architectural Educator Award 
Public Service Award 
Partnership for the Planet Award 

Laureates are selected annually by the Awards for Great People Jury, comprised of at least two members of AIA|DC and two members of WAF who shall be appointed by the Presidents of both organizations. The jury may select more than one laureate, or no laureates, per award in a given year and may consider nominations from prior years and nominations of its own.

Eligibility, nomination and submission requirements for each award are further detailed here. There are no fees required for submission. Unless noted otherwise, posthumous awards may not be given.

Nominations for 2024 are due by 5:00 PM on May 5, 2024. Submit completed nominations via email to Mary Fitch at mfitch@aiadc.com.

Join us for a gallery talk in conjunction with our latest exhibition, Cooling the Planet one Step at a Time: 15 Ways to Reduce Your Home Carbon Footprint.

The founders of BLDUS will present recently completed houses from around the DC region that feature natural materials and embody an environmentalist ethos that prioritizes the health of a building's inhabitants equally to land from which its materials originated. BLDUS seeks opportunities in economies of scale, of scope, of density, of means, and of materials, integrating traditional construction methods with new technologies and organic materials ideally suited to their region--in Appalachia and Tidewater, that means wood, bark, cork, wool, mycelium, willow, hemp, bamboo, and stone--to create an architecture of accommodation. In 2023 BLDUS was honored with a Vanguard Award from Architectural Record and in 2019 with a Young Architect Award from The Architect's Newspaper.

Presenters: Andrew Linn and Jack Becker

Andrew Linn is co-principal and co-founder of BLDUS, an Anacostia-based architecture and development practice that operates throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, making healthy buildings that pay tribute to their context and gain integrity as they age. With a BArch from Cornell University and an MA in the History of Science and Medicine from Yale University, Andrew has taught at Virginia Tech, the University of Maryland and the Catholic University of America, and has previously worked for OMA, Tigerman McCurry, Fantastic Norway, and Arquitectonica.

Jack Becker is co-principal and co-founder of BLDUS, an Anacostia-based architecture and development practice that operates throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, making healthy buildings that pay tribute to their context and gain integrity as they age. Jack is a fourth-generation licensed architect and holds a B.Arch from Cornell University and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard GSD. He has previous experience in architecture, development, and construction, and was awarded an AIA Young Architect Award in 2021.

This program is presented in association with Cooling the Planet one Step at a Time: 15 Ways to Reduce Your Home Carbon Footprint, on view at the District Architecture Center through April 26, 2023.

Meet Adrienne Moumin—photographer, collage artist, and educator. Adrienne creates intricate collages with photographs of simple structures. Follow Adrienne on a fun-filled journey through her collage-making world. Then, pick a photo of a building in DC and make it into a collage with your own artistic style! Art supplies, including small frames, are provided by the Washington Architectural Foundation.

This program is intended for ages 8 to 12. Attendance is limited to 12 children.

AIA24 is a premier annual conference that celebrates multidisciplinary solutions from across the built environment and the power of designing a better world, together.

The most impactful, forward-thinking solutions result from a convergence of thought. Solving today’s environmental, social, and ethical challenges requires bringing together diverse perspectives across the multiple disciplines of the built environment.

Enter the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design (AIA24), happening June 5–8 in Washington, D.C., home to AIA’s new global campus, several AIA chapters, and some of the most influential architecture, design firms, and manufacturers in the world.

Every year, the AIA and AEC communities convene to network, share knowledge, and find solutions to design a better world. The conference fuses together industries, identities, skills, styles, and values, to establish a new multidisciplinary understanding of today’s most pressing issues. And it unites tradition and innovation, art and technology, form and function, old and new, and global and local to examine, educate, and find solutions.

Through networking, education, events, tours, and the industry’s largest expo, AIA24 fosters cross-industry collaborations and solutions between licensed architects, design professionals, associates, engineers, contractors, interior designers, landscape architects, firm owners, owners/clients, emerging professionals, and beyond to showcase the strength of the AEC industry.

Uniting toward better outcomes highlights the value in each other’s unique skill sets and positions architects, designers, engineers, and builders as leaders designing a better world, together.

Attending the conference? Check out our local restaurant guide: