Accessibility and Universal Design – 2027
Enchanted Hills Camp for the Blind and Visually Impaired
This on-site tour of the Enchanted Hills Camp, a 70-year-old summer camp for the blind and visually impaired, features design principles that extend to any public-facing project.
Learn how tactile pathways, cane-detectable wayfinding, acoustics that support orientation, and hardware choices translate accessibility principles into everyday independence.
Enchanted Hills Camp for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Neurodiversity and Autism Center
Dake-Wells explains how the Neurodiversity and Autism Center incorporates spaces that accommodate the heightened sensitivities of neurodivergent and autistic higher education students to environmental stimuli.
The design incorporates seven criteria from the Autism ASPECTSS™ Design Index, the first set of evidence based design guidelines worldwide to address built environments for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Neurodiversity and Autism Center
Accessibility for Historic Buildings: Congregation Emanu-El
Join Mark Cavagnero Associates Architects as they take us on a tour of and explain how San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El’s historic set of buildings were remodeled to accommodate the disabled community.
Deftly navigating both accessibility and historic preservation requirements, their design provides expanded access throughout the facility while reinforcing the historic nature of three buildings centered around a reconstructed and accessible open-air courtyard.
Accessibility for Historic Buildings: Congregation Emanu-El
Accessibility and the Fair Housing Act: Upstream and Downstream
Most accessibility problems surface late in construction — but they're created early in design.
Join two veteran accessibility experts, a former HUD Senior Advisor and a practicing architect/access specialist, as they unpack how ADA, Fair Housing, Section 504, and state accessibility codes stack together and where projects go wrong.
Accessibility and the Fair Housing Act: Upstream and Downstream
Keynotes from 2024 Monterey Design Conferences (New!)
MDC – Tatiana Bilbao: The City, My Living Room
Tatiana Bilbao from Mexico City passionately challenges convention norms and examines how architecture can address fundamental human needs. Through largescale masterplans and projects to smaller affordable housing strategies, and by reimagining urban spaces, Tatiana shares her passion for accommodating diverse social configurations, local materials, and environmental conditions.
MDC – Tatiana Bilbao: The City, My Living Room
MDC – Brad Cloepfil, AIA, and Chelsea Grassinger, AIA: Sense of Investigation
Brad Cloepfil, AIA, and Chelsea Grassinger, AIA, of Allied Works focus on the meaning of stewardship in design and how their architecture is fueled by the desire to create resonant, enduring design and expand the boundaries of traditional practice.
Brad and Chelsea take us on a journey of their work and explain how each project starts with an intense investigation into the program and the local environment as they search for simple solutions.
MDC – Brad Cloepfil, AIA, and Chelsea Grassinger, AIA: Sense of Investigation
MDC – Fuensanta Nieto, Hon. FAIA & Enrique Sobejano, Hon. FAIA: Transformation and Discovery
Fuensanta Nieto, Hon. FAIA, and Enrique Sobejano, Hon. FAIA, based in both Madrid and Berlin, share how their designs bring a feeling of transformation, discovery and understanding of the place and purpose of a building.
Delightfully sharing the stage, Enrique and Fuensanta take us on a tour of the recent projects, including the headquarters for Montblanc, a stunning museum in Cordoba, Spain, and a lyrical museum for Estonian composer Avro Pärt.
MDC – Fuensanta Nieto, Hon. FAIA & Enrique Sobejano, Hon. FAIA: Transformation and Discovery
MDC – Go Hasegawa: Ambitious Ambivalence
Japanese architect Go Hasegawa’s “Ambitious Ambivalence” presentation includes stunning and oftentimes whimsical creations.
Go displays his dry wit as he reflects on how local materials, cultural elements and environmental considerations influence his designs. He also shows how a combination of inspired design and amazing craftsmanship results in paper-thin marble structures.
MDC – Go Hasegawa: Ambitious Ambivalence
MDC – Frederick Fisher, AIA: Four Pillars
Frederick Fisher, AIA, takes us on a tour of his firm’s landmark projects designed on four pillars: process, context, function, and aesthetics.
Frederick highlights his enthusiasm for light and space coupled with design strategies that utilize clean energy and lead to net-zero-emissions.
MDC – Frederick Fisher, AIA: Four Pillars
MDC – Kerstin Thompson - What Architect?
Renowned Australian architect Kerstin Thompson presents a more casual version of the talk she delivered for her Australian Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal tour. With stunning images and a focus on adaptive re-use, Kerstin assesses architectural design strategies that adapt to and mitigate environmental challenges, such as bushfires and floods, while promoting sustainability.
MDC – Kerstin Thompson - What Architect?
MDC – Refik Anadol: AI in Art and Architecture
In this fast-paced session, Refik Anadol, renowned artist and inventor, explores how generative AI and computational tools can assist architects in designing buildings that integrate functional and aesthetic considerations and how AI can be integrated across disciplines such as neuroscience, architecture, and environmental science to create meaningful, socially impactful outcomes.
MDC – Refik Anadol: AI in Art and Architecture
MDC – Enabling Abundance – Housing California
Four housing experts present short case studies and then engage in a thoughtful discussion about the impactful ways architects are bringing solutions to California's severe affordable housing shortage while reducing carbon emissions and uplifting the physical and emotional well-being of residents.
Join Kevin Daley, FAIA, Founding Partner of Frederick Fisher Architects and Partners, Phoebe Yee, AIA, Executive Vice President of Design for Related California, Cory Henry, Founder and Design Director of Atelier Cory Henry, and Dana Cuff, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Urban Planning, and Founding Director of cityLAB at UCLA, as they tackle one of California’s most pressing challenges.
MDC – Enabling Abundance – Housing California
MDC – Reflections with Chuck Davis, FAIA
Chuck Davis, FAIA (1935 - 2025)
Chuck Davis, FAIA, shares a lifetime of insights gained during his 50 years designing and overseeing major projects including aquariums, zoos and higher education.
Deftly interviewed by Pierluigi Serraino, Chuck reflects on how his collaboration with Joseph Esherick influenced his inquisitive design approach and opines how the architectural profession has evolved.
This course is presented free courtesy of AIA California.
MDC – Reflections with Chuck Davis, FAIA
AIA Seattle 2026 Housing Forum: Getting to Abundance
The Housing Landscape: Putting Policy into Practice
Learn how to transform housing legislation and policies into tangible improvements in affordable housing developments. How will newly adopted policies shape what—and how—we design?
This session brings together three housing leaders to translate policy into practice. From city-level land use reform to lessons from other regions, panelists share strategies for building partnerships, advancing equitable development, and housing typologies, and unlock opportunities to move projects from vision to reality.
The Housing Landscape: Putting Policy into Practice
Preserving Community & Expanding Housing Opportunity
In this session, panelists discuss how their organizations are creating opportunities through political and financial support of mixed-income housing, practicing and expanding inclusive housing development, and paving the way for legacy homeownership in a historically marginalized neighborhood.
Preserving Community & Expanding Housing Opportunity
Unlocking Livable Homes with Single Stair Regulations
Learn about single-stair multi-family housing opportunities and how they can create abundant quality homes with better daylight, more cross-ventilation, greater diverse unit mix, and less expensive construction.
Mike Eliason, Director of Design & Policy | Seattle Social Housing Developer, updates us on building code reforms that can lead to single-stair and more affordable multifamily housing across the country.
Unlocking Livable Homes with Single Stair Regulations
Scaling with Modern Means of Construction
Learn how Washington State’s Comprehensive and Scalable Starter Home Production Plan and its two implementation playbooks offer an actionable, whole-problem solution to its statewide housing crisis.
You will better understand the production of true “starter homes”; offsite construction methods as scaling mechanism; what must be in place for these methods to excel; and what WE can learn about offsite uptake from benchmark implementations in the U.S. and globally
Scaling with Modern Means of Construction
Intentional Living: Case Studies in Design & Delivery
Explore three housing case studies that examine different models of design, delivery, and ownership. They all look to move beyond the single-family model, building higher density that creates and fosters an intentional and aspirational community.
Case study projects include Beacon Hill Co-op by Ten Penny Studio, Shared Roof by Johnston Architects, and Crow Woods by Hybrid Architecture.
Intentional Living: Case Studies in Design & Delivery
Keynote: Housing - Now & Then
Closing keynote Brandon Pace, FAIA, sets the backdrop for post-war urban development patterns in two very different places: 1) one where the destruction of urban housing and generational wealth created a pattern of disinvestment that continues to affect health, educational, and economic outcomes; and 2) another where investments have highlighted gaps in access to affordable housing. Brandon shares housing work created in partnership with neighborhood groups, nonprofits, and local governments.
Keynote: Housing - Now & Then
SHLTR Spotlight Series
SHLTR Spotlight: Restoration as Innovation – Building on the Legacy of Mid-Century Masters
Join acclaimed architect Leo Marmol, FAIA, of Marmol-Radziner, as he reveals why restoration isn’t just preservation—it’s a powerful strategy that can deliver more sustainable structures that build on the legacy of mid-century masters.
Leo passionately walks us through a series of case studies, including the restoration of Hank Schubart’s Jackson House and Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House.
SHLTR Spotlight: Restoration as Innovation – Building on the Legacy of Mid-Century Masters
SHLTR Spotlight: Stone Works – The Language of Form
Discover how stone comes to life in contemporary architecture and landscape design with renowned stonemason Edwin Hamilton and master letter carver Christopher Stinehour.
Their work—shaped as much by time and water as by the precision of the human hand—reveal how ancient stone traditions inform modern art and design through material honesty, restraint, poetry and craft.
SHLTR Spotlight: Stone Works – The Language of Form
SHLTR Spotlight: West Coast Modernism in Hawaii
Step inside the essence of modern Hawaiian design with architect Greg Warner, FAIA, of Walker Warner, and interior designer Nicole Hollis of NICOLEHOLLIS—as they reveal how restraint, climate and a deep connection to place shape truly timeless architecture and interiors.
The lively discussion examines how West Coast modernism has quietly shaped contemporary work in Hawaii not through grand gestures, but one house at a time. Greg and Nicole present residential projects, alongside a shared hospitality project in Kona that demonstrates how this approach extends beyond the private home.
SHLTR Spotlight: West Coast Modernism in Hawaii
Accessibility and Universal Design – 2025
Accessibility 2025: Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth
This course explores design strategies behind the Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth in Vancouver, Washington, where designers and researchers translated DeafSpace design principles to create a welcoming, accessible and inclusive facility. Mithun partners Brendan Connolly, AIA, LEED AP and Dorothy Faris, ASLA, discuss the deaf-led design process that shaped both the interior and site design.
This case study also explores how an exposed mass timber wood structure reinforced these principles and contributed to the sustainability and inclusivity of the Center, including ADA-compliant and barrier-free design, and how the biophilic benefits of wood helped frame strategies for multisensory wayfinding in this extraordinary collection of gathering and teaching spaces.
Accessibility 2025: Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth
Accessibility 2025: Willie Woo Woo Wong Playground and Clubhouse Renovation
This case study of the Willie Woo Woo Wong Playground and Clubhouse renovation in San Francisco’s Chinatown illustrates how to design an accessible and inclusive facility on a steeply sloping site. Scott Davis, AIA, of Jensen Architects and Willett Moss, PLA, FAAR, FASLA, of CMG Landscape Architecture discuss Universal Design features, accessible paths of travel, exterior transfer stations, interior lifts, companion seating and access to equivalent spaces. They also discuss how the City and County of San Francisco’s accessibility requirements, which supplemented State requirements, influenced the renovation of one of San Francisco’s historic and culturally significant recreational facilities.
Accessibility 2025: Willie Woo Woo Wong Playground and Clubhouse Renovation
Accessibility 2025: Accessibility, Historic Preservation + Adaptive Reuse
This 60-minute course demonstrates how to address accessibility requirements in historic preservation and adaptive reuse projects. Presented by D. “Rocky" Rockefeller, AIA, of Rockefeller Partners, the course features a series of case studies, including the remodel of the historic Ford Motor Company Factor in Los Angeles into an award-winning creative office space for Warner Music Group. Rocky deftly describes how to preserve a building’s historic fabric while navigating the requirements of the State Historical Building Code and California’s stringent accessibility requirements.
Accessibility 2025: Accessibility, Historic Preservation + Adaptive Reuse
Accessibility 2025: UC Berkeley – Equitable Campus Planning, Universal Design
This 90-minute course focuses on accessibility and Universal Design solutions at the University of California, Berkeley campus. UC Berkeley’s Campus Architect, UC Berkeley’s Manager, Physical Access Compliance at UC Berkeley, and principals from Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects and Sasaki Associates discuss how the campus developed and implemented a human-centered approach to provide equitable physical access to buildings and amenities on a hilly site.
The presenters take a series of deep dives into how they created accessible pathways and barrier-free connections while harmonizing with the historic nature of the campus. They conclude their presentation with specific recommendations for educating architects and other design professionals about designing equitable, inclusive and accessible spaces.
Accessibility 2025: UC Berkeley – Equitable Campus Planning, Universal Design
Acoustical Design
AIA New York Design
Active Design 1: Creating Active Cities Through Design
Active Design 1: Creating Active Cities Through Design
Active Design 2: Creating Healthy Places Through Design
Active Design 2: Creating Healthy Places Through Design
Aging in Place(s): Designs for Senior Living
Aging in Place(s): Designs for Senior Living
Historic Preservation of Modern Architecture
Historic Preservation of Modern Architecture
Emerging Talent Presentations from Monterey Design Conferences
MDC Emerging Talent: Nick Hopson, Hopson Rodstrom Design
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this presentation from the 2024 MDC, Nick Hopson, Co-Founder of Hopson Rodstrom Design, shares his firm’s work and design approach through the lens of three strikingly different housing projects: an adaptive reuse transitional housing project, a podium urban transit zone apartment building, and a single-family residence. Each project conveys the risks and challenges facing a young design practice in today's environment.
MDC Emerging Talent: Nick Hopson, Hopson Rodstrom Design
MDC Emerging Talent: Gary Lewis and Julia Lewis, ReGroup
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this presentation from the 2024 MDC, Julie Lewis and Gary Lewis of ReGroup illustrate their "What If" approach to design with four fascinating projects. First, a rural performance stage they originally designed and built as a processional and ceremonial place for their own wedding. Second, a house that doubles as a movie screen for the neighbors. Third, a duplex landlocked between industrial buildings and a TV station that creates an urban oasis. Lastly, another duplex resembling a mini-tower that captures the evening sky and an amazing set of views.
MDC Emerging Talent: Gary Lewis and Julia Lewis, ReGroup
MDC Emerging Talent: Valery Augustin, AIA, DNA Architecture + Design
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this presentation from the 2024 MDC, Valery Augustin, AIA, Founding Principal of DNA Architecture + Design, shares his exploration into materials and fabrication techniques. Valery then illustrates some of his recent public architecture where low budgets and fast schedules do not deter from his mission of providing beautiful spaces to underprivileged users and residents.
MDC Emerging Talent: Valery Augustin, AIA, DNA Architecture + Design
MDC Emerging Talent: Aaron Forest and Yasmin Hobbs, Ultramoderne
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this presentation from the 2024 MDC titled Cheapskates, Aaron Forest and Yasmin Hobbs of Ultramoderne illustrate how their economical approach to architecture sparks invention and leads to opportunities for lightness and sustainability. Among the projects highlighted: a kiosk featuring a CLT roof with no supporting beams; a performance space with roof trusses turned upside down; and two "tower houses” that share a common roof terrace. As Yasmin explains, “The idea of Cheapskate is a certain resourcefulness, playfulness, but also ecological responsibility and new forms of beauty."
MDC Emerging Talent: Aaron Forest and Yasmin Hobbs, Ultramoderne
MDC Emerging Talent: Dan Weber, AIA, LEED AP, ANACAPA
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this FREE presentation from the 2019 MDC, Dan Weber, AIA, LEED AP, of Santa Barbara-based ANACAPA, takes us on a journey through his firm's experiential and award-winning hospitality, custom residential, creative office and urban infill mixed-use projects and, of course, his recent design for a marijuana dispensary.
Don’t miss the Keynote Presentations from the Monterey Design Conference!
MDC Emerging Talent: Dan Weber, AIA, LEED AP, ANACAPA
MDC Emerging Talent: Urban Works Agency
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this presentation from the 2022 MDC, Antje Steinmuller and Neeraj Bhatia of Urban Works Agency discuss their research lab and recent explorations into climate justice, infrastructure and housing access. Antje and Neeraj share results of some of their case studies and surveys that might inform how society approaches the built environment.
This course is presented FREE courtesy of the AIA California Council and aecKnowledge.
MDC Emerging Talent: Urban Works Agency
MDC Emerging Talent: David Hackett
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this presentation from the 2022 MDC, David Hackett, AIA, of Siol Studios showcases some of his firm’s work, from their scrappy roots designing simple rooms that illustrate big ideas to their beautiful design for one of America’s rare Masonic temples.
This course is presented FREE courtesy of the AIA California Council and aecKnowledge.
MDC Emerging Talent: David Hackett
MDC Emerging Talent: Morgan Sykes Jaybush
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this presentation from the 2022 MDC, Morgan Sykes Jaybush of Omgivning discusses his perspective of Los Angeles, designs for unhoused people on skid row, and a series of adaptive reuses that revitalize communities.
This course is presented FREE courtesy of the AIA California Council and aecKnowledge.
MDC Emerging Talent: Morgan Sykes Jaybush
MDC Emerging Talent: Ed Ogosta, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, Edward Ogosta Architecture
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this FREE presentation from the 2019 MDC, Ed Ogosta, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, of Los Angeles-based Edward Ogosta Architecture, showcases his firm's quiet architecture of sobriety, coherence, simplicity and atmosphere. Ed artfully illustrates how his firm’s designs emanate from two principles: ROOTEDNESS to site, context, culture and time, and CLARITY of concept, form, experience and execution.
Don’t miss the Keynote Presentations from the Monterey Design Conference!
MDC Emerging Talent: Ed Ogosta, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, Edward Ogosta Architecture
MDC Emerging Talent: Dan Spiegel, AIA, and Megumi Aihara, ASLA, PLA, SAW // Spiegel Aihara Workshop
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this FREE presentation from the 2019 MDC, Dan Spiegel, AIA, of SAW and Megumi Aihara, ASLA, PLA, of Spiegel Aihara Workshop start by walking us through and around their design for COURT, YARD, HOUSE in Palo Alto. Showcasing their love of storytelling, they then show us how their TRY-ON TRUCK transforms itself from a lingerie store to a meditation studio and present their prototypes of a variety of other building types.
Don’t miss the Keynote Presentations from the Monterey Design Conference!
MDC Emerging Talent: Dan Spiegel, AIA, and Megumi Aihara, ASLA, PLA, SAW // Spiegel Aihara Workshop
MDC Emerging Talent: Chris Warren, AIA, WORD
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this FREE presentation from the 2019 MDC, Chris Warren, AIA, Principal of Los Angeles-based WORD, takes us on a tour of his firm's recent work and how their designs respond to the interface between architecture and the natural elements--light, sky and view. See why his designs have been described as confidently choreographed, experienced through ephemerality and as an intersection of the elemental and the phenomenal..
Don’t miss the Keynote Presentations from the Monterey Design Conference!
MDC Emerging Talent: Chris Warren, AIA, WORD
MDC Emerging Talent: Heather Roberge, AIA, MURMUR
Among the most inspirational events at the famed Monterey Design Conference are the 15-minute presentations by some of California’s finest emerging talent.
In this FREE presentation, Los Angeles-based Heather Roberge, AIA, of murmur, explores the roles of computational and digital fabrication in shaping contemporary architecture, and illustrates how lightweight construction can defy structural expectations.
Don’t miss the Keynote Presentations from the Monterey Design Conference!
MDC Emerging Talent: Heather Roberge, AIA, MURMUR
MDC Emerging Talent: Alan Tse, Associate AIA, Alan Tse Design
In this FREE presentation, San Francisco-based Alan Tse, Associate AIA, captivates the audience with stunning images and a delightfully dry wit as he describes how he learned about budgets, his role as a designer, getting work and meeting client expectations. Alan's stunning restaurant, mixed-use, residential and work space projects combine a warm neutral palette, natural light and a welcoming modern style.
Don’t miss the Keynote Presentations from the Monterey Design Conference!
MDC Emerging Talent: Alan Tse, Associate AIA, Alan Tse Design
MDC Emerging Talent: Laura Crescimano, AIA, SITELAB Urban Studio
In this FREE presentation, Laura Crescimano, AIA, of San Francisco-based SITELAB Urban Studio, deftly shows how extraordinary events in symbolic spaces or banal ones such as highways and roads can temporarily reveal and transform our image of the urban environment. Laura illustrates how placemaking can elevate the social practice of architecture and encourage inclusive decision making.
Don’t miss the Keynote Presentations from the Monterey Design Conference!
MDC Emerging Talent: Laura Crescimano, AIA, SITELAB Urban Studio
MDC Emerging Talent: Jimenez Lai & Joanna Grant, Bureau Spectacular
In this FREE presentation Jimenez Lai & Joanna Grant describe how their Los Angeles-based Bureau Spectacular began at the beginning of the Great Recession--through research, experimentation, teaching, publications, and exhibitions and competitions--and evolved into a group of avant-garde individuals who explore design through the lenses of art, culture and education. They conclude their presentation with a delightful Pool Party video created as part of a 2017 MoMA PS1 competition.
Don’t miss the Keynote Presentations from the Monterey Design Conference!
MDC Emerging Talent: Jimenez Lai & Joanna Grant, Bureau Spectacular
Healthcare
AIA Seattle 2025 Climate Summit: Fostering Our Ecosystems
Building Climate Resilience at the Local Level: Challenges and Opportunities
Explore nature-based climate solutions in urban and rural contexts, including their role in flood management, heat mitigation and habitat restoration.
The presenters analyze ecosystem knowledge and ecological intelligence in the planning, design, and construction of climate-resilient and equitable built environments and identify strategies for achieving equitable climate adaptation.
Building Climate Resilience at the Local Level: Challenges and Opportunities
Designing For Coexistence: Creating For the Climate
Facilitated by Kirstin Weeks, LFA, Principal, Regenerative Design & Urban Ecology at Bio Studio, this interactive session enables course viewers to practice how to apply ecological and nature-based principles to design for co-existence with other flora and fauna, migrating or otherwise.
Course takers will learn how to use digital tools such Resolve, iNaturalist and Pathfinder 3.0, to consider ecosystems to better understand climate conditions and design for the provisional needs – food, water, shelter and nesting – of a variety of local communities.
Designing For Coexistence: Creating For the Climate
Looking Forward: Case Studies in Ecology
Explore how the built environment can actively support biodiversity, climate resilience and whole-ecosystem health.
Through a series of case studies, the presenters demonstrate how real-world approaches can foster coexistence between human and non-human systems. Speakers share insights into strategies, challenges and successes in designing for interconnected resilience.
Looking Forward: Case Studies in Ecology
AIA Seattle 2025 Housing Forum: Transformative Housing - From Policy to Practice
Local & Statewide Housing Policy: Updates, Outcomes and What’s Ahead
Explore how housing policy shapes development outcomes in Seattle and Washington State with a particular focus on King County and Seattle. Presenters from the City of Seattle and the Office of Governor Bob Ferson discuss key legislative outcomes that directly impact affordable housing development.
Local & Statewide Housing Policy: Updates, Outcomes and What’s Ahead
Middle Housing: The Promise of Expanding Neighborhood Access & Homeownership
Explore middle housing zoning and learn how architects, designers, policymakers and advocates can promote outcomes that balance density, affordability, equity and neighborhood character, especially in diverse lot types and urban contexts.
Panelists discuss how Washington cities will require a minimum density for middle housing, which promises to unlock needed room for housing and usher in more choices in areas historically reserved for low-density, high-cost real estate.
Middle Housing: The Promise of Expanding Neighborhood Access & Homeownership
Transit Oriented Districts: A Catalyst for Integrated Communities
Explore how transit-oriented development (TOD) can create walkable, mixed-use communities. Learn strategies for ensuring equitable access for marginalized communities to housing and public amenities near transit.
Transit Oriented Districts: A Catalyst for Integrated Communities
Social Housing: I-35 & Prop 1A, What’s Next?
Social housing addresses the need for true affordability across the income spectrum through constructing and acquiring housing that is permanently affordable and publicly owned in perpetuity.
This course explores Seattle’s recent creation of Social Housing Developer and examines case studies of successful implementation in the U.S. and abroad. With a well-documented housing supply-and-affordability crisis, Seattle has joined many metro areas across the county in passing legislation to build Social Housing as one solution.
Social Housing: I-35 & Prop 1A, What’s Next?
Platform MIDDLE: Architecture for Housing the 99%
Johanna Hurme of 5468796 Architecture presents bold strategies for housing "the 99%." Learn how design intersects with policy, economics, and activism to address housing shortages. In a fast-paced tour of some of her firm's projects, Johanna elaborates on a series of design and planning strategies for filling social housing needs.
Platform MIDDLE: Architecture for Housing the 99%
Practice Management
Insights from Art Gensler, FAIA
M. Arthur Gensler, Jr., (Art Gensler) was widely seen as one the world's foremost experts at helping clients see the value of good design while operating a consistently successful global firm. In this remarkably candid address to emerging professionals, Art Gensler shares Art Gensler shares his insights into:
• Starting, growing and operating a design firm
• Developing a highly collaborative culture within a multi-disciplinary firm
• Understanding a client’s business model and mission
• Running a multi-disciplinary design firm as a well-tuned business
This course is a must-see for design professionals who share Art Gensler’s passion for strong business practices and collaboration. Get decades of wisdom in 60 engaging minutes!
Insights from Art Gensler, FAIA
Navigating the COVID-19 Economy: Insights from Firm Leaders
On April 22, 2020, 10 leaders from some of our nation's most respected firms shared their insights about how to effectively respond to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. This 75-minute panel discussion provides specific recommendations for your firm to put into motion.
Among the topics:
• What is the biggest challenge your firm is now facing?
• What has your firm learned about working remotely and how are clients responding?
• How do you maintain a collaborative culture and approach to projects?
• How are you keeping employees engaged?
• How are clients responding to your firm working remotely?
• If billable work declines, what staff initiatives might keep staff busy?
• How do we avoid losing another generation of architects
• How do you think this new normal might change how we operate as a profession?
Navigating the COVID-19 Economy: Insights from Firm Leaders
Keynotes from 2022 Monterey Design Conferences
MDC – Deborah Berke, FAIA: Current Work
Deborah Berke, FAIA, AIA 2025 Gold Medal recipient, captivates the audience at the 2022 Monterey Design Conference with a whirlwind tour of 10 projects and demonstrates how adaptive reuse is one of the most valuable tools design professionals can employ to help address climate change and provide an array of social benefits. Deborah illustrates strategies for capturing light, improving building performance and enhancing the health and well-being of building occupants.
MDC – Deborah Berke, FAIA: Current Work
MDC – Yung Ho Chang, FAIA: Form and Content
Yung Ho Chang, FAIA, from Beijing, Yung Ho Chang, FAIA, from Beijing, delights the audience with his wry sense of humor and spectacular buildings. Yung Ho Chang showcases six recent projects including the Joshua Art Museum, which doubles as a pedestrian bridge.
Yung Ho ends his lecture with an in-depth look at the China Academy of Art, Liangzhu, a far cry from the MIT Department of Architecture that he headed from 2005 through 2010 before returning to Beijing to establish China's first private architecture firm, Atelier FCJZ.
MDC – Yung Ho Chang, FAIA: Form and Content
MDC – Liu and Idenburg: Form, Material and Light
Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg of SO-IL lead us on a tour of their recent projects that inspire lasting positive intellectual and societal engagement. Through their use of traditional craft and interplays of form, material and light, they explore a range of issues that regenerate urban environments, engage communities and illustrate their locally sensitive perspectives of architecture.
MDC – Liu and Idenburg: Form, Material and Light
MDC – James Wines: Architect and Artist
In this 60-minute virtual discussion with Reed Kroloff, James Wines, President of SITE NY, reflects on his extraordinary career. His multi-disciplinary practice focuses on the design of buildings, public spaces, environmental art works, landscape designs, master plans, interiors and product design.
From his lyrical crumbling facades of Best Products to his many other memorable projects, James explores the messages communicated, impact on natural environment and cost implications of buildings and public art since the 1960s. In his words, “I taught myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own tastes” and challenges the audience to rethink the role of public works in a post-pandemic world.
MDC – James Wines: Architect and Artist
MDC – Alison Brooks, RIBA: Context is Everything
RIBA Stirling Prize recipient Alison Brooks shares her commitment to historical context, communities and landscapes through a plethora of building typologies: high-density, urban design, cultural buildings and private homes. Alison illustrates how her firm’s designs embrace mass and weight and “welcome gravity,” which she presents as a welcome antidote to modernism.
Alison joyfully walks us around and through "The Smile" – a Landmark Project for the 2016 London Design Festival that straddled architecture, sculpture, and public art.
MDC – Alison Brooks, RIBA: Context is Everything
MDC – Sandra Barclay, Hon. FAIA: modus operandi
Sandra Barclay, Hon. FAIA, presents a series of projects that explore the bonds between landscape, climate and architecture. Sandra discusses how her studio, Barclay&Crousse, is structured as a laboratory. In her words "We consider our work as an ongoing research, in which each project informs the next one in terms of hypothesis, strategies and building processes."
Sandra presents a set of spectacular designs located in the ruins and hillsides throughout Peru, each rooted in Peruvian culture, history, and local ecologies.
MDC – Sandra Barclay, Hon. FAIA: modus operandi
MDC – Prof. Lesley Lokko: Building and Being
Prof. Lesley Lokko, Curator of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale and Founder of the African Futures Institute about global change making, delivers a passionate 2022 Monterey Design Conference keynote presentation about embedding diversity, equity and inclusion in the built environment.
Through a series of poignant illustrations and videos, Lesley paints a future built on Confront, Connect and Change, and showcases how the African Futures Institute is reversing a thousand years of exploitive practices, giving Africa’s dynamism and creative energy a space to flourish.
MDC – Prof. Lesley Lokko: Building and Being
MDC – Bijoy Jain: Environment and Materials
Renowned architect Bijoy Jain connects from his Mumbai studio as part of the 2022 Monterey Design Conference. Showcasing a few of his breathtaking projects, Bijoy talks about his creative process, his attentiveness to the environment and materials, and his thoughtful approach to local inhabitants. Bijoy concludes his presentation by taking us on a virtual tour of his studio.
MDC – Bijoy Jain: Environment and Materials
MDC – Lorcan O’Herlihy, FAIA: Social Acts
2023 Maybeck Award recipient Lorcan O’Herlihy, FAIA, takes us on a tour of LOLA’s recent projects and makes an impassioned plea for how architecture should serve as a social act that elevates communities and transforms cities.
Lorcan discusses revitalization efforts in Detroit, employing public space and pocket parks alongside buildings to create density with green space, and affordable housing strategies that support health and community. With a bit of Irish humor, Lorcan illustrates his commitment to artistry and elevating the human condition.
MDC – Lorcan O’Herlihy, FAIA: Social Acts
Keynotes from 2019 Monterey Design Conferences
MDC – Alberto Kalach: Architecture, Landscape and Urbanization
Watch one of Mexico’s most inspiring and famed architects in this 60-minute course filmed live at the 2019 Monterey Design Conference. Alberto Kalach showcases the work of TAX—Taller de Arquitectura X and passionately illustrates the fragile relationship between nature and urban environments, from a $5,000 minimal house, to his housing developments to one of the largest project ever conceived for the Valley of Mexico Basin.
MDC – Alberto Kalach: Architecture, Landscape and Urbanization
MDC – Mark Cavagnero: Simple Volumes, Unapologetic Forms
Mark Cavagnero, FAIA, takes us on an exploration of his firm’s work, which is grounded in the belief of the power of collaboration and community buildings. His stunning buildings and reductive designs show his journey from his early exposure to Marcel Breuer and the use of architecture “as a foil to reach out and grab space” and to the long, low lines expressed by Edward Barnes.
MDC – Mark Cavagnero: Simple Volumes, Unapologetic Forms
MDC – Gregg Pasquarelli: Thinkers and Makers
Gregg Pasquarelli, AIA, of SHoP Architects, captivates us with the art, mathematics, science and design behind his firm’s innovative portfolio. See how this cutting-edge interdisciplinary firm is proving—at sites around the world—that intelligent, evocative design can be made within real-world constraints. Gregg reveals the process behind the world's skinniest skyscraper and a pair of skyscrapers that feature copper cladding, bent silhouettes and a skybridge suspended more than 90 metres above the ground.
MDC – Gregg Pasquarelli: Thinkers and Makers
MDC – Yvonne Farrell: The EARTH as Client
Yvonne Farrell, FRIAI, Hon. RIBA, shares what Grafton Architects has discovered through its widely acclaimed practice and how each project explores questions: What do we value? How do we invent? How do we create something that is useful, beautiful and meaningful? Yvonne takes us on journey through the silent language of space and inspires us to “treat EARTH as a client.” Her poetic delivery leaves no doubt about why her firm won the inaugural RIBA International Prize in 2016 and was recently awarded the RIBA 2020 Royal Gold Medal and the 2020 Pritzker Prize.
MDC – Yvonne Farrell: The EARTH as Client
MDC – Bob Harris: RESONANCE--Nature, Place, Craft & Restraint
Bob Harris, FAIA, LEED Fellow of Lake|Flato, shares his passion for environmental issues as he illustrates how his firm’s designs push sustainability in new directions. Starting with an overview of Lake|Flato’s practice and design approach, Bob leads us on a visual tour of some of his most innovative projects and explains how the firm’s wide body of scientific research helped produce high performance, ecologically responsive buildings.
MDC – Bob Harris: RESONANCE--Nature, Place, Craft & Restraint
MDC – Brian MacKay-Lyons: The Wind and the Moon
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s 2015 Gold Medalist Brian MacKay-Lyons captivates us with his spectacular buildings, storytelling and dry wit. Brian shows us how his designs draw on his inspiration from a rich local heritage of building types and how he reinterprets local vernacular to respond to harsh climates and exterior elements.
MDC – Brian MacKay-Lyons: The Wind and the Moon
MDC – Lyndon Neri & Rossana Hu: Obsessions and Disappearing Villages
Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu highlight their Shanghai-based interdisciplinary work. Through stunning visuals and a series of short movies, they share their design obsessions and how their architectural practice confronts some of China's most challenging urban issues, rapid development and demolition, disappearing villages and disgruntled population. Lyndon and Rosanna highlight some of their most provocative projects and share a glimpse of Chinese urban life that is seldom seen.
MDC – Lyndon Neri & Rossana Hu: Obsessions and Disappearing Villages
MDC – Paul Kephart and Marta Kephart: Lightened Footprints, Natural Landscapes
Paul and Marta Kephart deliver a beautifully orchestrated and compelling case for preserving delicate landscapes and illustrate how incorporating biophilic design and ecological engineering can preserve natural landscapes and lighten the footprint on natural habitats.
From their innovative rooftop of the California Academy of Sciences to their solutions for restoring dune habitats, these pioneers of landscape design, ecology and horticulture inspire us to design for people in ways that promote sustainability and increase biological diversity.
MDC – Paul Kephart and Marta Kephart: Lightened Footprints, Natural Landscapes
Keynotes from 2017 Monterey Design Conferences
MDC – Sou Fujimoto: Between Nature and Architecture
Renowned Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto inspires us with soft lighting effects, visually arresting geometric forms, an interplay between nature and architecture, and with his desire to "question everything."
With a gentle presence and soft wit, Sou describes his ethereal installation at London's Serpentine Gallery, the infinite forest of books that comprises one of Japan's most distinguished libraries, his magical tree-inspired high-rise residential tower in southern France and, of course, his toilet in nature.
MDC – Sou Fujimoto: Between Nature and Architecture
MDC - Julie Eizenberg, FAIA: Urban Hallucinations
Julie Eizenberg, FAIA, examines placemaking and community building in Los Angeles and how architecture can address regional issues of sustainability, responsible growth, affordability, and housing shortages.
Showcasing recent affordable housing, apartments, libraries, public spaces and places of worship projects, Julie illustrates strategies for creating informal social interaction within, and between, buildings. And through her firm’s urban research and a personal account of life and work in the Los Angeles region, Julie deftly walks us through her "urban hallucinations."
MDC - Julie Eizenberg, FAIA: Urban Hallucinations
MDC – Marion Weiss, FAIA, and Michael Manfredi, FAIA: Expanded Territories
Marion Weiss, FAIA, and Michael Manfredi, FAIA, illustrate how movement, light and materiality actively shape how participants perceive and experience environments.
Through their museums, visitor centers, colleges, embassies, technology centers and waterfront parks, Marion and Michael describe how they push the boundaries of design to shape contemporary culture and to create buildings and open spaces that serve as models for urban ecology.
MDC – Marion Weiss, FAIA, and Michael Manfredi, FAIA: Expanded Territories
MDC – Shohei Shigematsu, OMA: Light, Movement and Shadow
OMA Partner Shohei Shigematsu leads us through a diverse portfolio of museums, university buildings, high-rise buildings and cultural venues that highlight the interplay of light, movement and shadow.
Shohei captivates his audience with his wit, incisive analogies and over 500 stunning images of his remarkable projects and collaborations with artists.
MDC – Shohei Shigematsu, OMA: Light, Movement and Shadow
MDC – Dominique Jakob: Jakob + MacFarlane
Parisian architect Dominique Jakob of Jakob+MacFarlane illustrates how her firm uses digital technology as both a conceptual design and a production tool for internationally acclaimed projects in Paris, Lyon, Orleans, Boulogne and Belgium.
Dominique describes how the structure, shapes and cladding of her museums, libraries, office buildings and housing projects were digitally conceived and executed through collaborations with artists and fabricators. She concludes her keynote with a fascinating short video “Augmenting the Invisible” that animates and brings to life a simple sketch.
MDC – Dominique Jakob: Jakob + MacFarlane
MDC – Jeff Goldstein: Building Walls: Meaning + Mass
Jeff Goldstein, AIA, of DIGSAU explores how to involve end users in using indigenous materials, how existing materials and structures can be re-used and re-purposed to create stunning community buildings, and how the use of form, space, light, and material convey potent ideas and connect to the human spirit.
With passion and a bit of social commentary, Jeff highlights six of his recent projects to illustrate how to create meaningful places that empower and inspire people to be more creative, productive, and fulfilled.
MDC – Jeff Goldstein: Building Walls: Meaning + Mass
MDC – Dorte Mandrup: Buildings and Conditions
Danish architect Dorte Mandrup illustrates the playful, innovative and poetic projects created by her “team of die-hard overachievers.” Dorte showcases her transformations of existing buildings, infills and urban planning to entirely new works, always anchored in location and landscape.
Among the projects Dorte presents are the expressive cantilever of the steel Salling Tower, the wooden truss of the Icefjord Center that bridges the rugged landscape, and the thatched roof of the Wadden Sea Centre that interprets the local building tradition and rural farmhouse typology of the region.
MDC – Dorte Mandrup: Buildings and Conditions
Keynotes from 2015 Monterey Design Conferences
MDC – Rand Elliott, FAIA: Stray Dogs
Rand Elliott, FAIA, shares his insights on designing for the environment and discusses the experiences that influence his work.
Rand'smesmerizing poetry, stunning visuals and provocative videos capture his deep respect for the land, the sun and the wind. His dramatic parking garage, iconic gas station, rhythmic boathouse and small-town house sited in a spare landscape enchant us with how light flows into a building. In his own words, Rand shows us "space that can only be heard by a stray dog."
MDC – Rand Elliott, FAIA: Stray Dogs
MDC – Clive Wilkinson, FAIA: The Theatre of Work
Clive Wilkinson, FAIA, illustrates how architecture can be elevated beyond the pragmatic needs of the people a building accommodates to a level of theater. Clive explores how this theater of architecture can serve as an amplification of human life, a re-energizing of memory and experience, and a reawakening of passion. Drawing upon his diverse portfolio, he illustrates how building designs must address cultural models, community structures, knowledge sharing, diversity, the human scale, and "tribal" organization and connectivity.
MDC – Clive Wilkinson, FAIA: The Theatre of Work
MDC – The Work of Carme Pinós
Filmed live at the 2013 Monterey Design Conference.
MDC – The Work of Carme Pinós
MDC – Junya Ishigami: How Small? How Vast?
Japanese architect Junya Ishigama introduces us to an entirely different style of architecture. Is it biophilia? Or magical props?
His designs facilitate the movement of nature along with the movement of people, inviting trees and clouds and rain inside. In varied projects, from house to university hall to port buildings, an unlikely collaboration can be seen -- habitats for the elements as well as for people. Here are materials that fool the eye, and structures so light and airy that they disappear before your eyes.
MDC – Junya Ishigami: How Small? How Vast?
MDC – Frank Barkow: Spielraum
Frank Barkow explores his deep interest in craftsmanship, structure and new technologies, and demonstrates how architectural ideas and materials are intertwined in projects that include easy-to-assemble tents, low-cost housing, advanced factory buildings and eye-catching high-rises.
Barkow illustrates how his firm, Barkow Leibinger, begins each project by first examining a particular material, then choosing the tools and software needed to turn it into a final formed product. With a deep knowledge of today’s cutting edge fabrication techniques, extensive research, and traditional model making, surprising new forms and structures arise.
MDC – Frank Barkow: Spielraum
MDC – Insights from Bernard Tschumi, FAIA
A legend goes live!
Bernard Tschumi, FAIA, examines some of his best known designs through concepts of space, event and movement.
Tschumi's early theoretical interests were in understanding and notating movement through space. He takes us through his design process, beginning with the concept, which evolves into form. In his varied museums, concert halls and other projects, Tschumi illustrates how structure and materials determine the form as much as the activities and movements within the space. Whether forms of movement or using a concept of "no form," his architecture is suffused with meaning.
MDC – Insights from Bernard Tschumi, FAIA
MDC – Art Installations by Pae White
Artist and collaborator Pae White shows her early projects, multi-media art and site-specific installations, which defy easy categorization.
White “listens” to space and uses her art to create a story that amplifies and alters the surroundings, whether a reflective curtain for Snøhetta's Opera House or a hall for pigeons at the Venice Biennale complete with birdseed chandeliers. The inventiveness of the many projects shown, their uniqueness and unexpected variety are inspiring proof of art’s ability to transform place.
MDC – Art Installations by Pae White
Keynotes from 2013 Monterey Design Conferences
MDC – Marlon Blackwell, FAIA: Transmutations
Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, discusses how his architecture and design process is based in design strategies that draw upon vernaculars and building typologies, upon contradictions of place, and upon strategies that transgress conventional boundaries for architecture.
Marlon skillfully demonstrates how resilient architecture can be achieved as an interplay between details, form and place and how responding to the specificities of site and sustainable design principles can result in architecture that can be felt as much as it is understood and be as immediate and tactile as it is legible, all while contributing to the fundamental civic dignity of communities.
MDC – Marlon Blackwell, FAIA: Transmutations
MDC – Odile Decq: Horizons
Odile Decq, one of Europe's most provocative architects, reviews her award-winning and highly experimental work in architecture, art and design products.
With her passionate French accent, Odile demonstrates how a strong vision and a bit of persuasion translates concepts into stunning restaurants, museums, glass houses, galleries, yachts, furniture and, yes, even dog houses. She generously weaves her signature shade of red throughout her sensual designs to infuse them with energy, passion and wit.
MDC – Odile Decq: Horizons
MDC – Kengo Kuma, Hon. FAIA: Age of Locations
Kengo Kuma, Hon. FAIA, shows over 360 mesmerizing images of his projects throughout Japan, China, Italy, France, Germany and England, poetically describing how architecture should place location, climate and environmental harmony above all else.
Kengo describes his “regionalism” as a movement aimed at true independence of each town, starting with reliance on local materials and skilled craftspeople. From museums and train stations, to an “umbrella house” to a Starbucks assembled with local timber in Fukuoka, Japan, Kengo’s mastery of details will inspire and delight
MDC – Kengo Kuma, Hon. FAIA: Age of Locations
MDC – Marcio Kogan, Hon. FAIA: What Makes Your Heart Beat?
Marcio Kogan, Hon. FAIA, Director of studioMK27 in San Paulo Brazil asks "What Makes Your Heart Beat?"
Known for his special attention to details and finishes, and his own interpretation of Brazilian Modernism, Marcio and his co-presenter Diana Radomysler mix images and film in this creative presentation. Marcio and Diana brilliantly showcase their work with humor, passion and with the help of an inquisitive cat.
MDC – Marcio Kogan, Hon. FAIA: What Makes Your Heart Beat?
