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Dear Members of the Committee on Design (COD):
As the 2008 chair, I would like to take this opportunity to thank
you for your continued membership in the AIA Committee on Design. I
would also like to update you on COD’s many accomplishments
for 2007, as well as our plans for 2008: the year in which we
celebrate the 40th Anniversary Year of the Committee on Design!
Under the leadership of 2007 COD Chair, Michael Ross, FAIA,
COD achieved quite a bit in 2007. As part of the celebration of AIA
150, COD programs investigated The Rejuvenation of American
Cities: On the Waterfront. COD conferences in Miami
(held April 12-15, 2007) and Minneapolis (held September
27-30, 2007) explored how we can engage our communities in a
dialogue about design excellence as a catalyst for the rejuvenation
of cities, and celebrated how design makes a difference. These
conferences were attended by over 162 members and provided 33 AIA
CES learning units.
To complement this theme and the year’s conferences,
COD’s Ideas Competition in 2007 was intended to
generate knowledge and design ideas on urban waterfront
revitalization. A Fountain of Use was a design ideas
competition exploring the meaningful use of water as a component of
urban planning. In conjunction with the Miami conference,
competition entries were sought to contribute to the general
discussion by illustrating concepts about the responsible use of
water within a developing urban design framework along Biscayne Bay
in Miami. The challenge was the identification of the myriad
potential roles of water in sustaining the contemporary waterfront
city and the design of elements that fulfill those roles.
2007 also saw achievements in member communications, with the
establishment of a COD Communications subcommittee under the
leadership of Mike Mense, FAIA, to develop online news and
knowledge delivery for AIA members. COD had two articles published
in Places
journal, which we were pleased to see serve as another
communication tool to the design community at large. To view these
resources, including the design strategies proposed in the
competition, as well as articles from the conferences held in Miami
and Minneapolis, visit the COD home page at www.aia.org/cod. We encourage you
to review the knowledge and innovative design ideas from
these programs, and to share it with colleagues. If you would like
to become involved in COD communications, please contact us at cod@aia.org.
COD is proud to present continuing education sessions at the AIA
National Convention for the AIA Firm Award, Twenty-five Year
Award, and Honor Award for Architecture, as well as to serve as
co-sponsor with the International Committee for the AIA Honorary
Fellows Forum. Please join us for these programs at the 2008 Convention, as well as
to view the 2008 Ideas Competition projects on display.
COD has a long history of successful nominations for AIA Honors and
Awards, including the programs above and the AIA Gold Medal, and we
urge you to become involved in this effort. More information about
the AIA Awards can be found at http://www.aia.org/awards.
If you would be interested in volunteering with COD’s
nominations for AIA Honors and Awards, please contact us at cod@aia.org.
2008 promises to provide significant value to members of COD
through the following programs:
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Design
Parallels, a conference to be held April 3-6,
2008, in Detroit, MI, presented in collaboration with AIA
Detroit. Detroit’s design heritage includes Cranbrook and the
Center for Creative Studies, where students study product design,
furniture design, and transportation design. The goal of this
conference will be to debate the promise of good and integral
design beliefs that Cranbrook embodies within today’s world,
the design emphasis of CCS on product, furniture, and automotive
design, and parallels with our own design efforts as architects. We
will also be looking to the automotive industry itself by meeting
with car designers to review parallels in design innovation and
problem solving, manufacturing methods and marketing, environmental
initiatives, and consumer acceptance. This conference will also
feature the annual
COD Member Slide Show, an exciting event in which COD members
present their recent projects; the COD Business Meeting; a review
of nominations for AIA Honors and Awards; and a celebration of the
40th anniversary of the Committee on Design, which will review the
progress the COD has made since its founding by Jean-Paul Carlhian
in 1968.
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In conjunction with the Design Parallels conference,
the 2008 Ideas Competition, Branding the American
House, provided architects and architecture students, as
well as professionals and students from other design disciplines,
an opportunity to examine parallels in design professions with the
automobile industry through a sketch design problem. The winning
designs will be presented at the Detroit conference, exhibited at
the AIA Convention in Boston, and posted on the COD home page.
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COD’s fall conference and study tour, Danish Modern:
Then and Now will be held from August 31-September 5,
2008, with the co-sponsorship of the Historic Resources Committee
in Copenhagen, Denmark, where good design is integral to the
everyday environment. We will view design work from the smallest to
the largest, to include product design, furniture, interiors,
architecture, and urban design. The Danish have a legacy of design
that is made of pure form, a great use of natural materials, clear
purpose, and fine craftsmanship that pervades furniture and
buildings alike. Architects such as Arne Jacobsen designed
furniture as well as buildings, and was instrumental in shaping the
Scandinavian version of Modernism as we know it today. We will
visit studios of designers developing the newest product and
furniture design, as well as innovative architecture such as
Henning Larsen, Hon. FAIA’s new Opera House, architect
offices, and sustainable communities. We will openly debate and
compare issues relative to the knowledge gained from the Detroit
conference, and offer suggestions on how to improve our own work in
pursuit of design excellence. We hope to leave all participants in
an inspired mode.
2007 was a year full of success for COD, and we hope the value you
receive as a member in 2008 will be just as rewarding. I would like
to take this opportunity to thank Michael Ross, FAIA, of HGA in Los
Angeles, and David Greenbaum, FAIA, of SmithGroup in Washington,
D.C., for their years of service on the COD Advisory Group. Our
other current members of the Advisory Group include Louis Pounders,
FAIA, of ANF Architects in Memphis, TN, and Thomas Howorth, FAIA,
of Howorth Architects in Oxford, MS.
For 2008, I welcome to the COD Advisory Group our newest members,
Anne Schopf, FAIA, of Mahlum Architects of Seattle, and Mike Mense,
FAIA, of mmenseArchitects in Anchorage. The COD Advisory Group and
its subcommittees (Communications, Ideas Competitions, Conference
Planning, Outreach, and Awards Task Groups) offer opportunities for
leadership, and the development of knowledge and resources for the
over 9100 members of COD. If you would like to become
involved, please contact us at cod@aia.org
I am very pleased to share this information with you and, with your
participation, hope to build upon the 40 years of success of the
AIA Committee on Design.
If you have any questions or comments, or wish to become more
involved in COD, please email cod@aia.org.
Sincerely,
Carol Rusche Bentel, FAIA - 2008 COD Chair
Bentel & Bentel Architects/Planner, Locust Valley, NY
The American Institute of Architects
1735 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006
E-mail: cod@aia.org
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