On October 22nd, Deans and representatives from five regional architecture schools will unite to explore 'The Future of Education' in a pivotal discussion. This event will focus on evolving pedagogical approaches, emerging trends, and the role of architecture education in shaping future architects. Attendees will gain insights into how educational practices can adapt to meet the demands of an ever-changing profession and foster innovation in architectural training.  

Learning Objectives:

• Identify how academia is adapting to a quickly evolving changing technological landscape.
• Identify current and impending challenges and opportunities that academia is facing.
• Compare and analyze the pedagogical approaches of various schools of architecture.
• Use the ten-year plans to plan for their own strategic planning needs.

On October 8th, students from five regional architecture schools will gather to present their innovative projects themed 'The Future of Washington DC.' This event will highlight forward-thinking designs and solutions aimed at reshaping the city’s urban landscape, offering a glimpse into how emerging architects envision the capital’s future.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the built environment challenges that currently affect Washington DC, and will likely affect Washington DC in the future.
• Compare and contrast varied design solutions to similar Architectural and Urban issues affecting Washington DC.
• Discuss pressing climate change issues and explore creative resilient design solutions.
• Analyze proposed innovations in architectural design and detailing, urban design and planning, and land use.

Please join us for a historic building tour of the beautiful Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

Come celebrate as Woolly Mammoth approaches a milestone of nearly 20 years in their building, as well as Woolly's 45th Anniversary Season. Learn about the history of the Woolly building, and how it grew as the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Along with Woolly Mammoth, we celebrate these milestones and look forward to the bright future ahead!

Speakers include:

Mark McInturff, FAIA, McInturff Architects- Mark McInturff founded McInturff Architects in 1986.  The five-person Bethesda based studio is dedicated to the making of modern, highly crafted residential, commercial, and small institutional projects. The size, intentionally kept small, allows for close interaction within the studio and with clients and builders.

While all the work can be characterized as modern, there is no single style. Instead, the aesthetic of each project is tailored to its specific program, location, and client.

The firm has received more than 400 design awards, and has been frequently published locally, nationally, and internationally. The fourth monograph, HomeWork: McInturff Architects, was published in 2023 by the Images Publishing Group.

Howard Shalwitz co-founded Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC in 1980 and guided the company as Artistic Director for 38 seasons.  Under his leadership, Woolly Mammoth grew from a tiny alternative theatre into one of the nation's most influential producers of provocative new plays.  He has directed and performed in works by American and international playwrights – at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Arena Stage, Portland Center Stage, Milwaukee Rep, Woolly Mammoth, and other US theaters.  In 2014 he received the prestigious Margo Jones Award for his lifetime commitment to new American plays.  Over the past decade, partnering with CITD, Shalwitz has sought new models for American theatre by engaging with artists in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Russia, and sharing his insights with the US theatre field. Currently he is heading up CITD’s Linkages: Poland project, building new relationships between Polish and American theatre leaders.  He teaches in the graduate theatre program at the University of Maryland and is currently working on a book about the language of theatre. 

Maria Manuela Goyanes (she/her)- is the Artistic Director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Prior to joining Woolly, she served as the Director of Producing and Artistic Planning at The Public Theater, where she oversaw the day-to-day execution of a full slate of plays and musicals at the Public’s five-theater venue at Astor Place and the Delacorte Theater for Shakespeare in the Park. Earlier in her career at The Public, she managed some of the theater’s most celebrated productions, including Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Josephine & I by Cush Jumbo, Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee, Barbecue by Robert O’Hara, and Here Lies Love by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. While at The Public, Maria also held a position on the adjunct faculty of Juilliard and curated the junior year curriculum of the Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU. She has guest lectured at Bard College, Barnard College, Brown University, Columbia University, Juilliard, the National Theater Institute at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, UCSD, the University of Texas-Austin, and Yale University, among others. Since 2015, Maria has also served as a member of the board of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. From 2006 to 2008, she co-chaired the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab with Jason Grote, and from 2004 to 2012, Maria was the Executive Producer of 13P, one of her proudest achievements. Maria is a first-generation Latinx- American, born to parents who emigrated from the Dominican Republic and Spain. She was raised in Jamaica, Queens, and has a collection of hoop earrings to prove it. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in 2001 from Brown University.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss how the Woolly Mammoth Theatre utilizes the design of the building it resides in to promote cultural, progressive, and artistic programs in the local community.
• Gain in-depth knowledge on the design process and choices made when creating an open concept theatre known as a "transparent theatrical laboratory", that is focused on artistic programming and community engagement.
• Identify how to encourage community engagement through the design process, such as increased accessibility and a variety of space types (such as a workshop room and theatre) to increase occupant comfort while maximizing capacity.
• Explore the advantages of designing a community-focused space with an emphasis on health, safety, and well-being,

