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AIA headlines this week include:

• AIA Co-Sponsors Building Safety Month

• Hundreds Turn Out to Participate in South Hadley SDAT

• AIA Kansas Supports Emerging Leaders

This May, the AIA is proud to join the International Code Council in sponsoring the International Code Council Foundation’s Building Safety Month, an international celebration of safe and sensible structures.

As a public awareness campaign, Building Safety Month “reinforces the need for adoption of modern, model building codes, a strong and efficient system of code enforcement and a well-trained, professional workforce to maintain the system.”

The campaign is broken into four week-long topic concentrations: Energy and Green Building; Disaster Safety and Mitigation; Fire Safety; and Backyard Safety.

Recently, the ICC Foundation announced that HGTV star and avid building code advocate Mike Holmes would be the honorary ambassador of the event. Holmes will kick off the campaign on Friday, April 27 with a media tour for television and radio morning shows passing along safety tips and advocating for strong, enforceable codes and a well-trained workforce.

Holmes will also host a Building Safety Month chat session on www.makeitright.ca on Thursday, May 10, reinforcing the strong codes save lives message and answering consumer questions via social media. AIA members can connect to both media events by following @BuildingSafety on Twitter.

To learn more, visit the ICC Foundation website or contact Cooper Martin

This week, the Center for Communities by Design conducted a Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) project in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Branded “The Rise of the Falls,” the project focused on building a revitalization strategy for the South Hadley Falls, a former industrial area that included the nation’s first working commercial canal. A national team from around the country worked with the community through a three-day charrette process to build an action plan.

On Monday, the team hosted a Town Hall meeting with hundreds of residents to talk about the Falls. As one local official noted, “This is the largest turnout for a town meeting in many years.” Team members challenged the community to take ownership for the future of the Falls. Bonnie Crockett asked, ““What will it take for you to get involved? The ideas tonight are great, but none of them are going to happen until the community decides to work together to make them happen.” Participants were excited by the outcomes of the meeting, and dozens of people signed up to volunteer with implementation efforts. As one resident stated, “I love the direction we are going. I’m glad I came down here tonight. I didn’t know what to expect, but this is great.” Another resident agreed, stating, “I’m really excited about all this. I’m ready to volunteer now. I love this community.”

For more information about the SDAT Town Hall, you can read media accounts in the Gazette, the Republican or WWLP News 22.

AIA Kansas has recently developed its blox Leadership Training Program. The initiative provides opportunities for architects licensed ten years or less to learn about critical issues and policies in their state. The program’s experiential curriculum fosters unique connections within the profession and is fully customized to meet students’ needs.

Modeled on a similar initiative at AIA Kansas City, the nine month long program was launched in October 2011. It was funded by participating firms as well as with a grant from AIA National. The program offers scholarships for up to two participants from small firms, sole proprietors, or those currently unemployed.

“We really wanted to engage and empower our younger members,” says Carol Maxim, Hon. AIAKS, Assistant Director of AIA Kansas and administrator of the blox program. The founding class of ten emerging architects meets monthly to conduct research and interact with leaders and policy makers in government, industry, and the community.

This year’s discussion of public policy launched with students meeting the Kansas Senate President Steve Morris. Participants also met representatives of the Kansas State Fire Marshal Division of Design and Compliance, and the Kansas Department of Commerce. Subsequent sessions took the class to different cities in order to explore urban and rural development, architectural history, and sustainability, as well as to the University of Kansas and the Kansas State University to discuss architectural education.

Maxim added that, “the session on education allowed our participants to share their passion for leadership with faculty and the upcoming wave of professionals. We are very happy with the program’s results overall. Its size fosters intimate connections, and so does traveling together. I continually hear participants offering each other professional advice, and these are people who would otherwise never meet.”

To learn more about the program, please contact Carol Maxim at maxim@aiaks.org or call 800.444.9853.