MDC – Anne Fougeron, FAIA: A Decade
San Francisco-based Anne Fougeron, FAIA, showcases a decade of her award-winning work.
With humor and wit, Anne describes how her body of work embraces architectural opportunities and responds to political forces to create buildings that redefine program, reinvent historical building types, and reinvigorate civic centers. Each project is a careful consideration of context, light and structure.
MDC – Anne Fougeron, FAIA: A Decade
MDC – Thomas Phifer, FAIA: Outside In - Architecture, Landscape
Thomas Phifer, FAIA, discuss aesthetic and environmental principles guiding the design of recent buildings and their landscapes. He poetically illustrates how technical innovations can be used to express structural lightness and architectural transparency.
Thomas presents six recent projects showing how incorporating high levels of controlled natural light and views of nature increases human comfort and health and how utilizing sustainable design features grounds a building in its place.
MDC – Thomas Phifer, FAIA: Outside In - Architecture, Landscape
Keynotes from 2011 Monterey Design Conferences
MDC – Jennifer Yoos, FAIA: Material / Immaterial
Jennifer Yoos, FAIA, illustrates how VJAA’s research-based design approach is applied to diverse building programs, locations, and scales.
Jennifer illustrates the idea of “materiality” that emphasizes craftsmanship and research into new material systems and structure. She then discusses “immateriality” by illustrating how buildings interact with climate and changing uses over time. Jennifer weaves these ideas together with her firm’s sensitive and striking designs of museums, libraries, hotels, exhibits and a rowing club.
MDC – Jennifer Yoos, FAIA: Material / Immaterial
MDC – Jeanne Gang, FAIA: Fish, Sticks, Birds and Bricks
How do the migration patterns of birds relate to the design of city towers? How can innovative community planning spur economic recovery in suburbs? Find out by stepping into the mind of 2011 MacArthur Genius Grant winner Jeanne Gang, FAIA, Founder and Principal of Studio Gang Architects. Jeanne offers fascinating insight into the creative process and thematic undertones that shape the work of one of America’s most visionary architects.
MDC – Jeanne Gang, FAIA: Fish, Sticks, Birds and Bricks
MDC – Tom Kundig, FAIA: Landscape, Community and Craft
Tom Kundig, FAIA, takes us through a vast body of his past and current work. Filled with wonderfully imaginative designs, inspiring solutions and more than a little subversion, Kundig's brilliance is on display as he discusses the aspects of architecture that are most personal and meaningful to him and have continued to resonate with him since he began working as an architect. Tom's inspirational lecture discusses four key aspects of his work: Craft and Making, Site, Hot-Rodding and Reuse, and Community.
MDC – Tom Kundig, FAIA: Landscape, Community and Craft
MDC – Borja Ferrater: Architecture and Geometry
Borja Ferrater, a part of the family team at the innovative firm, Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), demonstrates his and the company's unique work. Ferrater delivers an engaging, entertaining and often amusing lecture, packed with fascinating projects incorporating techniques utilizing light, geometry and materials in ways that have only recently been possible. The projects themselves span a variety of different scales, budgets and purposes. Yet, given Ferrater's interest in buildings as systems, the projects form a cohesive and narratively-driven portfolio, populated by some work from one of the most exciting and innovative international firms.
MDC – Borja Ferrater: Architecture and Geometry
MDC – Michael Maltzan, FAIA: No More Play
How can architecture convince people to live, work and play in a single community? How can public housing be as beautiful as it is efficient? In this 60-minute course, filmed live at AIACC's 2011 Monterey Design Conference, Michael Maltzan, FAIA, draws on his significant architectural experience to offer new ideas for transforming the way we design, build and think about public structures and the cities they help to define.
MDC – Michael Maltzan, FAIA: No More Play
MDC – Peter Walker, FASLA: 9/11 Memorial and Its Precedents
Peter Walker, FASLA, reviews his landscape architecture work on one of the most significant new projects in the United States: the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. Walker puts the Memorial's design in the context of his firm's previous work on several notable projects and examines the special techniques he helped to develop in order to implement his vision.
Peter also provides a detailed account of how the Memorial came to exist in its current form: what challenges were overcome, what concepts changed, and how he helped to create a unique and somber landmark.
MDC – Peter Walker, FASLA: 9/11 Memorial and Its Precedents
MDC – Brigitte Shim, Hon. FAIA: Linking Light & Landscape
Brigitte Shim, Hon. FAIA, of Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and the University of Toronto, illustrates how she exploits seasonal changes to light, water and landscape to intertwine with her building designs. Shim's engaging lecture is filled with examples from her firm's earlier and recent cutting-edge work, significant not just for the buildings’ construction but also for the way they are integrated with their surroundings.
MDC – Brigitte Shim, Hon. FAIA: Linking Light & Landscape
MDC – Dr. Dickson Despommier: The Vertical Farm
Dickson Despommier, PhD, demonstrates the concept of vertical farming, a unique way of using technology to change how we grow food, treat the earth, and form our urban spaces. In a simultaneously heart-wrenching and uplifting lecture, packed with astounding facts, statistics and anecdotes, Dr. Despommier illustrates that humanity's future can easily be a bright one, but only if we act now.
MDC – Dr. Dickson Despommier: The Vertical Farm
Tribal Elder Dialogues from Monterey Design Conference
MDC Tribal Elder: Reflections with Herb Greene
In this Tribal Elder dialogue from the 2022 Monterey Design Conference, Pierluigi Serraino engages legend Herb Greene as they discuss many of his most memorable architecture including the iconic Praire House, photographed by Julius Shulman and featured in Life and Look magazines.
Herb Greene's grandneice Lisa Cohen joins her uncle as they reminisce about his extraordinary career.
This course is presented FREE courtesy of the AIA California Council and aecKnowledge.
MDC Tribal Elder: Reflections with Herb Greene
MDC Tribal Elder: Gere Kavanaugh - A Unique Multi-Dimensional Design Firm
In this Tribal Elder dialogue from the 2017 Monterey Design Conference, Pierluigi Serraino interviews the acclaimed American textile, industrial, and interior designer Gere Kavanaugh about her influence as a designer in the 1960s, the use of color and how interior design relates to the overall architectural design impact of a building. Gere discusses her work on the Nixon Library and her numerous exhibitions and collections, her collaboration with Victor Gruen and Frank Gehry, and her unabashed opinion about architects.
This course is presented FREE courtesy of the AIA California Council and aecKnowledge.
MDC Tribal Elder: Gere Kavanaugh - A Unique Multi-Dimensional Design Firm
AIA Seattle 2024 Housing Forum: A Stage for Life
Coming Down the Pike: Navigating City & State Policy Changes
Learn state and local housing policies impact the development of high density and affordable housing. This course examines housing in the greater Seattle area and Washington State and addresses housing issues such as access, affordability, equity, livability, and adaptable density.
Panelists discuss where housing is headed following the release of the draft One Seattle Plan! and present a case study of a "missing middle" housing infill project. \
Coming Down the Pike: Navigating City & State Policy Changes
Living in Seattle: Community Perspectives on Housing
Hear directly from residents about their diverse experiences living in multifamily housing. This panel discussion informs architects and other design professionals how to approach designing affordable housing projects and supporting living environments.
Living in Seattle: Community Perspectives on Housing
Case Studies in Responsive Housing Design
Discover how community engagement leads to better housing solutions and how inclusive processes produce more responsive and innovative designs. Case studies include Flex House (Hybrid), Africatown Plaza (GGLO + David Baker Architects), Sweetwater Spectrum Community (LMS Architects), and Bridge Meadows + Dorothy Lemelson House (Carleton Hart Architecture).
Case Studies in Responsive Housing Design
Closing Keynote | A Holistic Approach to Housing
Kevin Daly, FAIA, has defined a design process that upholds the practical magic of architecture – an alchemical conjunction of craft, materials, and form. Listen to Kevin discuss housing for transitional-aged youth, campus student housing, workforce and artist housing, senior affordable housing and supportive housing.
Closing Keynote | A Holistic Approach to Housing
AIA Seattle 2023: Housing Forum: Housing Now!
Housing Now: Innovative Land Use
Explore recent land use policy and zoning changes in Seattle, Washington State, Portland and Oregon that allow for more “Missing Middle” housing. Presenters provide insights for advising clients and developers about opportunities to create more inclusive, equitable, resilient and livable communities and to navigate potential obstacles.
Housing Now: Innovative Land Use
Housing Now: Innovative Financing
Learn from 7 experts how innovative financing strategies can unlock affordable housing.
Gain insight into policy, development constraints, and how architects can be more effective collaborators and advocates for funding affordable housing.
Housing Now: Innovative Financing
Housing Now: Innovative Case Studies
Learn about innovative housing models if various scales throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Case studies include Wedgeview by WC Studio, Heartwood by atelierjones LLC, Argyle Gardens by Holst Architecture and co-housing designs by Schemata Workshop.
Housing Now: Innovative Case Studies
Neighborhood Now!
With a dose of dry wit, Julie Eizenberg, FAIA, LFRAIA, discusses opportunities to strengthen neighborhoods through analysis of housing typologies and case studies of housing and community buildings. Among the many examples: the widely acclaimed Arroyo affordable family housing and a provocative entry for an affordable housing competition in Chicago.
Neighborhood Now!
AIA Seattle: 2019: Housing - Density Done Right
Density Done Right - Social Occupation
Lorcan O’Herlihy passionately illustrates how his architecture can serve as a social act--a tool for engaging in politics, economics, aesthetics, and smart, sustainable growth. Lorcan shows how his firm’s recent work creating affordable, high-density housing promotes equity, human interaction and cultural evolution.
Density Done Right - Social Occupation
Density Done Right - Minneapolis 2040: Race, Place and Equity
Understand how zoning reform can reshape cities as Paul Mogush and Heather Worthington – two accomplished city planners – discuss work with the City of Minneapolis to create cities more resilient to the effect of climate change and diminishing natural resources, and to create affordable strategies for improving access to healthy living activities.
Density Done Right - Minneapolis 2040: Race, Place and Equity
Density Done Right - The Roost: Micro Housing, Community and Cultural Space
David Neiman discusses his firm’s innovative designs that focus on livability, affordability, community, and access to housing for all. David then presents a case study of The Roost, an affordable micro-housing development that supports and strengthens Seattle's arts community.
David also illustrates how to overcome market constraints and achieve a 5-Star Built Green certification in this remarkably energy-efficient congregate housing development.
Density Done Right - The Roost: Micro Housing, Community and Cultural Space
Density Done Right - Pax Futura: A High-Performance Community
Examine the design and performance of Seattle’s first certified multifamily Passive House.
Sloan Ritchie of Cascade Built and designer Brittany Porter of Weber Thompson present Pax Futura and shows how to provide thermal comfort, energy-efficiency and lower moisture penetration through heat pumps, heat recovery systems, thermal bridging, computerized shading models and air barrier details.
Density Done Right - Pax Futura: A High-Performance Community
Density Done Right - Othello Square
Learn how community engagement drives impactful design.
of Weber Thompson and Faduma Ahmed, MPA, of HomeSight present a fascinating case study of the community-based planning and design process of Othello Square, one Seattle’s most recent affordable housing projects.
Density Done Right - Othello Square
Density Done Right - Granny Pad & Big Mouth House
Discover how ADUs can expand housing options and affordability.
Ian Butcher, AIA, and Kailin Gregga, AIA, of Best Practice present case studies of affordable accessory dwelling units.
The fun designs for Granny Pad, Big Mouth House, and DadPad illustration how micro-units and accessory dwelling units can increase housing density, provide much needed affordable housing options, decrease carbon footprints and better accommodate the needs of an aging family member.
Density Done Right - Granny Pad & Big Mouth House
Density Done Right - Lightning Talks
In this series of “lightning talks” seven planners, designers, architects and builders provide distinct strategies for creating more sustainable, livable and affordable urban residential developments and safe pedestrian corridors.
Density Done Right - Lightning Talks
AIA Seattle: 2018 Housing Forum
Twelve Years, Seven Houses, a Thousand Experiments
Stephen Kieran, FAIA, LEED Fellow, shows his firm's artistry in six inspiring residential projects, including prefabricated high-performance solutions that are proving to be instrumental in changing the way the industry models, constructs and delivers housing.
Stephen also discusses his firm's research and involvement in Living Choices Homes and its quest to create affordable, solid and renewable housing to meet the demand projected for India's emerging middle class.
Twelve Years, Seven Houses, a Thousand Experiments
Housing Inspiration: Sawmill House and Karuna House
Learn from two groundbreaking residential case studies: the net-zero Sawmill House by Olson Kundig, and off-the-grid, family retreat embedded in the tough, scrubby landscape in the harsh high desert of California and the high-performance Karuna House, an ambitious residential project designed to meet a combination of the world’s most demanding green building certifications.
Housing Inspiration: Sawmill House and Karuna House
Housing Innovation: Case Studies
This three-part, 60-minute course filmed live at AIA Seattle’s 2018 Housing Forum, showcases a series of highly innovative approaches to the housing industry.
First, Craig Curtis, FAIA, LEED AP, presents how Katerra is redefining the $1.3 trillion housing industry through offsite manufacturing and by optimizing every aspect of building design, materials supply and construction.
Susan Jones, FAIA, LEED BD+C, of atelierjones then showcases her high-performance CLT House, a modest 1,500 SF single-family home washed in light and full of the textures and smells of natural materials.
Elizabeth Golden and Rick Mohler of the University of Washington, along with Yasaman Esmali of modular housing start-up blokable, then showcase innovative multi-family solutions that can be integrated into single-family housing zones.
Housing Innovation: Case Studies
Making Room: Housing for a Changing America
Architectural historian Chrysanthe Broikos guides viewers through the Making Room: Housing for a Changing America exhibition at the National Building Museum. Through compelling visuals and research, explore emerging housing typologies—from micro-units to shared living—that respond to shifting demographics and evolving lifestyles.
Making Room: Housing for a Changing America
Inspiration, Innovation, Impact: The Future of Residential Design
Craig Curtis, (Katerra), Susan Jones, FAIA (Atelierjones), Stephen Kieran, FAIA, LEED Fellow (KieranTimberlake). Chrysanthe Broikos (Architectural Historian & Curator National Building Museum) and Rob Johnson (Seattle City Councilmember) as they tackle artificial intelligence, rapid social change, housing prototypes, regional affordable housing policies, and managing risk while embracing innovation.
Stephen Kieran ends the panel discussion with a moving story about how his own house has accommodated life-changes in his family.
Inspiration, Innovation, Impact: The Future of Residential Design
AIA San Francisco: Growing a Small Firm
Starting Your Own Firm
Filmed live at AIA San Francisco, each panelist provides insights and invaluable lessons from years filled with joy and anguish. This inspiring and eye-opening conversation offers candid advice and practical tips on everything from building a portfolio and branding a firm to managing cash flow, motivating staff and responding to relentless client demands. This course should be on the "essential viewing" list for anyone thinking about starting an architecture or design firm.