Organized by:

The District Architecture Center in partnership with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

The Tony Award®-winning Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company creates badass theatre that highlights the stunning, challenging, and tremendous complexity of our world. For over 40 years, Woolly has maintained a high standard of artistic rigor while simultaneously daring to take risks, innovate, and push beyond perceived boundaries. One of the few remaining theatres in the country to maintain a company of artists, Woolly serves an essential research and development role within the American theatre. Plays premiered here have gone on to productions at hundreds of theatres all over the world and have had lasting impacts on the field. Currently co-led by Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes and Managing Director Kimberly E. Douglas, Woolly is located in Washington, DC, equidistant from the Capitol and the White House. This unique location influences Woolly’s investment in actively working towards an equitable, participatory, and creative democracy.  

Woolly Mammoth stands upon occupied, unceded territory: the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank whose descendants belong to the Piscataway peoples. Furthermore, the foundation of this city, and most of the original buildings in Washington, DC, were funded by the sale of enslaved people of African descent and built by their hands.  

Being a brilliant architect rarely translates into having a successful business. With all the years of education and training to make us experts in our profession, the skills needed to have a successful business were conveniently overlooked. This session will fill the void and provide you with the business management highlights that every firm needs to apply to achieve their full potential.

In this session, we will learn the fundamentals of all successful AE firms and provide the basis for making well-grounded business decisions. We will learn how firms can transition from being professionals providing services, to highly tuned businesses that can identify the needs of the marketplace and create services and products that are appropriately priced and yield consistent and greater profits.

Rather than seeking out new projects that merely build upon your current skills, you will start from a business-thinking mindset, where processes that are critical to building a thriving firm are examined and constituted in your firm. We will explore the importance of data within an architecture firm and demonstrate how careful collection and interpretation can lead your firm into more exciting and profitable territory.

Join us for an engaging event presented by Steven Burns, FAIA, Founder of The Well-Designed Firm, as he shares lessons learned over 35 years working with over 1,400 architecture firms.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify why a “business-thinking” mindset is of utmost importance for service professionals
• Explain best practices for implementing a metrics-oriented leadership system
• Summarize how data-based performance management drives smarter business decisions
• Analyze how profitability drives growth rather than being merely a result

Presented By:

Steve Burns, FAIA
As a distinguished thought leader, Steve blends his passion for design and firm management with profound insights into emerging technologies. Over the past 2 decades, working directly with over 1,400 firm owners, Steve has significantly contributed to reshaping these businesses for enhanced growth and sustainability.

Steve's career highlights include a 7-year tenure at SOM Chicago, founding BBA Architects in 1993 and growing it to 17 architects before its 2007 sale, and creating ArchiOffice, a groundbreaking project management software company acquired by BQE Software in 2010.

Recognized for his significant impact on the profession, in 2009 Steve was elevated to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. Currently, as Founder of The Well-Designed Firm, he focuses on leading AE firms to operational excellence, mentoring leaders to craft businesses as elegant and innovative as the architecture they create.

Organized By: 

BQE Software
 

All are welcome to join the Fellows Public Program Committee and the Emerging Architects Committee for a sunset Happy Hour at Fox Architects rooftop terrace in the West End. Catch up on what both committees have been doing, mingle with current DC Fellows and Emerging Architects and offer good luck to this year's Fellow nominees (they will have just wrapped up their final submissions for the 2025 jury). Happy hour fare and beer and wine will be provided as we all enjoy a fall sunset in DC!

Please enter through the lobby at 1255 23rd St, NW. In the case of inclement weather, we will meet at Fox Architects at 1240 22nd Street (around the corner)

Evolving our future in an uncertain world: design, technology, practices, examples, and reflections~

We are overwhelmed and even paralyzed with bad news: human conflict, climate change, ecosystems degradation and more. Exploring design in this new and evolving world, we will examine leading edge environmentally innovative institutional, commercial, residential, and master-planning projects designed by Maclay Architects and other firms. We will dive into key practices, technologies, innovations, performance and evaluation methodologies and impacts, outlining new directions for the future. Since 1971, Bill has focused his work on renewably powered, ecologically focused healthy buildings, and educated others through lectures, courses and writing articles and a book: The New Net Zero. Ecological design is his focus and passion. Please join us for this groundbreaking discussion!

The Robert and Kay Lautman Lecture is a new annual program to honor two strong proponents of the Washington Architectural Foundation’s work. This program brings nationally and internationally renowned figures in the fields of architecture and art to lecture on the intersection between architecture, design, and art. We believe this special annual lecture will have the added benefit of highlighting WAF’s work in the community.

Robert Lautman was a renowned architectural photographer who served on WAF’s board. His wife Kay was well known in DC’s philanthropic community.

