Blogs

Follow COTE on LinkedIn!

By Alyssa Murphy, AIA posted 6 days ago
Did you know that COTE now has its own LinkedIn Page? The COTE community has a number of ways to connect - here on the AIA Community Hub, though the AIA COTE® LinkedIn Group, - and now through a dedicated AIA COTE® "spotlight" page on LinkedIn. This allows the AIA Climate Action staff and our own COTE Leadership Group to share news and information more readily and connect with a broader audience. Give us a follow, and invite your connections to do so, too! https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/aia-cote-committee-on-the-environment

Summer Leadership Summit: The pinnacle of health care architects—Insights from NextGen Scholar Noah Gaither

By Alison Karfeld posted 8 days ago
What is the value of attending SLS? Why should others come? This conference is unlike any other. By attending the Summit Leadership Summit, you'll be among the pinnacle of health care architects. The opportunity to be at forefront of how our profession is developing and how the most prevalent challenges in our industry are being solved is invaluable to thought leaders of all experience levels—both early and established. If you've attended in the past—other than being a NextGen scholarship recipient! — what was different or surprising about last year? Last year was my first attendance to the Summer Leadership Summit, so I’m ...

From Process to Practice: Sustainability in El Paso, TX

By Ellen Mitchell, AIA posted 13 days ago
Ellen Mitchell, AIA, interviews Laura Foster, AIA, about what sustainability in West Texas can tell us. Mitchell is the 2026 chair of the Committee on the Environment . This article is part of a series that she hopes will bring more voices to the sustainability conversation. Texas is too large—and too environmentally varied—for a single sustainability narrative to make sense. The questions that shape design in Austin or Houston don’t land the same way in El Paso, where the landscape is desert, the time zone is Mountain, and the proximity is closer to Phoenix than to Dallas. This fact became apparent in speaking with Laura Foster, an architect ...

Member spotlight: Mahbuba Khan, AIA, Public Architects Committee Chair

By Alison Karfeld posted 17 days ago
The Immigrant Architects Coalition, a 501©(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering foreign- born architects and designers to build successful careers in the United States has released City Shapers, Volume II, edited by Mahbuba Khan, AIA, PAKC Chair. An Immigrant Architect’s Story of Service, Resilience, and City-Shaping The stories in this volume move beyond arrival and survival to explore growth, leadership, reflection, and responsibility. Contributors represent a wide range of cultural backgrounds, career stages, and design disciplines; yet, they are united by a shared willingness to speak honestly about their journeys. These ...

The Road Less Traveled: Interview with new Fellow, Etty Padmodipoetro, FAIA

By Alison Karfeld posted 17 days ago
Etty Padmodipoetro, FAIA, NOMA Loeb Fellow . Photo by Joe Allegro Congratulations to the Public Architects Committee, BoKnoCo, representative Etty Padmodipoetro, AIA Massachusetts, NOMA Loeb Fellow, who was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows. How did your career develop? Early in my career, I was practicing architecture in the traditional sense, designing buildings or - as the engineers call it - vertical infrastructure. That was my path until I had the opportunity to work on the Boston Central Artery/ Tunnel Project (the “Big Dig”), at the time the biggest and most expensive highway project in the country. ...

Rivermark: A Retrofit That Reframed Performance and Plance

By Andrew Hassan posted 23 days ago
Rivermark: A Retrofit That Reframed Performance and Place By Karim Muri, Vice President, Marketing Services and Strategy Development at Kingspan Insulated Panels North America In cities across the country, many existing structures were designed before today’s expectations for thermal efficiency; occupant comfort and carbon-conscious design became central to the way architects approach the building envelope. At the same time, these buildings often occupy prominent sites where appearance matters just as much as performance. Located along the banks of the Charles River, Rivermark in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had a highly visible address ...