Starting Your Own Firm
Growing a Small Firm: Marketing
Although the panelists practice in small firms, their insights will apply to practitioners interested in growing a firm of any size and to emerging professionals of any discipline.
Filmed live at AIA San Francisco as part of its Growing a Small Firm series.
Growing a Small Firm: Marketing
Growing a Small Firm: Public Design Opportunities
Panelists reveal insights and advice of owner representatives responsible for hiring and working with small firms on small- and large-scale public projects and candidly describe how to gain market intelligence on upcoming projects, what happens behind the scenes in selection deliberations, and what strategies resonate most during selection interviews.
Filmed live at AIA San Francisco as part of its Growing a Small Firm series.
Growing a Small Firm: Public Design Opportunities
Growing a Small Firm: Elevating the Role of Women
As panelist Marsha Maytum, FAIA, stated, "It's a matter of being able to find your voice in that group and feel of equal value."
The four women panelists, each of whom has found her voice and successfully navigated her way to an influential position, offer candid advice to both genders about work/life balance, finding the right mentor and partners, publicizing your achievements, establishing yourself on a construction site, and staying true to your passions.
Filmed live at AIA San Francisco as part of its Growing a Small Firm series.
Growing a Small Firm: Elevating the Role of Women
Growing a Small Firm: Teaming with Larger Firms
The panelists, based on decades of experience teaming with larger firms, offer candid advice about how to identify the right firms with whom to team, which projects are most appropriate for teaming, how to align cultures, how to make a smaller firm attractive to larger firms, how to navigate potential problems, what to consider when allocating scope and fees, and, of equal importance, when to run away from a teaming opportunity.
Their insights will help your firm form valuable relationships and deliver better projects while saving you countless sleepless nights.
Filmed live at AIA San Francisco as part of its Growing a Small Firm series.
Growing a Small Firm: Teaming with Larger Firms
Growing a Small Firm: Diversifying Your Practice and Entering New Markets
The panelists, based on decades of experience, provide pointed advice about how to effectively identify new marketing opportunities, build a brain trust, leverage technology and social media, partner and joint venture with other firms, and overcome marketing barriers unique to small and growing firms. Their insights will help you broaden your firm’s base, gain entry into highly desirable market sectors and appeal to a growing list of clients.
Filmed live at AIA San Francisco as part of its Growing a Small Firm series.
Growing a Small Firm: Diversifying Your Practice and Entering New Markets
Growing a Small Firm: Creating Successful Partnerships
The panelists, each from small architectural firms that have successfully navigated the often long and ambitious journey of partnering with other small firms, discuss: how to become more viable for projects by partnering with other small firms; how partnering can help your firm diversify its services, project types and geographic reach; how to present your team to prospective clients and communicate your team’s value proposition; and why developing a familiarity and clarifying your roles and responsibilities are essential when partnering with other firms.
Filmed live at AIA San Francisco as part of its Growing a Small Firm series.
Growing a Small Firm: Creating Successful Partnerships
Growing a Small Firm: Online Media and Social Networking
From their experience as writers and communication consultants, the panelists discuss why compelling and relevant narratives are essential when approaching a writer or publisher, why small firms should establish multiple digital and personal touch points, why good photography is critical for getting published and driving traffic to your website, and even why relentless self-promotion is so important in today’s digital age.
Growing a Small Firm: Online Media and Social Networking
Growing a Small Firm: Developing Your Identity and Building Your Reputation
The panel of communications experts and architects offer candid advice about defining and building your firm’s reputation, the benefits of communicating your values and distinct personality, the importance of establishing your authenticity through word of mouth and in-person contact, and why focusing on your clients’ goals and seeking their advice is essential for developing and communicating your identity.
Filmed live at AIA San Francisco as part of its Growing a Small Firm series.
Growing a Small Firm: Developing Your Identity and Building Your Reputation
Financial Management for Design Professionals
Financial Management: Introduction for Design Professionals
The presenters, Rena Klein, FAIA, and Steve Wintner, AIA Emeritus, consult with design professionals nationwide about financial management, and are skilled in distilling financial knowledge and concepts into bite-size pieces that position firm leaders to make strategic operational decisions.
This course dispels myths that have haunted design professionals since the days of Michelangelo.
Financial Management: Introduction for Design Professionals
Financial Management: Key Financial Performance Indicators (KPFIs)
The presenters, Rena Klein, FAIA, and Steve Wintner, AIA Emeritus, consult with design professionals nationwide about financial management, and are skilled in distilling financial knowledge and concepts into bite-size pieces that position firm leaders to make strategic operational decisions.
If you ever had any doubts about your firm’s Net Effective Multiplier, this course is a MUST SEE!.
Financial Management: Key Financial Performance Indicators (KPFIs)
Financial Management: Annual Budgets, Revenue Forecasting and Profit Planning
The presenters, Rena Klein, FAIA, and Steve Wintner, AIA Emeritus, consult with design professionals nationwide about financial management, and are skilled in distilling financial knowledge and concepts into bite-size pieces that position firm leaders to make strategic operational decisions.
Steve Wintner, AIA Emeritus, and Rena M. Klein, FAIA, ignite the screen as cash flow meets profit planning!
Financial Management: Annual Budgets, Revenue Forecasting and Profit Planning
Risk Management
Risk Management Best Practices
This treasure trove of risk management and practice management advice covers: concepts and strategies to manage the legal risks provided by contractual indemnity agreements; legal risks pertaining to sustainable design; issues and procedures for securing payment on projects; strategies to avoid claims in process; and strategies for selecting the correct business entity for your practice. The course closes with a discussion of strategies for introducing Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) into your projects.
Risk Management Best Practices
Minimizing Risk During Construction Administration
Attorney Michele L. Gamble provides targeted, practical tips to help minimize potential risks that architects, engineers and allied professionals face during this critical phase of projects. Topics include contracting, communicating, planning, documenting and increasing awareness of risks involved with construction administration. This course is especially relevant to design professionals who draft contracts, manage risks and/or provide construction administration-related services.
Minimizing Risk During Construction Administration
Pitfalls and Minefields of Specification-Writing
Course takers will develop a better understanding of and appreciation for specifications – an often-overlooked part of the Contract Documents – and learn how to craft specifications that achieve design objectives, meet code requirements, and avoid added costs, delays, construction coordination problems and disputes. .
The presenter provides specific solutions to overcome common challenges design professionals face when writing design-based, performance-based, propriety or hybrid specifications.
Pitfalls and Minefields of Specification-Writing
Contract Language: The Foundation of Good Business
Attorney Brian Stewart examines onerous contract clauses that design professionals regularly confront and provides targeted suggestions for negotiating more balanced clauses. Topics include essential contract clauses, pros and cons of typical compensation methods, dispute resolution options and limitations of liability protections.
Contract Language: The Foundation of Good Business
Risk Control in Construction Contract Administration
The presenter makes a compelling case for why architects and engineers must serve as both a risk manager and a project manager, and provides an easy-to-follow approach to controlling risks in a manner that enhances service effectiveness.
Viewers will gain valuable insights into how best to identify CCA areas of vulnerability, improve their ability to develop risk averse CCA procedures, and expand their skills in persuading owners to share in the numerous risks inherent in CCA.
Risk Control in Construction Contract Administration
Arbitration and Litigation: A Trial Attorney's Perspective
Attorney Samuel Muir provides a candid comparison and dispels commonly-held myths as he provides design professionals insights into how to choose between arbitration and litigation and negotiate dispute resolution clauses that protect their interests. As arbitration agreements are subject to contract interpretation, this course will help design professionals negotiate a clause that provides many of the legal protections inherent in civil litigation.
Arbitration and Litigation: A Trial Attorney's Perspective
Drawing the Line: Monitoring the Contractor’s Work Plan
Course takers will develop a better understanding of the need for dialogue, and the tools to initiate and improve communication, amongst all team members, pertaining to contractor work coordination activities.
With a wry sense of humor, the presenter discusses how to review and respond to construction coordination drawings, clarifications sketches, submittals and mock-ups, and provides valuable insights that will help guide pre-installation conferences and enforce contract requirements.
Drawing the Line: Monitoring the Contractor’s Work Plan
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Architectural Practice
The design and construction industries are poised for dramatic change through the use of artificial intelligence. In this 90-minute course, Phil Bernstein, FAIA, RIBA, NOMA, LEED AP | Professor, Adjunct at Yale School of Architecture, traces the evolution of recent technologies and examines the implications of AI for the future of architectural practice. Among the topics:
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Architectural Practice
The Future of Work with AI
This course, presented free courtesy of Microsoft, introduces architectsand other design professionals to M365 Copilot, showcasing how this powerful tool can enhance productivity, creativity and collaboration.
Attendees will learn how to integrate M365 Copilot into their daily tasks, from drafting reports and managing schedules to generating design ideas and automating routine processes. This course is intended for architects and other design professionals looking to stay ahead in the industry by leveraging AI to streamline their work and improve efficiency.
The Future of Work with AI
Accessibility and Universal Design – 2023
BIM: Leveraging Level of Development & BIM Execution Plans
This 75-minute course features industry experts from SmithGroup, Boldt Construction Company, Stanford Health Care’s Planning Design + Construction, and Autodesk. This highly informative set of presentations and panel discussion illustrates how to: develop Level of Development and BIM Execution plans to reduce design errors and construction conflicts; leverage data incorporated into BIM models; manage scope and risks when sharing BIM models; and integrate design-assist into BIM models. Tune in as practitioners discuss lessons learned and Autodesk evangelist Jon Van Benthem presents a case study of the Denver International Airport.
This course was filmed live as part of AIA San Francisco’s Integrated Practice series.
BIM: Leveraging Level of Development & BIM Execution Plans
Accessibility 2023: Designing for People with Sensory Challenges - Sweetwater Spectrum
Many people on the autism spectrum share characteristics, such as the need for predictability and trouble with social interaction. Many also have with sensory sensitivities, including loud noises, sudden movements, and direct light.
Ryan Jang, AIA, LEED AP of LMSa (Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects), the Founder and the Executive Director of Sweetwater Spectrum take us on a tour this innovative facility for sixteen adult residents in Sonoma, California. The design focus focuses on maximizing residents’ individual development and independence and incorporates autism-specific strategies to promote a serene, safe and nurturing environment.
Accessibility 2023: Designing for People with Sensory Challenges - Sweetwater Spectrum
Accessibility 2023: Universal Design - Tom and Ruth Harkin Center at Drake University
The new 17,000 SF Tom and Ruth Harkin Center at Drake University, designed by BNIM, sets a new standard for universal and inclusive design and embodies the values of The Harkin Institute’s focus on accessible and equitable spaces.
BNIM’s Kevin Nordmeyer, AIA, LEED AP and Jason Kruse, AIA, LEED AP BD+C and The Harkin Institute’s Executive Director describe some of its most innovative features: a two-story ramp that serves as the primary path between floors; generously sized circulation spaces that support sign-language conversations and multiple wheelchair users; high-contrast and textural cues for low-vision individuals; and gender-inclusive restrooms. The presenters also describe the strong overlap between the sustainable design strategies and the occupants’ health and productivity.
Accessibility 2023: Universal Design - Tom and Ruth Harkin Center at Drake University
Accessibility 2023: Accessibility in Education and Community Facilities
In this 90-minute course, four California architects present case studies in making education facilities accessible and inclusive.
Brian Dougherty, FAIA, of Perkins Eastman highlights opportunities for diversity, equity and inclusion and how we approach accessibility. Laura Knauss, AIA of Lionakis discusses Universal Design in learning. Mark Graham, AIA from PBK Architects then discusses how current accessibility codes don’t always provide the exact guidance architects might need. Scott Gaudineer, AIA, of Flewelling & Moody presents the final case study on mental and emotional health as part of Universal Design. The course concludes with a short panel discussion.
Accessibility 2023: Accessibility in Education and Community Facilities
Accessibility 2023: Innovative Accessibility Solutions to Challenging Sites
In this 75-minute course, two California architects present case studies about innovative accessibility solutions to challenging sites.
Anne Cotter, AIA, LEED AP of ZGF showcases how the design team seamlessly integrated accessibility throughout the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Southern California Headquarters. The design spans a 22-foot grade difference on the site, sloping entries and courtyard, tiered outdoor seating and gentle walkways that do not require handrails.
Martha L. Bell, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C of HED then presents two case studies from recent designs at Saddleback College. The Advanced Technology and Applied Sciences Facility features winding accessible ramps integrated into outdoor gardens and special vehicular and pedestrian access points. And the 75,000 SF Gateway Building, comprised of offices and classrooms, serves as an accessible pathway from the upper to the lower campus.
Accessibility 2023: Innovative Accessibility Solutions to Challenging Sites
Sustainable Restoration of Paul Revere Williams’s Mid-Century Legacy at UCLA
This course focuses on strategies used in the renovation and seismic retrofit of two significant buildings on UCLA’s campus designed by Paul Revere Williams, FAIA. Participants will learn how these mid-century buildings have been transformed to support modern research and teaching and the structural techniques used to strengthen them while retaining their character defining features. The course also discusses UCLA’s approach to sustainability and the systems and features incorporated into the projects that reduce energy usage and achieve Platinum Level LEED Certification.
Sustainable Restoration of Paul Revere Williams’s Mid-Century Legacy at UCLA
Equity in Design: Architecture and Spatial Justice
As Edward Soja writes, "space is socially produced and can therefore be socially changed." This webinar explores the concept of Spatial Justice and discusses how the creation of space as both a physical and social construct is fundamental to the practice of architecture.
Equity in Design: Architecture and Spatial Justice
Accessibility and Universal Design – 2021
Accessibility 2021: Accessible Hotels and Restaurants
In this 75-minute course, learn how to design attractive and functional hotel spaces that welcome people with disabilities. Karen L. Braitmayer, FAIA, recipient of the AIA 2019 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award and frequent business and leisure traveler, shares inspiring examples of hotels and restaurants that strive to serve us all, along with a handful of eye-opening inaccessible design features to avoid. Karen concisely summarizes her findings in a list of Top Five Compliance Issues for People with Disabilities.
With a wry sense of humor, Karen blends her skills as an architect and accessibility consultant with her experience as a lifelong wheelchair user as she educates fellow design professionals.
Accessibility 2021: Accessible Hotels and Restaurants
Accessibility 2021: The Trouble with Accessibility
In this 75-minute course, Peter Slatin explores how the current push for inclusion and diversity both enhances and misdirects the design process and how changing visions of accessibility and disability influence the built environment.
Peter starts with an inspiring case study of how the widely-acclaimed historical renovation of the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice resulted in more inclusive designs for all occupants and visitors. With his guide dog by his side, Peter cites how long-held social misconceptions and assumptions about disability inform design and why the Americans with Disabilities Act, while being a force for positive change, has also had counterproductive consequences. Peter also explores how the design community’s response to sustainable design can serve as a model for making more buildings universally accessible.