Presented by:

Bill Maclay, FAIA, LEED AP, Maclay Architects- As principal and founder of Maclay Architects, Bill Maclay is a nationally recognized innovator and leader in ecological, regenerative and Net Zero design. Since his first solar project in 1971, Bill has been at the forefront of designing innovative projects that serve as replicable and cost-effective models for the future. He is a passionate practitioner, author, speaker, teacher, and advocate for a nurturing future, offering transformative thinking to his clients, other professionals, and the public at large. Bill’s book, “The New Net Zero” is recognized as a leading resource on Net Zero building design and construction. It offers a renewably powered vision for the planet with concrete strategies and technologies for implementation. His and Maclay Architects’ work demonstrates that Net Zero and carbon reducing practices are feasible, essential, and cash flow positive to implement at every scale. In all of these endeavors, Bill brings passion, commitment, and expertise to nurture a thriving planet and future in collaboration with others. 

Learning Objectives:

• Identify case studies of projects that have incorporated leading edge sustainable innovations into their design, and the positive effects of these innovations on the environment.
• Illustrate new design practices, technologies, innovations, and performance and evaluation methodologies that can be utilized to reduce climate change.
• Explain and examine how to make sustainable design choices while addressing affordability and consumers interested in energy efficiency and long-term savings.
• Describe the various considerations when designing an eco-friendly building, such as air, water, and vapor barriers; embodied energy; residential and commercial net-zero standards; monitoring and commissioning; insulation options; costs; and more.

Organized by the Washington Architectural Foundation

The area around the Kennedy Center and the Whitehurst Freeway is a highway nightmare and separates and fragments the experience of neighborhoods in the Nation's Capital from one another.

The "Repairing and Connecting" Concept Plan for the Kennedy Center area proposes a new vision of a park landscape to connect the National Mall and Rock Creek Park as a continuous experience from south of M Street NW to the Lincoln Memorial. It proposes, in addition to new park space, maintaining aspects of the existing road infrastructure that is today a vital commuter link to Northern Virginia.   The vision, developed by Perkins Eastman working in conjunction with the National Capital Planning Commission, offers expanded access for diverse modes of mobility (walking and biking in addition to vehicles), new open space and locations for monuments, new development opportunities and a new front door for the east side of the Kennedy Center, today marred by a tangle of highway ramps and concrete that separates one of the most important national monuments from the Nation's Capital.  

Presented by:

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Matthew Bell, FAIA FCNU, PERKINS EASTMAN- Matthew Bell, FAIA FCNU is Professor at the University of Maryland and Principal at Perkins Eastman Architects. His work in DC includes buildings and master plans for McMillan, RIA/Brookland Manor, the new Cleveland Park Library, and the mixed-use Collection 14 on 14th Street NW. Bell’s professional work has received awards from the AIA, the Congress for the New Urbanism, the USGBC, and the Urban Land Institute, among others. He has degrees in architecture from the University of Notre Dame and Cornell University and serves on the Historic Preservation Review Board in Washington, DC.

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Christian Calleri, AIA, PERKINS EASTMAN- Christian Calleri is an Associate Principal at Perkins Eastman and has led designs for community centers, academic buildings and large-scale master plans including McMillan/the Reservoir District, a new mixed-use waterfront in North Africa and a large-scale strategic plan for the Gallery Place/Chinatown Task Force. His built work includes projects at the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan, and the Catholic University of America. He received his undergraduate degree in architecture from SUNY Buffalo, and an M Arch from the University of Maryland. He on the board of the DC|Mid-Atlantic chapter of the Congress of the New Urbanism.

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Thomas Luebke, FAIA, Commission of Fine Arts- Thomas Luebke has served as Secretary of the U. S. Commission of Fine Arts, the federal design review agency for the nation’s capital, since 2005. He is an architect with more than thirty years’ experience in design, planning, and historic preservation in both public and private sectors. He is the editor of Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, and Palace of State: The Eisenhower Executive Office Building. He is a Phi Beta Kappa and honors graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and graduated with a master in architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2011, and he was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture by the Institute in 2015.

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Elizabeth Miller, FASLA, AICP, National Capital Planning Commission- Elizabeth Miller is a project director with the National Capital Planning Commission. For two decades, Elizabeth has managed the Commission’s signature urban design and planning initiatives, most recently the National Mall-Kennedy Center-Foggy Bottom Repairing and Connecting Study, and the Pennsylvania Avenue Initiative. Prior to joining NCPC, she worked in the private sector and local government in South Florida. A Certified Planner and an ASLA Fellow, she received her Master of Design Studies with a concentration in Real Estate Development from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Florida.

