Women are the future of architecture, and the future of architectural practice is working with existing buildings.  In 2022, existing buildings accounted for 53% of architectural billings, and the proportion is rising.  Building reuse is an essential component of achieving a more sustainable future.  Strategies for sustainable retrofitting can reduce a building’s energy use by half.  New tools for measuring embodied carbon reveal the true cost of demolition and reconstruction.    Renovation and adaptive reuse projects are often considered to be more complicated than new construction, and for good reasons.  The issues that are commonly encountered can be challenging, but by anticipating and planning for these conditions, projects can be completed more successfully and at a lower cost.  This session will address methods of analysis and documentation for existing buildings and will present strategies for improving energy performance, accessibility, and inclusion.  By developing expertise in existing buildings, architects can create a more sustainable practice that is better positioned to ride out economic downturns.  Women are well positioned to lead these trends.  The majority of professionals with degrees in both architecture and historic preservation are female.  We lead the field in both technical preservation and cultural preservation.  We are natural collaborators who understand how to engage stakeholders and set aside ego to achieve mutual interests.  These skill sets give us the power to affect both the environmental impact and the social impact of our built places.  We have the power--and a mandate--to transform the existing the built environment to become more sustainable, resilient, and relevant. Course expires 10/22/2026

A building’s envelope is the critical interface between occupant comfort and outdoor climatic conditions. High performance buildings require high performance envelopes that respond to exterior environmental impacts throughout the day and year. This course will explore design, material, and technological approaches to wall and window assemblies, from straightforward low-cost methods to advanced double skin facade applications.  The AIA+2030 Online Series is an AIA and Architecture 2030 co-production. It's based on the highly successful AIA+2030 Professional Series, which was created by AIA Seattle and Architecture 2030, with support from the City of Seattle and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.

Over the past half-century, our development policies and practices have led to segregated communities with starkly disparate realities. This trend is creating a society with vast inequalities and institutionalizing these inequalities into the very fabric of American society. Our cities today are struggling to recalibrate our approaches to growth and development so that everyone can participate and share in its benefits. This session will highlight perspectives from community leaders working on the frontlines of anti-displacement and equitable development efforts. It will feature initiatives to heal divides and repair the urban fabric to create more equitable communities. The session will share practical lessons learned from a range of diverse experiences in major American cities that can provide guidance to other community practitioners, designers and civic leaders.  This session was recorded live on May 17, 2023.

This session presents the fundamental physics of power and energy and discusses how and where buildings use energy. Topics addressed include the impacts of buildings using energy, measuring power and energy, energy flows in the United States, buildings and the electricity grid, reading an electricity bill, and energy codes.  Course expires 03/05/2025

Improve your understanding of the fundamental business concepts in architecture and design. Learn the significance of business acumen in your professional journey and gain insights into how you can use it to have the greatest impact on your career. Dive into the current and historic internal and external business dynamics—from organizational culture to economic conditions—shaping architecture and design firms to establish a crucial foundation for making informed and strategic decisions.

This course explores concepts related to the finances in running an architecture firm and risk management. Large firms, small firms as well as sole practitioners need financial plans and risk management plans to sustain their practices, relationships and livelihood. Risk management should be embedded into the DNA of any firm or project. Learn high level ideas related to capitalization and investing and how you can apply them using the ABC’s of finance (Agreements, Budgets & Billing, and Collections) as well as key principles and considerations in managing risk at both the firm and project levels. Course expires 05/30/2025

Keynote speaker Jim Cramer and a panel of experts in the business of architecture offer insightful analysis on the state of the profession as well as the fundamentals and entrepreneurial possibilities of a solid business strategy. Questions considered include: business education for emerging professionals, factors limiting small firm success, alternative career paths, and opportunities architects have to expand their services beyond the traditional design firm. This is a master class in business strategy for practitioners, providing insight and inspiration for anyone interested in improving the way they do business. Course expires 4/20/2025

The Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) will present an overview of our agency including recent and current projects and upcoming opportunities for the design and construction community. Learn more about the range of State-owned buildings that require periodic design services and our designer procurement processes and our strategic approach to the Commonwealth’s primary goals of decarbonization and equity, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of our projects. About DCAMM: The Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), an agency within the Executive Office for Administration and Finance (A&F) is responsible for capital planning, major public building construction, facilities management, and real estate services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. DCAMM oversees the Commonwealth’s capital assets, totaling over 65 million square feet. The agency manages over $2 billion in capital projects, working with state agencies on the full cycle of their strategic facility needs. DCAMM directly manages 5.5 million square feet of state buildings, and for those buildings not managed by DCAMM, they assist client agencies using comprehensive and cost-effective maintenance and management strategies and standards.​ Course expires 08/02/2026

Public Spaces and places are essential infrastructure that makes our cities livable. Besides providing space for essential transactions, our public spaces express our history, values, and future vision. The best spaces bring us together to share culture and diverse backgrounds while celebrating our shared values. Design unleashes the potential for public space and architects can foster community and inspire progress. Design is our superpower. As an introduction to this presentation, there will be a panel discussion with Colorado-based professionals who work for local jurisdictions on macro-level urban design and visioning. In particular, they will discuss how they establish goals with local organizations and elected officials that are then developed and implemented by planning departments.  Presented in partnership with AIA Colorado.

This session will center around the events that occurred before and after the catastrophic collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, in 2021. Discussion will include the ongoing intensive analysis by forensic investigators to determine a root cause, or causes, of the structural failure. Examine how this tragedy will affect our current and future legal and business operations for years to come. Understand how failure analysis is a part of our ongoing learning experience as architects. Course expires 06/25/2026

Building codes are designed to protect people; and thus building to code may not provide the level of property protection your clients want. This in-depth course offers a solution. You’ll learn how to unpack the level of protection building codes offer so you can best identify—and design for—resilience gaps. Through case studies and expert interviews, you’ll review how recent advances are reducing vulnerability, including lessons learned from past disasters, stretch codes, and performance-based codes. You’ll also review the full scope and limitations of the building code and how codes address the impacts of potential hazards for any region. Finally, you’ll learn how rating systems can complement, reinforce, or extend the provisions of local codes. This course is part of the AIA Resilience and Adaptation Series, a multi-course series that provides you with the tools and knowledge you need to design for resilience. Take all of the courses in this series to earn a certificate of completion. This course is sponsored by Owens Corning

The Collaborative Achievement Award recognizes and encourages collaboration among design professionals, clients, organizations, knowledge communities and others that have had a beneficial influence on or advanced the architectural profession. This year’s presenters will increase your understanding of the role of architecture in society, promoting what constitutes urban and community design excellence. Each attendee will gain inspirational insights to assist them in the evolution of their own practice. Hosted by Committee on Design (COD) an AIA Knowledge Community. Course expires 06/11/2025

This course will discuss how stresses such as a lack of affordable housing and social isolation make communities more vulnerable to shocks, and how resilient design and community engagement can influence the social and economic resilience of a community. Through examples and case studies, this course will demonstrate how an individual project can extend benefits beyond its borders with best practices for engaging communities and addressing the interdependencies that make communities more vulnerable to shocks. In addition, this course will discuss the many important roles the “citizen architect” may play in a community which contribute to community resilience. This course is part of the AIA Resilience and Adaptation Series, a multi-course series that provides you with the tools and knowledge you need to design for resilience. Take all of the courses in this series to earn a certificate of completion. This course is sponsored by Owens Corning

This session highlights the work of deeply embedded community design studios. Design & Health Research Consortium members engage in a panel discussion on where projects fail when outdated community engagement, or lack of engagement, strategies are used and highlight some new tools. Course expires 03/09/2025

Tackle the real-world implications of policies and design decisions with this presentation of research and work done in specific places to increase community equity and visibility. Initiatives discussed are economic policies, locational organizing, and strategies to protect against gentrification and community dispossession. Course expires 01/12/2025

Learn how to conduct vulnerability assessments in new and existing buildings using a step-by-step process to make informed decisions about retrofits, renovations, and repairs to reduce damage from any hazard. The course begins with an overview of vulnerability concepts and terminology, defining the link between vulnerability and potential damage to existing or new buildings. Its main focus, however, is guiding architects through a 10-step all-hazards vulnerability assessment methodology that has been developed, tested, and used by experts in architecture and design. Using a case study and real examples, this course shows you how to apply each step in the process. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to conduct a building vulnerability assessment with your design team, leverage that assessment to inform your hazard mitigation strategy, and be confident about the benefits of incorporating resilient design features into your projects. This course is sponsored by Owens Corning

This course instructs architects and other design professionals about principles of intellectual property law as they relate to the creation, reproduction and use of original drawings, specifications and other documents. It is based on the premise that every design professional should have a solid working knowledge of intellectual property law, particularly copyright law, as it affects their work products and their use of other people’s work products. The issues have to do with compensation, professional credit and professional liability and are very important to the business of architecture. Course expires 4/19/2025

The United States Army is one of the largest landowners in the United States, encompassing 79 installations that cover over 5 million acres. The Biden Administration and the Secretary of Defense recognize climate change as the most serious threat to both military readiness as well as being a good steward of the lands under their care. The goal is to create a digital platform for military installations that integrates and displays site, facility, and utility data from numerous disparate sources. The result is to facilitate climate resilience planning, siting of facilities and infrastructure, and decrease energy and water use to meet new federal climate change mandates and improve the quality of life for military personnel, their families, and civilian employees.  The Army Corps of Engineers is creating a digital planning platform (PLANNER) to facilitate siting of buildings and other facilities to be more sustainable, improve climate resilience, and integrate smart technologies to make Army installations "smart cities", as well as encompassing the surrounding communities. Our desire is to gain additional input and ideas from attendees to make PLANNER a more robust tool to improve the climate resilience of military bases, families, and communities.  Course expires 01/18/2026

The office setting is a meeting place of people from diverse backgrounds, rich in culture and lived experiences. Employers and employees must find ways to continue to celebrate and uplift diverse voices while challenging xenophobia and unconscious bias head on. In this session, panelists from academia, AEC-affiliate industries, and architecture firms will discuss how to cultivate belonging in the workplace. Our panelists will pull from AIA’s most recent research study, “An Investigation into Bias in the Architecture Profession,” which reveals data on racial and gender-based bias in architecture.   

Learn the essential skills and insights needed to develop effective team leadership and cultivate positive team dynamics. Understand the six essential characteristics of team excellence that distinguish high-performing teams from average ones so you can analyze individual roles and nurture the key traits that drive successful teamwork. Plus, dive into the major impact employee engagement can have on team performance—learning actionable strategies to boost engagement and motivation among your team. Assess the influence of team dynamics on productivity and performance and acquire practical techniques to optimize these dynamics, ensuring that your team works cohesively towards shared goals. Course expires 04/06/2027