Accessibility 2021: The Trouble with Accessibility
Accessibility 2021: Urban Accessibility & Inclusiveness
In this 75-minute course, Karen Tamley, Commissioner for the City of Chicago's Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, discusses how Chicago is becoming one of the most accessible and inclusive cities in the nation, serving the diverse needs of more than 600,000 individuals with disabilities. Karen highlights Chicago's multi-faceted approach and innovative programs to broaden accessibility to open more housing, services and resources to the disabled community
After discussing urban accessibility from the perspectives of Universal Design, Karen poignantly issues a call to action to architects: Your designs can either cement poverty and isolation, impose indignities and inequities--or you can design for inclusion, for freedom, for equity.
Accessibility 2021: Urban Accessibility & Inclusiveness
Accessibility 2021: Building an Inclusive Community Engagement Process
In this 75-minute panel discussion, three accessibility experts focus on how design professionals can facilitate an inclusive community-engagement process that leads to buildings and public spaces that better serve the needs of the disabled community. The panelists discuss how to engage the disability community, how to help agencies prioritize their building expenditures and how to create inclusive spaces based on a diverse set of disability needs and perspectives. Interspersed with personal examples of how the ADA has affected each panelist’s life, this provocative discussion sheds light on why the disability community often states "Nothing About Us Without Us."
Accessibility 2021: Building an Inclusive Community Engagement Process
Accessibility and Universal Design – 2019
Accessibility 2019: Accessibility and Historic Buildings - San Francisco War Memorial Veterans Building
In this 90-minute course, Steven Winkel, FAIA, PE, CASp, walks us through the historic San Francisco War Memorial Veterans Building and the inspiring Herbst Theatre. He provides guidance on how to both preserve a building's historic fabric and navigate between the requirements of the State Historical Building Code and the California Existing Building Code.
Viewers will gain a better understanding of the amount of latitude they have in applying elements of the State Historical Code, even in buildings listed only in a smaller community’s register of local landmarks.
This course complies with California licensure requirements for accessibility (SB 1608 and California Business and Professions Code Section 5600.05) and provides essential information about accessibility requirements applicable in most states.
Accessibility 2019: Accessibility and Historic Buildings - San Francisco War Memorial Veterans Building
Accessibility 2019: Design Beyond ADA & Compliance
In this 60-minute course, Peter Slatin, AIA, draws on his experience navigating as a blind person around New York City and discusses how our environment needs to respond to a growing number of people with a variety of disabilities and impairments: vision, hearing, mobility, awareness and memory. Peter also discusses the Elements of Service he created, which consists of Observe, Ask, Listen, Respond and Follow Through, and reminds us that compliance should be the floor, not the ceiling, for addressing accessibility in design.
With his guide dog by his side, Peter addresses some social misconceptions. “It’s important to remember that a person with a disability, for the most part, isn’t feeling afflicted. They are dealing with their challenges, they do it every day.”
This course complies with California licensure requirements for accessibility (SB 1608 and California Business and Professions Code Section 5600.05) and provides essential information about accessibility requirements applicable in most states.
Accessibility 2019: Design Beyond ADA & Compliance
Accessibility 2019: Accessibility for Persons with Visual Impairments - The New San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind
In this 75-minute course, Gilda Puente-Peters, CASp sheds light on designing accessible spaces for persons with vision impairments. After illustrating how visually-impaired people experience environments and demonstrating how people with canes avoid objects, Gilda presents a case study of the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, designed by Mark Cavagnero Associates with consultation from blind architect Chris Downey
This course complies with California licensure requirements for accessibility (SB 1608 and California Business and Professions Code Section 5600.05) and provides essential information about accessibility requirements applicable in most states.
Accessibility 2019: Accessibility for Persons with Visual Impairments - The New San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind
Accessibility 2019: Persuading Clients - Where Life Safety & Accessibility Overlap
In this 75-minute course, Dawn Anderson, AIA, CSI, describes how best to educate clients about accessibility requirements and to gain their strong support for creating an expressive design, art and aesthetic that is based on accessibility, inclusion and equality.
This course is interspersed with diagrams from Chapter 11B of the California Building Code.
Accessibility 2019: Persuading Clients - Where Life Safety & Accessibility Overlap
AIA Seattle 2024 Climate Summit: Future Forward (Qualifies for ZNCD portion of CA License Renewal)
Future Forward – Seeking Climate Solutions
Moderated by Jamie Stroble | Director of Climate Action & Resilience – TNC; Seattle Planning Commissioner; Founder of King County Climate Justice Framework, two inspirational climate justice advocates share perspectives on how design professionals are addressing climate change.
Baja, Senior Director, Direct Support & Innovation, Urban Sustainability Director’s Network (USDN) discusses how design professionals can identify, lead and support innovative projects that actively transform local government processes, shifts power to community, and centers racial and environmental justice.
Sudha Nandagopal, Advocate and Power Building Strategist for a Just Climate Future sheds light on how design professionals can foster frontline community-led decision making and champion ecosystems that advance climate justice.
Future Forward – Seeking Climate Solutions
Fostering Green Infrastructure
Understand ecological consequences of climate change infrastructure solutions that address climate-related challenges while promoting justice and reconciliation.
Presenters explore practical methods to integrate green infrastructure to respond to support community resiliency and livability. Presenters discuss the interconnectivity of systems with a focus on urban forestry, water equity, and local indigenous practices.
Fostering Green Infrastructure
Community Resilience in a Changing Climate
Explore sustainability and resiliency at the community level through case studies, including the Bullet Center in Seattle and University of Washington initiatives.
Presenters discuss the role of Resilience Hubs in community resilience and delve into how design professionals can help communities withstand and respond to the climate crisis.
Community Resilience in a Changing Climate
Building for Well-Being
Explore the critical intersection of material health and embodied carbon with this amazing panel of experts. This course equips designers with the knowledge to make informed material choices that reduce emissions, minimize toxicity, and support healthier environments.
Building for Well-Being
AIA Seattle 2023: Decarbonization for Health Equity & Community Resilience
Decarbonization for Health, Equity & Community Resilience
Explore the challenges and opportunities in rapid decarbonization from a health, safety, and equity perspective to make actionable differences that prioritize resilient communities and ecosystems.
Panelists discuss the architect’s role in accelerating a decarbonized built environment and meeting our shared needs though environmental justice, health equity, and community resiliency and provide an overview of design and policy solutions pertaining to decarbonization and resiliency planning.
Decarbonization for Health, Equity & Community Resilience
Community Engagement: Air Quality & Positive Health Outcomes
Through the lens of air quality, this session explores the benefits of climate mitigation strategies and our right to healthy built environments. Presenters discuss how to prioritize system-solution approaches that positively impact environmental and occupational health outcomes for communities.
Community Engagement: Air Quality & Positive Health Outcomes
Community Assets: Existing Buildings & Equitable Infrastructure
Discover the untapped potential of existing buildings.
Through case studies, this course demonstrates how renovation and adaptive reuse reduce embodied carbon while enhancing community resilience and long-term livability.
Community Assets: Existing Buildings & Equitable Infrastructure
Accelerating A Community of Practice: Celebrating Climate Smart Solutions
Understand how to promote decarbonization and climate-smart solutions and how to apply regenerative design principles to promote justice and human dignity.
This course highlights case studies of firms and projects that are moving the needle, providing meaningful examples for all practitioners to advance regenerative design goals.
Accelerating A Community of Practice: Celebrating Climate Smart Solutions
AIA Seattle 2022: Practicing Equity & Advocacy in Rapid Decarbonization
Rapid Decarbonization: Power + Place
Examine how power and privilege have shaped inequity in the built environment., Bryan Lee Jr., Founder/Director of Colloqate Design, delivers a compelling keynote on design justice and the architect’s role in dismantling systemic injustice.
Rapid Decarbonization: Power + Place
Rapid Decarbonization: Advocating to Eliminate Embodied Carbon
Explore strategies for reducing atmospheric carbon while improving ecosystem health.
Presenters examine small resource-based economies, sustainable forestry initiatives and practices, and data and policy interventions that examine the responsibility of the industry and government, advocate for systems-change, and support the elimination of embodied carbon from the built environment.
Rapid Decarbonization: Advocating to Eliminate Embodied Carbon
Rapid Decarbonization: Equitable Life-Cycles in Healthy Materials Sourcing
We must take a whole life cycle approach to healthy material sourcing that considers the spectrum of upstream and downstream impacts of decarbonization and supports equitable outcomes for communities.
Presenters investigate healthy building strategies, labor and supply chain implications, materials toxicity and chemical concerns that affect users. Presenters also explore community design practices that either inhibit or lead to healthier buildings.
Rapid Decarbonization: Equitable Life-Cycles in Healthy Materials Sourcing
Rapid Decarbonization: The Value of Responsible Building
High costs can be viewed as a significant barrier to decarbonization strategies. But across project scales, we must build responsibly based on what can be afforded and consider how the investments we make now can have the most equitable long-term impacts.
This session explores research on affordable housing strategies, examples of all-electric systems implementation in low-income communities, decision-making processes to encourage owner/developer buy-in, and our collaborative responsibilities to our communities and environmental stewardship.
Rapid Decarbonization: The Value of Responsible Building
Project Delivery
Project Delivery 2: Design-Bid-Build
The course is accompanied by 1) Detailed Course Material on contractual relationships, quality control concerns, schedule and cost implications, capabilities required, potential conflicts of interest, insurance requirements and dispute resolutions specific to Design-Bid-Build, and 2) Case Studies of Design-Bid-Build projects.
Project Delivery 2: Design-Bid-Build
Project Delivery 3: Construction Management
The course is accompanied by 1) Detailed Course Material about contractual relationships, quality control concerns, schedule and cost implications, capabilities required, potential conflicts of interest, insurance requirements and dispute resolutions specific to Construction Management, and 2) Case Studies of Construction Management projects.
Project Delivery 3: Construction Management
Project Delivery 4: Design-Build
The course is accompanied by 1) Detailed Course Material about contractual relationships, quality control concerns, schedule and cost implications, capabilities required, potential conflicts of interest, insurance requirements and dispute resolutions specific to Design-Bid-Build, and 2) Case Studies of Design-Build projects.
Project Delivery 4: Design-Build
Project Delivery 5: Integrated Project Delivery
This course starts with a video introduction by Don Rudy, AIA, AIACC Vice-President of Professional Practice, who describes how this delivery method continues to evolve, how best to employ IPD, and an overview of the pros and cons of IPD.
The course is accompanied by 1) Detailed Course Material about the Integrated Project Delivery method, 2) white papers on "IPD Teams - Creation Organization & Management" and "Negotiating an IPD Agreement" and 3) Case Studies of projects utilizing IPD.
Project Delivery 5: Integrated Project Delivery
Project Delivery 1: An Overview
Referring to the rapid change in project delivery methods, Don Rudy states, "It is essential to understand the delivery options available and to be able to identify which delivery method best meets the goals, skill level and available resources for specific projects."
The course is accompanied by PDFs of 1) Detailed Course Material,, 2) a Matrix of Project Delivery, which provides an overview of the first three project delivery methods: Design-Bid-Build, Construction Management, and Design-Build, and 3) a Project Delivery Glossary, which identifies terms often used when undertaking various delivery methods and sheds light on some new terms and often-confused terms that apply to all four project delivery methods.
Project Delivery 1: An Overview
AIA Seattle 2021: Just Transitions
Just Transition - The Water We Swim In
Lisa Richmond, Hon. AIA, (Former) Executive Director, AIA Seattle + Design in Public, and Meghan Lewis, Senior Researcher, Carbon Leadership Forum, University of Washington, introduce us to the upstream and downstream impacts of decarbonization and how equity and social justice impact a transition to clean energy sources, materials, and processes.
Kristen Dotson, Assoc. AIA, Sustainability Services Director, The Miller Hull Partnership, and Brent Davies, Vice President, Forests and Ecosystem Services, Ecotrust, then discuss some of the upstream impacts of the built environment including how “Climate-Smart Forestry” and the complexities of timber sourcing aim to balance ecosystem health with strong local economies.
After viewing this course, you will understand how a massive mobilization of labor and resources are often locked into systems and processes that either prioritize equitable advancement or sustain the current systemic oppressions and privileges that have been in place for generations.
Just Transition - The Water We Swim In
Just Transition - Building as a Public Benefit?
Explore the downstream impacts of decarbonization, focusing on community health, energy independence, and public benefit. Through case studies and panel discussion, learn how climate strategies can support equitable outcomes.
Just Transition - Building as a Public Benefit?
Just Transition - Upstream and Downstream Impacts of Decarbonization
Join Daniel Glenn, AIA, Principal, 7 Directions Architects/Planners and a Native American architect, poses the question: “How can building professionals and their clients respond to the impacts of decarbonization?”
Eileen V. Quigley, Executive Director of the Clean Energy Transition Institute, discusses how to apply the five pillars of deep decarbonization to help accelerate the path to zero-carbon buildings.
Jonathan Heller, President, Ecotope, Inc. takes us on a deep dive into the world of electrification and illustrates how clean energy options were incorporated into several buildings in the Pacific Northwest.
Anyeley Hallova, an equity & sustainability-focused real estate developer, presents a case study of the Meyer Memorial Trust Headquarters in Portland, Oregon.
Just Transition - Upstream and Downstream Impacts of Decarbonization
Just Transition - Building Equity, Now!
In this passionate keynote, Carlton Eley, Regional Equity Initiative Manager for the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, explores equitable development as an approach for meeting the needs of underserved communities through projects, programs, and/or policies that reduce disparities while fostering places that are healthy, vibrant and diverse.
Just Transition - Building Equity, Now!
AIA Los Angeles & AIA|LA COTE 2020 Two Degrees Symposium
2 Degrees Symposium: L.A.'s Green New Deal
Understand ambitious climate policy and implementation strategies.
Dominique Hargreaves, Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Los Angeles, provides an overview of LA's Green New Deal, one of the nation's most ambitious plans to combat climate change and achieve a zero-carbon grid.
Berkeley City Council Member Kate Harrison inspires us to kick-start the Green New Deal with all-electric buildings and explains how Berkeley is implementing steps to eliminate fossil fuels from new buildings while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and economic inequality.
2 Degrees Symposium: L.A.'s Green New Deal
2 Degrees Symposium: Urban Scale
Understand how design professionals can help transform urban regions into more sustainable, less carbon-intensive environments.
Dylan Jones, AIA, of Gensler's Mobility Lab discusses how mobility has shaped our communities and how the past decade of technology-driven disruption is shaping the way we move, connect and plan the cities of tomorrow.
Nick Saponara, Deputy Executive Officer of Transit Oriented Communities at LA Metro, provides an overview of one of the largest transportation infrastructure programs in the nation and how it fosters transit-oriented communities.
Matthew Wintner, AIA, leads us through the planning process for the Pacific Beach EcoDistrict, which focuses on place, prosperity, health + wellbeing, connectivity, living infrastructure and resource regeneration.
2 Degrees Symposium: Urban Scale
2 Degrees Symposium: Building Scale
Gain insights on the design of healthy, low intensity buildings that meet or exceed the goals set forth in the Green New Deal.
In “Adaptive Reuse,” William Leddy, FAIA, provides insights into why adaptive building reuse reduces both embodied operational carbon and why it is imperative in a climate-positive world.
