AIA Launches Sixth Annual Film Challenge

Design has the power to solve some of the biggest issues facing cities today. The sixth annual AIA Film Challenge, which launched on June 25, 2020, is a film contest that amplifies these stories — architects partnering with communities and civic leaders to design a healthy, sustainable, just world that improves lives. The challenge is open to anyone and the creator of the winning 60- to 90-second documentary could take home up to $7,000.

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In Solidarity and Action

As I type these words, helicopters buzz low over my Washington, D.C. neighborhood, and massive crowds stream through the streets in protest of the injustices perpetrated against George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so, so many in the Black community over the last 400+ years. Injustices both outrageously specific and overwhelmingly systemic, and we grieve them.

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Virginia NOMA and the Project Pipeline

Virginia NOMA (VANOMA) is on the verge of becoming the newest chapter of NOMA (National Organization of Minority Architects). The organization was formed in 1971 and supports minority Architects, architecture interns and students providing education, training, mentoring and resources. Student chapters (NOMAS) exist on most university campuses with an architecture curriculum.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

An Open Memo to My Colleagues in the Community of Architecture

A cellular company once popularized the commercial phrase, “can you hear me, now?” For years, there has been a credible, audible but unheard plea from the depths of the soul of a segment of the American family that there is an injustice that has been perpetual and persistent. America has not listened because it only impacted a small number of our family members. Occasionally there was an uprising, when tensions from the injustice rose to a boil, but they were quickly squashed.

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