AIA Practice Management Digest - June 2026

By Eva Read-Warden, AIA posted 06-01-2026
Financial Discipline How systems, strategy, and everyday decisions shape more profitable, resilient architecture practices Letter from the editor By Eva Read-Warden, AIA, Principal, Arkitex Studio Stewart Brand, in his book Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One , explores the art, science, and civilizational importance of maintenance. The book uses diverse examples, from the 1968 Golden Globe solo sailing race to military weaponry and vehicle repair, to argue that maintenance is a radical act of responsibility, essential for keeping everything running on nearly every level. This look at maintenance is both practical and philosophical ...

Leadership beneath the surface: Jeffrey Huber on practice, profit, and discipline

By Jaime Sobrino, FAIA posted 06-01-2026
by Jaime Sobrino, FAIA Editor's note: Coming to AIA26? Join us on Friday for a deeper dive into these topics: Jeff Huber, FAIA is our Practice Management Luncheon speaker! Learn more > Architectural leadership is often visible only through its outcomes—design awards, built work, and reputation. What remains unseen are the systems, decisions, and discipline that make consistent excellence possible. In a candid conversation with Jaime Sobrino, Jeffrey Huber, a recently named partner of Brooks Scarpa Huber (formerly Brooks + Scarpa) reflected on what firm leadership requires—and what architects often misunderstand about it. Huber does not ...

Why most architecture firms bleed — and what to do about it

By Darguin Fortuna, AIA posted 06-01-2026
By Darguin Fortuna, AIA, Alyse Makarewicz, AIA & Joshua Zinder, AIA Part 1: The problem nobody names out loud By Darguin Fortuna, AIA Architecture school teaches you how to design buildings. It rarely teaches you how to run a firm. That gap — between design excellence and practice sustainability — is where most small firms live. In this gap firms are not failing dramatically but eroding quietly, one uncompensated revision at a time. One scope addition is absorbed as goodwill. One initial consultation is given away for free. The work is excellent. The clients are often satisfied. And at the end of the year, the numbers don't work ...

Why architecture firms stay stuck in the boom-bust cycle (and how to break it)

By Eva Read-Warden, AIA posted 06-01-2026
By Ryan Sullivan, PE Architecture firms operate within an inherently cyclical environment. Project demand is influenced by broader economic conditions, including interest rates, access to capital, and development activity. While these external forces cannot be controlled, many firms experience a recurring pattern of instability that extends beyond macroeconomic cycles. This pattern, often described as a “boom-bust” cycle, is not solely the result of market conditions. In many cases, it is reinforced by internal business practices, including reactive pipeline management, insufficient profit margins, lack of forecasting, minimal reserves, and ...

Getting paid without getting sued

By Eva Read-Warden, AIA posted 06-01-2026
Introduction by Eva M. Read-Warden, AIA, PM Digest Editor As a firm owner it is part of my job to watch the books. How does that Accounts Receivable report look? What is the percentage of invoices that are being paid in a timely manner, and why are there those lingering past-due amounts? It seems like a simple concept: we agree to do work for a client, we do the work, then we invoice for the work. One critical part remains: the client must pay the bill! For design and architecture firms, securing timely payment is not just a financial necessity—it can be a critical risk-management indicator. Payment delays or disputes are often the first ...

Embedding circularity in your design process

By Melanie De Cola posted 05-26-2026
Article 1 authors: Melanie De Cola, AIA Director of Climate Action Pledge Programs, LEED Green Associate; Brad Guy, AIA , of Material Reuse LLC ; and Rodolfo Perez, Ph.D. of IWBI | All photos curtesy of Brad Guy. AIA’s Architecture & Design Materials Pledge is the result of years of convers ation between m emb e rs , manufacturer s , and mindfulMaterials , and remai n s root ed in the Common M aterials Framework (CMF) . The CMF w as co-created t o suppo rt all those interested in holis tically better materials , how to ...

AIA 2026 CAE Spring Conference Reflections

By Alison Karfeld posted 05-19-2026
From April 28 through May 1, education planners, architects, designers, educators, and thought leaders from across the country gathered in Seattle for the 2026 AIA Committee on Architecture for Education Spring Conference. Centered around the theme Designing Belonging: Reciprocity, Resilience, and Regeneration, this year’s conference invited attendees to explore how educational environments can strengthen connections between people, place, and community across the continuum of lifelong learning. Set against the backdrop of the Puget Sound region, known for its dramatic natural landscapes, ecological stewardship, cultural diversity, and spirit of innovation, ...