In “Building to Cool the Climate,” Bruce King, Founder and Director of the Ecological Building Network (EBNet) provides strategies for pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and sequestering it within foundations, walls, roofs and insulation.
In “Aligning Climate and Health Goals,” Bill Walsh, Founder and Board President, Healthy Building Network, discusses why reducing embodied carbon is essential to meeting our climate change goals and why this demands a revolution in how we specify and manufacture building materials.
2 Degrees Symposium: Building Scale
2 Degrees Symposium: The Terrestrial Biosphere
Dr. Joshua B. Fisher, a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and one of the leaders of the ECOSTRESS mission, captivates us with stunning visuals, videos and metaphors about "The Fate of the Terrestrial Biosphere Under a Changing Climate."
Dr. Fisher gives an overview of the latest remote-sensing datasets and model developments from JPL and discusses new insights into the behavior and understanding of terrestrial ecosystems.
Viewers will appreciate why Dr. Fisher has been named one of the world's most influential climate researchers and is a widely sought-after lecturer on climate change.
2 Degrees Symposium: The Terrestrial Biosphere
ZNCD: Overview Courses (Qualifies for ZNCD portion of CA License Renewal)
Re-Designing Design Excellence
Bill Leddy, FAIA, principal of Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects and AIA California’s Vice President of Climate Action, moderates presentations with three other award-winning architects who have integrated decarbonization and social equity within their nationally known practices for decades present.
Angela Brooks of Brooks+Scarpa discusses the triple thread of design, density and decarbonization. Julie Eizenberg of Koning Eizenberg Architects illustrates the benefits of creative adaptive reuse for harvesting the embodied carbon of existing buildings. Christiana Moss of Studio MA illustrates strategies for achieving zero net carbon at various building scales. A lively panel discussion then tackles why design professionals must re-define our concepts of “design excellence” in the Zero Carbon Age to enrich the quality of life within urban and suburban settings.
Re-Designing Design Excellence
Introduction to Zero Net Carbon Design: Transforming Design Culture
Given the acceleration of climate change and its effects experienced by California communities today and in the decades to come, architects are increasingly responsible for designing buildings that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and maintaining literacy in low carbon design. This course provides an overview of Zero Net Carbon Design (ZNCD) design and how to incorporate best practices to reach aggressive sustainability goals in our built environment. This course also explores examples of how high-performance design intrinsic to design excellence.
Introduction to Zero Net Carbon Design: Transforming Design Culture
Shifting the Paradigm to Carbon Neutral Buildings with Equity in Mind
Practitioners need to learn how to deliver truly carbon-neutral buildings in a meaningfully equitable manner. In this course, developers of the Building Decarbonization Practice Guide (BDPG) explain how this guide can help design professionals navigate the differences between a Zero Net Energy and a Zero Net Carbon design paradigm, take action to bridge the green building sector with climate and environmental justice to better serve communities, and center equity as a key to meeting decarbonization, resilience, climate and energy democracy goals.
Shifting the Paradigm to Carbon Neutral Buildings with Equity in Mind
ZNCD: Carbon Analysis | Embodied Carbon Courses (Qualifies for ZNCD portion of CA License Renewal)
The MEP 2040 Challenge and MEP Embodied Carbon 101 for Architects
The Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) 2040 Challenge, issued by the Carbon Leadership Forum in 2021, requires a set of commitments aimed at achieving total carbon emissions associated with building systems, including MEP embodied carbon.
The MEP 2040 Challenge and MEP Embodied Carbon 101 for Architects
Adaptive Reuse: Unlocking Sustainable Conversions
This course explores the transformation of underutilized buildings—offices, churches, schools, libraries, and more—into much-needed housing. With rising construction costs, the climate crisis, and the urgent demand for housing, repurposing existing structures offers a viable and sustainable solution.
Presenters highlight the environmental impact of embodied carbon, the role of adaptive reuse in meeting global climate goals (including the 1.5°C target), and strategies for navigating policy, financing, and design challenges. Experts from policy, design, and finance will present real-world case studies and discuss best practices for successful building conversions.
Adaptive Reuse: Unlocking Sustainable Conversions
Zero Carbon Multi-Family Buildings Part 1: Lessons from the Field
Multi-family residential buildings present significant opportunities for decarbonization. Although not the most energy or carbon-intensive building type overall, the 24 hour/365 day operation of these buildings, coupled with high demand for new housing, have great implications for decarbonization. This session identifies design strategies and considerations to address greenhouse gas emissions in multifamily housing that also promote equity through a community-first approach. The C4GS-ZEDlife Case Study of MountZED Ecovillage (a CEC “EPIC Challenge” winner) is presented to showcase strategies in practice for delivering affordable, equitable, climate-resilient, cost-competitive, and emissions-free residential construction.
Zero Carbon Multi-Family Buildings Part 1: Lessons from the Field
Zero Carbon Multi-Family Buildings Part 2: Lessons from the EPIC Challenge
Multi-family residential buildings present significant opportunities for decarbonization. Although not the most energy or carbon-intensive building type overall, the 24 hour/365 day operation of these buildings, coupled with high demand for new housing, have great implications for decarbonization. Through two case studies (both CEC "EPIC Challenge" winners), this course explores the broader context of decarbonization in multifamily buildings, discussing how to implement and benefit from emerging technologies and walking through methods that can help achieve affordable, equitable, climate-resilient, cost-competitive, and emissions-free residential construction.
Zero Carbon Multi-Family Buildings Part 2: Lessons from the EPIC Challenge
Low Embodied Concrete Strategies
Each California microregion has different materials available and differing weather parameters that effect the placement and curing of concrete. This session discusses and showcases a variety of strategies for providing and specifying low embodied concrete on architectural projects. A panel of experts provide an overview of successful strategies in California through various case studies.
Low Embodied Concrete Strategies
Carbon Accounting Part 1: Terminology and Metrics
This course, the first in a two-part series in partnership with the Carbon Leadership Forum, guides viewers through core concepts of carbon analysis and defines commonly used and often misunderstood terms such as embodied carbon, whole-life carbon, and zero carbon. Course takers will develop a foundational understanding of the built environment’s contribution to global climate change, increase their carbon literacy, and be better positioned to embody carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated over the full life cycle of a building.
Carbon Accounting Part 1: Terminology and Metrics
Carbon Accounting Part 2: Measurements and Tools
In this second session of this two-part series, the presenters set the groundwork for a rapidly growing ecosystem of tools and strategies available for designers to measure the greenhouse gas emissions of their projects. This session focuses on methods and processes for assessing the whole building life cycle of buildings. Course takers will learn the core concepts of conducting whole building life cycle assessment and build an awareness of the different tools, data, and resources that can be used throughout the design process.
Carbon Accounting Part 2: Measurements and Tools
Circular Economy & Embodied Carbon
Explore innovative design and construction strategies for reducing embodied carbon rom an esteemed group of panelists.
Jan Top, Attache | Netherlands Consulate General, discusses the circular economy.
Pablo La Roche, Ph.D., Assoc. AIA, LEED AB BD+C, Principal & Sustainable Services Director | ARCADIS, focuses on total carbon and the impact of time.
Sophie Pennetier, Associate Director | Enclos; ; Adjunct Faculty | SCI-Arc, provides a fascinating look at designing for disassembly.
Circular Economy & Embodied Carbon
Can We Grow Carbon-Storing Buildings?
Learn how to harness natural building materials such as responsibly grown wood, straw, hemp and algae-based products to reduce embodied carbon emissions.
Wil Srubar, III, PhD, Associate Professor | University of Colorado Boulder delivers a fast-moving overview of the environmental consequences of current building materials, particularly steel and concrete, and their contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions.
Can We Grow Carbon-Storing Buildings?
Understanding Carbon Analysis for Existing Building Renovation
Simone Barth, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP BD+C of Mithun moderates panelists from Syska Hennessy, Omgivnign and Skanska as they share zero carbon strategies that reduce embodied and operational carbon through reusing and renovating existing buildings. Viewers will gain an appreciation for the carbon advantages of adaptive reuse and learn how to employ research tools and steps for tracking data to analyze a building’s energy efficiencies and deficiencies.
Justin DiPalo, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, of Syska Hennessy, Sergio Cuculiza of Omgivning, and Mark Chen and Tolga Tutar, LEED AP, of Skanska present a series of case studies highlighting how Adaptive Reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the operational and commercial performance of built assets.
Understanding Carbon Analysis for Existing Building Renovation
Material Selection: Embodied Carbon + Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment
This course focuses on how embodied carbon impacts our environment, the urgency or reducing carbon emissions associated with buildings, how to assess the amount of embodied carbon early in the design process, and strategies for reducing carbon emissions. Moderator Frank Bostrom, AIA, is joined by Laura Karnath, AIA, and Dirk Kestner, P.E., LEED AP BD+C, ENV SP, both from Walter P Moore.
The course is divided into four parts:
• Embodied Carbon as a Performance Metric
• Embodied Carbon and Structure: Whole Building LCA
• Embodied Carbon and Enclosure: System LCA and Optioneering
• Resources
Material Selection: Embodied Carbon + Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment
Design for Decarbonization: New Materials / Old Buildings
This course focuses on how both operational and embodied carbon must be considered to achieve rapid, Statewide decarbonization in the building sector. Avideh Haghighi, AIA, LFA, LEED GA discusses the time value of carbon emissions associated with construction, why we need to reduce embodied carbon in the next decade, and design strategies and tools for measuring and reducing embodied carbon.
Larry Strain, FAIA, LEED AP, then delves deeper into operational carbon and discusses reuse and renovation in the context of reducing both embodied and operational carbon. Course takers will develop a better understanding of how building renovation and reuse, coupled with reducing embodied and operational carbon, strengthens neighborhoods, maintains diversity, builds equity, increases resilience, and improves thermal comfort and health.
Design for Decarbonization: New Materials / Old Buildings
Free New Tools for Planning Low-Carbon Buildings
New tools allow for actionable carbon reduction strategies and goals to be set at the beginning of a project when data is scarce but the potential for carbon emissions reduction is high. This session reviews how architects can use these tools during pre-design to chart a course to decarbonization, present the most impactful low-carbon design strategies to clients, and carry these strategies through the project life cycle. Presenters demonstrate the open access Early Phase Integrated Carbon (EPIC) assessment to model buildings and discuss the results. The session also reviews methods and assumptions for early-phase carbon modeling to understand the model results in greater detail while illustrating the finer points of planning low-carbon buildings.
Free New Tools for Planning Low-Carbon Buildings
Understanding and Reducing Energy Use and Carbon Emissions in Museums
Museums and other cultural institutions have unique building use patterns and characteristics, which can present energy challenges not often encountered in other public buildings. Limited research on the sector’s energy use patterns and greenhouse gas emissions makes energy benchmarking difficult.
Understanding and Reducing Energy Use and Carbon Emissions in Museums
ZNCD: Case Studies (Qualifies for ZNCD portion of CA License Renewal)
Architecture at Zero – Design Solutions for School Decarbonization
K-12 school buildings, whether new or existing, carry a unique set of decarbonization challenges. The 2024 Architecture at Zero Design Competition directed participants to integrate themes of decarbonization, resilience, and equity in the design of a new building for Griffith STEAM Magnet Middle School in East Los Angeles, replacing a suite of aging portable buildings on campus. Entrants were required to develop a comprehensive site plan incorporating detailed performance analysis, renewable energy, and carbon reduction strategies. Participants also demonstrated how their designs would enhance resilience through robust climate adaptation strategies, and to promote equity within the community.
This webinar explores innovative architectural solutions, provides insight into how the competition's winning entries were developed and describes some of the lessons learned throughout the process.
Architecture at Zero – Design Solutions for School Decarbonization
Reuse and Transform
This course, presented by Siegel and Strain Architects, uses three case studies to explore how building renovation and reuse can reduce operational energy and associated greenhouse gas emissions in existing buildings and reduce the embodied carbon and greenhouse gas emissions resulting in new construction. The presenters illustrate why reusing and upgrading existing buildings can improve social equity, repair communities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. They also discuss how carbon impacts can be evaluated using the recently launched CARE Tool.
Reuse and Transform
Salvaged Lumber Reuse in Federal Center South
Reusing building materials reduces the amount of embodied carbon in our buildings and helps reduce waste from deconstruction. This case study of the Federal Center South in Seattle explores the use of reclaimed timber from a warehouse that previously occupied the site. Presenters discuss reuse strategies and sustainable design approaches used throughout this innovative project.
Salvaged Lumber Reuse in Federal Center South
Case Study: California Air Resources Board Headquarters Building
Situated in the historic City of Riverside, the new headquarters of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has now become the largest true net-zero energy facility in the nation—producing more energy than it uses. The project is designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification and meets all CALGreen Tier 2 building standards. This facility symbolizes the transition of transportation in California to zero-emission technologies.
Presented by leaders of ZGF Architects and Affiliated Engineers, Inc., this program illustrates strategies that contribute to achieving net-zero performance for a dynamic and energy-intensive campus including active and passive energy-efficiency strategies for storing surplus energy and for reducing operational and embodied carbon.
Case Study: California Air Resources Board Headquarters Building
Standard of Care: A Decade of Passive House Projects in California
Passive House BB, led by Bronwyn Barry, CPHD, RA, has been designing, building and monitoring Passive House projects across California for more than a decade. This presentation provides a high-level review of that journey, starting with Passive House basics and then looking at how this standard has been integrated into the processes and practices of this firm. A selection of single- and multi- family projects located across California is used to illustrate specific targets, metrics and details, including early forays into embodied carbon analysis.
Standard of Care: A Decade of Passive House Projects in California
ZNCD: All-Electric Solutions (Qualifies for ZNCD portion of CA License Renewal)
Designing for ZNCD | Case Studies of All-Electric Affordable Housing Projects
In this course, Edward Dean, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, PhD, presents three case studies of how all-electric affordable housing projects incorporate energy-efficient design strategies and on-site renewable energy systems to achieve zero carbon emissions operation once the California electric grid has been 100% decarbonized.
Designing for ZNCD | Case Studies of All-Electric Affordable Housing Projects
Designing for Zero Carbon - Three Case Studies of All-Electric Buildings
Edward Dean, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, , PhD, presents case studies of three common building types that are designed as all-electric buildings and that will operate with zero-carbon emissions once the California electric grid has been 100% decarbonized, currently scheduled for 2045. Each of these case study buildings have been designed to achieve zero-net-energy (ZNE) performance through the use of on-site renewable energy systems and energy-efficient design strategies.
Designing for Zero Carbon - Three Case Studies of All-Electric Buildings
All-Electric Buildings – UCI Medical Campus
Moderated by Suyama Bodhinayake, Assoc. AIA, AIA Orange County, this program examines the process and decision making that led to an all-electric approach at the new University of California, Irvine Medical Center design-build project.
The project, located on a pristine site adjacent to a large wetland marsh, includes a 144-bed hospital, an ambulatory care center, a shared surgery suite and outdoor venues. Core design principles include strong commitments to sustainability, a connection to nature, and a belief that these connections lead to wellness and better patient outcomes.