Learning Objectives:

• Illustrate how design choices can positively influence key sustainability metrics such as carbon footprints and overall sustainability performance.
• Describe the importance and benefits of expanding park space in a community, including the social and environmental benefits.
• Identify the challenges in attempting to maintain aspects of an existing road infrastructure, while also expanding the accessibility of a building, and how to overcome these challenges.
• Gain in-depth knowledge on design strategies used to promote cultural welfare amongst a local diverse population while accommodating accessibility requirements.

Join DC Noma, AIADC, and LA.IDEA for an evening of celebration and unity highlighting Hispanic Heritage culture and architecture!

Passive House is a standard for energy efficiency in buildings that reduces the building's carbon footprint and results in highly energy efficient buildings with overall carbon emissions that are close to zero. The Passive House Institute of the United States (PHIUS) was started in 2007 and sets the standard for passive house design requirements for buildings in North America. Key design principles for passive house design include continuous insulation, elimination of all thermal bridges, airtight building layers, highly energy efficient windows and doors, and ventilation and heat recovery. Renewable energy sources such as solar panels, green roof systems, and geothermal heating/cooling are heavily relied upon to meet PHIUS requirements.

This presentation will focus on the new 34Fifty Apartments, located at 3450 Eads Street, NE in Washington, DC. The project is the first passive house, net-zero ready affordable housing project in the District of Columbia. The design team worked together to develop tailored details for the building envelope to meet architectural and structural requirements while also adhering to passive house design. The presentation will also cover the various design aspects and features of the building, and lessons learned in design and construction that can be utilized for future passive house projects.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe Passive House design and various design aspects that are required to achieve certification. Identify the benefits that Passive House design provides for energy efficiency and the environment and applications for building owners and developers.
• Discuss various architectural and building envelope detailing that is required to meet Passive House design requirements.
• Discuss various structural detailing that is required to meet Passive House design requirements.
• Identify design strategies and collaboration required early on in the design process to achieve Passive House design and deliver buildings that meet the needs of the occupants while adhering to Passive House design requirements.

Presented By:

Walid Choueiri, PE,SE | SK&A Structural Engineers

Walid Choueiri, PE, SE joined SK&A in 2000 as an entry-level structural engineer fresh out of undergrad. As he grew in experience, education, and accreditation, his roles and responsibilities at SK&A grew as well. In 2011, he joined firm leadership as a Principal, and in 2022 was elevated to Sr. Principal and member of the firm’s Executive Committee. In this role, Walid provides oversight and leadership of the firm’s technical operations, contributes to firm management, and continues to lead and mentor Design Group project teams in our client-focused delivery of services.

Stephanie Farrell, AIA, LEED AP BD+C | Torti Gallas + Partners

Stephanie Farrell is a Principal at Torti Gallas involved in a range of project types, including residential, mixed-use and senior living for both affordable and market rate housing. Ms. Farrell is responsible for the oversight and management of the entire project from conceptual design and entitlement though the development of construction documents, the supervision of construction document teams, coordination of engineering documents and specifications, and the management of construction administration services.

Michael Hindle, MFA, CPHC | Passive to POSITIVE

Michael Hindle is founder and principal of Passive to POSITIVE, a Building Enclosure and Energy Efficiency consulting firm specializing in PASSIVE HOUSE, Zero Energy, Low Carbon and Resilient Design. He is also co-founder and principal of Common Ecology, a regenerative and permaculture-based design company, focused on regenerative community redevelopment projects.  Michael became one of the nation’s first Certified Passive House Consultants (CPHC) in late 2009.  He has consulted on Passive House, zero-energy, and Living Building Challenge projects that include single-family and multi-family residential, mixed-use, and small commercial projects from Washington DC to New Hampshire.  He has experience in both new construction and retrofits, and is committed to low toxicity, low Global Warming Potential, and carbon sequestering building methods.

David Stringer, PE | SK&A Structural Engineers

David Stringer, PE joined SK&A in 2013 and is currently a Project Manager with the firm. David is responsible for structural analysis and design, the preparation of project drawings and specifications, shop drawing approvals, and periodic field observation of project construction. He supervises, delegates, and mentors project engineers; collaborates with architects, developers, and contractors; attends project meetings; and reviews project finances and billings. David’s project experience includes mixed-use, office, residential, hotels, schools, parking garages, and various tenant modifications to existing structures.

Jason Travis, AIA, NCARB | Torti Gallas + Partners

Jason Travis is an experienced Architect with a portfolio of mixed use and residential buildings throughout the United States. His project experience includes new construction and renovations of multi-family residential, mixed-use, data centers, commercial, retail and governmental buildings of various sizes. His responsibilities/roles on projects have included project manager, project architect, planner, team lead, mentor, consultant coordinator, BIM modeler, drafter, designer, detailer, code reviewer, QA/QC and construction administrator.

Organized By:

SK&A Structural Engineers