Post-Chicago COD Spring Conference Update: Third Places – Architecture that Belongs to Everyone

By Alison Karfeld posted 05-18-2026
OPC Obama Presidential Center Image: TWBTA, Antonio Dickey Rubenstein: University of Chicago, David Rubenstein Forum Image: Patrik Argast It was with great excitement that we welcomed nearly 100 AIA Committee on Design (COD) members to the 2026 Spring Conference in Chicago last month . Grounded in a shared commitment to design excellence, COD continues to champion the idea that experiencing architecture together—and in context—fosters a deeper understanding of the built environment. This year’s conference explored “Third Places – Architecture that Belongs to Everyone,” focusing on spaces that support ...

RUDC Letter from the Chair (May, 2026)

By Alison Karfeld posted 05-06-2026
RUDC is excited to announce that the Call for Speakers is now open for the RUDC Symposium this fall, developed in partnership with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture as part of the Intersections Conference . We’re also looking ahead to our gathering next month at the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design 2026 in San Diego. Together, these events represent important opportunities to elevate the role of urban design across practice, research, and civic engagement. RUDC Symposium 2026 — Call for Speakers This year's symposium will take place October 1–3, 2026, in New York ...

IAKC May Letter from the chair: Candice Rabovsky, AIA & Bob Dillon, AIA

By Alison Karfeld posted 05-06-2026
Happy May from the IAKC committee! We have a busy few months ahead starting with our next Knowledge Salon on May 19. May also marks the end of our inaugural Interior Elevations Mentorship Program , and our mentors and mentees will soon convene to share what they have learned. If you're interested in joining the next cohort in the fall as a mentor or mentee (or both), please let us know. We’d love to have you join us and share your knowledge with other interior architecture professionals. And lest we forget, June is just around the corner! AIA26 in San Diego will take place June 10-13, where the IAKC is sponsoring multiple events. Please join ...

RUDC Insight Article: An Urban Design Lens: City Parks and Community-Shared Green Spaces

By Alison Karfeld posted 05-01-2026
City parks and community-shared green spaces are a critical part of the infrastructure of a city. City-park land is renowned as a public and urban recreational land use with potential benefits to the local ecological system, stormwater management, and overall human well-being. Increasingly, these places have been acknowledged by cities as urban development assets within the evolution of public spaces in downtowns, providing positive economic, environmental, and community-driven impacts. Challenges in creating sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development in the downtowns of cities of all sizes are being framed within the future of city parks and ...

My experience in CCA: An interview with Shaili Patel-Legge, AIA

By Shaili Patel, AIA posted 05-01-2026
By Shaili Patel-Legge, AIA, responding to questions shared by CCA leadership Name / Title / Company / Years in the profession Shaili Patel-Legge, Architect, Colby Company, LLC, 12+ What gets you up in the morning to go to work? What are you passionate about? I love what I do; the challenge to solve a problem is invigorating. I find joy in understanding how the world is built, from the big picture items to the small details of nuts and bolts – life is all about learning, staying curious, and trying to make things a bit better than how I found them. Who are you outside of work? I am a military spouse, prior service member ...

May 2026 AIA Corporate Partners COTE Newsletter Article: James Hardie

By Ellie Falcon posted 04-30-2026
Building Resilience with Fiber Cement Siding: Insights from James Hardie Discover how fiber cement siding—drawing on practices from James Hardie—enhances building resilience and sustainability. Explore practical design strategies and key benefits for architects and designers seeking durable, long-term solutions. Building Resilience: Sustainable Strategies with Fiber Cement Extreme weather and shifting climate patterns are driving a new era in building design — one where architects and designers must deliver structures that remain durable, resource-efficient, and resilient. Sustainability now demands more than just energy efficiency ...