All-Electric Buildings – UCI Medical Campus
Induction Cooking: The All-Electric Kitchen of Today and ZNCD for Food Service
This course illustrates how all-electric kitchens are instrumental in meeting California’s net-zero-carbon goals and, properly designed, can also save labor, reduce maintenance, increase kitchen comfort, and reduce utility costs. Moderated by Miranda Gardiner, Assoc. AIA, LEED Fellow, this course focuses on applying ZNCD principals to commercial kitchen design; however, viewers can adapt these principles for residential kitchens.
Induction Cooking: The All-Electric Kitchen of Today and ZNCD for Food Service
Climate Action Standard for ZNCD All-Electric ADUs and Residential Projects
Great things come in small packages, especially all-electric homes and ADUs. Moderated by Jennifer Kretschmer, AIA, NCARB, LEED Green Associate, ADU owner Nick Brown, CEA, CABEC, AEA, CABEC, of Build Smart Group and architect Tim Kohut, AIA, Director of Sustainable Design at National CORE, describe a new 1-bedroom all-electric ADU built above an existing garage in Long Beach. They discuss how all-electric ADUs can achieve zero net carbon and discusses the energy efficiencies of heat pump HVAC systems, heat pump water heaters, induction ranges, electric washers, heat pump clothes dryers, Heat Recovery Ventilators, 12-panel PV systems, and SIPS insulated panels.
Nick and Tim also discuss how energy modeling and project cost considerations shaped decisions around building envelope, systems and equipment, and affected T-24 Part 6 compliance.
Climate Action Standard for ZNCD All-Electric ADUs and Residential Projects
Cooking up Solutions: All-Electric Commercial Kitchens
This course illustrates how all-electric kitchens with induction cooking equipment – ones with no natural gas or other fossil fuel-based energy source – present superb opportunities for decarbonization and lead to safer and healthier facilities. In this session, experts in the all-electric kitchen industry discuss the benefits of all-electric cooking, the most effective technology in the market today, and real-life examples of project teams and clients utilizing all-electric commercial kitchens.
Cooking up Solutions: All-Electric Commercial Kitchens
ZNCD: Resiliency (Qualifies for ZNCD portion of CA License Renewal)
New LEED v5 Resilience Assessments
The U.S. Green Building Council [USGBC] LEED v5 building rating and certification system provides architects and building owners a framework through which they can understand and manage their risk exposure following a natural disaster. LEED v5 includes important updates to transportation, site, energy, materials, and indoor environmental quality credits, binging them into alignment with current best practice and technologies. LEED v5 also includes a new resilience assessment prerequisite and several credits rewarding resilient rewarding site and building design features. These updates supports the understanding that buildings should be designed to support occupant health and safety during and after hazard events, reduce the risk of damage from natural hazards, and prepare for projected climate change over the course of their service lives.
This course defines key resilience concepts, outlines the new resilience prerequisites and credits in LEED, and discusses the role of owners and project teams in successfully implementing these requirements.
New LEED v5 Resilience Assessments
Zero Net Carbon Design and Wildfire Resilience
Wildfire has become one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases in California and the world, potentially jeopardizing our ability to reach our carbon reduction targets. In this course, an interdisciplinary team of experts discuss the inter-relatedness of zero net carbon design and wildfire resilience and share best practice design solutions, explore the effects of wildfires on carbon emissions and air quality, offer advice regarding hardening of buildings to wildfire ignition, and discuss the importance of landscape design in the prevention of building ignition.
Zero Net Carbon Design and Wildfire Resilience
Using Microgrids for Resilience
As natural disasters threaten large areas of the State, incorporating microgrids can promote resilience and are becoming an increasingly attractive option for communities, businesses and residents. This course illustrates how microgrids can make a positive environmental impact while providing financial incentives for exiting the traditional utility grid.
Using Microgrids for Resilience
Opening Keynote: Embodied Carbon, Why Now?
Climate advocate and author Bill Caplan, Assoc. AIA, delivers a powerful opening keynote address and challenges design professionals to leverage their roles in reducing carbon emissions.
Bill discusses the significance of embodied carbon in the context of sustainable design and global warming, identifies key strategies for minimizing embodied carbon emissions in construction, and helps assess the global warming potential of various building materials and construction processes.
Opening Keynote: Embodied Carbon, Why Now?
Financial Feasibility (De-Risking) of Low-EC Construction
Ben Stapleton, Executive Director of USGBC California, deftly moderates a discussion with an architect, a contractor and a developer, to discuss low embodied-carbon projects in the construction industry. They cover the financial risks and costs associated with low embodied-carbon projects and innovative strategies and tools for reducing embodied carbon in construction projects.
Among the projects discussed is the PAE Living Building, which is the first certified living building that is both located in a metropolitan area and developer-driven.
Financial Feasibility (De-Risking) of Low-EC Construction
Heading Toward Zero
Don Davies, PE, SE, an industry champion for the promotion of urban density and low-carbon construction, demonstrates the use of CLT, low-cement concrete and other alternative strategies to reduce cement usage in structural systems.
Don shows us how Hubbard’s Corner, his own experimental development, repurposes existing building stock and reuses materials to minimize embodied carbon while examining the challenges of implementing low carbon concrete in construction.
Don’s enthusiasm and stellar visuals will inspire design professionals to rethink their approach to design and construction.
Heading Toward Zero
The Role of Government in Addressing Embodied Carbon
Navigate California’s evolving green building code as California State Architect Ida Clair, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, CASp, leads us through CAL Green’s prescriptive- and performance-based compliance pathways, including the maintenance of existing structures, Whole Building LCA and product GWP limits.
Ida also discusses the impact and future directions of Cal Green regulations and their potential for reducing global warming, and the difficulties faced by enforcement entities, such as building officials, in integrating new sustainability requirements into existing frameworks.
The Role of Government in Addressing Embodied Carbon
Building Materials and Climate: Constructing a New Future
Anna Dyson of Yale Center for Ecosystems + Architecture presents forward-thinking strategies for decarbonizing the built environment. From biomaterials to circular systems, discover how emerging technologies and ecological thinking are reshaping design.
Building Materials and Climate: Constructing a New Future
CALGreen Embodied Carbon Series (Qualifies for ZNCD portion of CA License Renewal)
CALGreen Embodied Carbon Series: Understanding the 2023 Embodied Carbon Amendments
In this webinar, the first in a 4-part CALGreen Embodied Carbon joint educational program between the SEAOC Sustainable Design Committee and AIA California, experts from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and New Buildings Institute (NBI) focus on the compliance pathways and requirements essential for industry professionals.
The presenters offer a detailed overview of the regulations related to embodied carbon and insights into the future development of California’s state code. The webinar also includes a segment on resources available to assist professionals in adapting to these changes.
CALGreen Embodied Carbon Series: Understanding the 2023 Embodied Carbon Amendments
CALGreen Embodied Carbon Series: Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment for Code Compliance
In this webinar, the second in a 4-part CALGreen Embodied Carbon joint educational program between the SEAOC Sustainable Design Committee and AIA California, industry experts focus on implementation of the Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment (WBLCA) compliance pathway and cover basic practices, available tools and resources, and practical considerations for practitioners and provide practical case study examples.
Topics range from an introduction to the fundamentals of WBLCA, essential practices in material quantity takeoffs and application of environmental product declarations, compliance tools and resources, setting an effective baseline, and the landscape of common reduction strategies.
CALGreen Embodied Carbon Series: Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment for Code Compliance
CALGreen Embodied Carbon Series: Implications of Material Procurement for Design Professionals
In this webinar, the third in a 4-part CALGreen Embodied Carbon joint educational program between the SEAOC Sustainable Design Committee and AIA California, in industry experts from AIA California and SEAOC focus on implementation of the prescriptive pathway. They are joined by contractors and manufacturers responsible for meeting the prescriptive performance requirements by material. Discussion topics include collaboration between design and construction teams, supply chain engagement, specifications, and practical examples.
CALGreen Embodied Carbon Series: Implications of Material Procurement for Design Professionals
CALGreen Embodied Carbon Series: Building Reuse for Decarbonization and Compliance
In this webinar, the final in a 4-part CALGreen Embodied Carbon joint educational program between the SEAOC Sustainable Design Committee and AIA California, industry experts focus on the benefits of existing building reuse and how it contributes to operational and embodied carbon emissions reductions. Presenters also review the requirements of CALGreen embodied carbon mandatory code compliance through the existing building reuse pathway.
CALGreen Embodied Carbon Series: Building Reuse for Decarbonization and Compliance
Climate Action
Designing Net Zero Energy Buildings
Other topics covered in the course include building commissioning as a quality control method applied throughout a project and sustainable lighting design, specifically low-energy lighting strategies.
Designing Net Zero Energy Buildings
Design Excellence and Climate Change – Bay Area Case Studies from AIA San Francisco COTE
Learn how to apply the AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten Toolkit to real projects. Through case studies and expert discussion, explore integrative design strategies that balance performance, sustainability, and beauty. Join Moderator Marsha Maytum, FAIA, LMS Architects, Tate Walker, AIA, LEED Fellow, OPN Architects; Corey Squire, AIA, Lake|Flato Architects; Brad Jacobson, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, EHDD; and Susi Marzuola, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Siegel & Strain Architects,
Includes a download link to AIA's free COTE® Top Ten Toolkit "Super Spreadsheet"
Design Excellence and Climate Change – Bay Area Case Studies from AIA San Francisco COTE
Climate Action Part 1: Overview
Part 1 of this day-long workshop, hosted by the AIA California Board of Directors, provides an overview on climate change policies and opportunities in the areas of Water, Carbon and Energy.
Presentations include a “State of the State” on California’s ambitious Zero Net Energy goals, an impassioned “Climate Emergency” warning by Ed Mazria, and presentations about preserving water resources and reducing embodied carbon. The presenters than gather for an insightful panel discussion about how the architectural profession can take action in response to the changing climate and its impact on the built environment.
Climate Action Part 1: Overview
Climate Action Part 2: Implementation Strategies
Part 2 of this day-long workshop, hosted by the AIA California Board of Directors, provides more in-depth insights into the ZERO Code and opportunities for architects to engage in policy discussions and the code development process, strategies for reducing embedded carbon in our built environment, and examples of zero net carbon buildings.
The course concludes with an overview of opportunities and impediments that attendees identified for adopting the Zero Code and how individual architects, firms and AIA chapters can proactively respond to climate change.
Climate Action Part 2: Implementation Strategies
USBGC
Commissioning of Sustainable Buildings
Commissioning of Sustainable Buildings
Net Zero Energy and Future Challenges
Net Zero Energy and Future Challenges
Retrofitting Existing Buildings to Improve Energy Efficiency
Retrofitting Existing Buildings to Improve Energy Efficiency
AIA Seattle 2022: Transforming Residential Practice
How to Design and Procure Low Carbon Concrete
The building industry is under constant pressure to provide low-carbon solutions. Through early collaborative decision-making, performance-based specifications, and using NRMCA’s Concrete Carbon Calculator, project teams can successfully establish and execute sustainability goals.
Although this course provides valuable information about decarbonization, it is NOT part of the ZNCD program that meets the requirements for California license renewal.
How to Design and Procure Low Carbon Concrete
Transforming Residential Practice: Architecture in Northern Landscapes
Explore the poetic intersection of architecture and landscape.
Todd describes how his innovative solutions to challenging sites and harsh climates acknowledge vernacular histories, respect cultural traditions and push the envelope with innovative and breathtaking structural solutions.
Transforming Residential Practice: Architecture in Northern Landscapes
Transforming Residential Practice: Designing Your Own Home
This two-part course starts with David Van Gallen, AIA, presenting a case study of Little House/Big Shed,a 900 SF house for himself and his wife on a sensitive site that contains ravines, wetlands and native trees. David illustrates the intimate connection between the house and site and his minimal use of material..
In the second case study, Jon Gentry, AIA, showcases Rambler House that he designed and built with his wife Lydia using local materials and on-site milling of local timber. From capturing views of natural habitat to fine detailing, this course shows the care and passion of building one’s home on a sensitive wildlife site.
Transforming Residential Practice: Designing Your Own Home
Transforming Residential Practice: The Possibilities of Innovative Residential Practice
This rapid-fire course features three architects highlighting innovative residential practices and the director of a non-profit organization that teaches teens design and carpentry through community-based projects.
Kailin Gregga, AIA, LEED AP+BDC from Best Practice Architecture, shows us how to incorporate sustainable strategies in DADU’s and small residential projects with an amusing comparison to avocado toast.
Kevin Kudo-King, AIA, LEED AP of Olson Kundig, explains how a stunning “Treehouse” in Costa Rica responds to the local climate, reduces energy consumption and sequesters carbon dioxide.
Geoff Piper of Fivedot Architects, makes a compelling case for increasing housing density and equity by adding more DADU’s throughout the Seattle region.
Sarah Smith, Executive Director of Sawhorse Revolution, presents a case study of the design and construction of a community library that taught young women and youths of color how to transform themselves and their communities through a hands-on project. .
The rapid-fire presentations are followed by an insightful discussion with audience members.
Transforming Residential Practice: The Possibilities of Innovative Residential Practice
Transforming Residential Practice: Hardworking Home: Innovation, Exploration, Cross-Pollination
With stunning images and insightful commentary, Lewis McNeel, AIA, if Lake | Flato takes us on a journey of eight residential and larger-scale projects and discusses advanced strategies for siting, pre-engineering systems and on-site fabrication, 3-D construction printing, passive heating and cooling, energy-efficient daylighting, and mass timber construction.
Transforming Residential Practice: Hardworking Home: Innovation, Exploration, Cross-Pollination
Transforming Residential Practice: Case Study--Stillaguamish Village
Daniel Glenn, AIA, AICAE, from 7 Directions Architects/Planners presents Stillaguamish Village, a residential community for the Stillaguamish Tribe in Washington consisting of rental housing, Elders cottages, a wellness clinic and a canoe carving workshop.
Daniel discusses how to create sustainable housing environments, how to preserve old growth forests, and how to create a sense of community and connection to the native landscape.
Transforming Residential Practice: Case Study--Stillaguamish Village
Transforming Residential Practice: Traditions of Residential Architecture in the Pacific Northwest Region
Moderated by Peter Miller of Peter Miller Books, this course explores traditional of residential architecture in the Pacific Northwest, with a focus on sustainability and equity. After brief presentations, panelists explore traditions of residential architecture in the Pacific Northwest, with a focus on sustainability and equity.
Susan Boyle, Principal, BOLA Architecture + Planning, explores the historical development of equitable housing. Ken Tadashi Oshima, Professor/Director of History Theory at the Dept. of Architecture of Univ. of Washington, discusses the evolution of accessory dwelling units and minimal housing. Rick Sundberg, FAIA, of SKL Architects, showcases his housing designs including his own aging in-place home. Gordon Walker, Consulting Principal at Mithun, takes us on a virtual tour of his regional housing.er Miller and the panelists gather for a discussion focused on housing affordability and cost-effective use of various materials.
