The T3 Tram around Paris

 
Extension of the T3 line around the periphery of Paris has been a wonderful development.  We now have corridors of green where once there was just asphalt (and, before that, squatter settlements built on the traces of demolished city walls).  The T3 line has also given a new "identity" to places that were already there, but had never been graced with the name of a transit stop (one example above).

Despite some lingering peak-hour capacity problems, this new tram system if one of the best things to happen to Paris in many years.  It is spawning renewed retail and residential vitality wherever it passes.  Proximity to the new tram has now made "desirable" parts of the 20th arrondissment that -- for most of the 40 years I've known them -- had been left to degrade into squalor.

http://www.ratp.fr/en/ratp/c_5045/tramway/

The Mobile Architecture Center

Spread from Ireland to Russia and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, our European AIA chapter meets just twice each year—once every six months in a different city. This year, it's Lyon and Düsseldorf. In 2014, we're headed back to the big ones: Paris and London.

This video of our Stockholm conference tells the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZRey9cQTsw

AIA Europe has become a mobile architecture center for American design. Every conference is about: 

Influence: We connect US-based AIA members and firms with members based in Europe. We connect clients with US architects. We connect US officials with the AIA (watch two senior US Ambassadors discuss why architecture matters).

Focus: In the public eye, we address issues of the most pressing public concern: urban transit systems, disaster mitigation planning, heritage conservation and more. We take up the issues that matter to the cities we're visiting.

Innovation: We attract the most influential members of the building and design industry. In Lyon, the mayor and the president of the region will welcome us, along with the head of the local construction industry federation and the president of the French Ordre des Architectes.

The best news: Our counterparts want to learn from US knowhow and expertise, and they’re looking for ways to collaborate. AIA members from chapters in the US regularly travel to Europe for our meetings, and we are always very happy to welcome new faces — please join us: www.aiaeurope.org

The value of global engagement

The AIA has been “international” since its inception. Some of our founders—Richard Upjohn, Calvert Vaux and Leopold Eidlitz, to name just three—were born abroad and drew upon their formative experiences outside of the US to establish the AIA.

Richard Morris Hunt shaped his ideas during ten years as an adolescent in Europe, drawing particularly upon his studies in Paris. He was among the first in the US to insist upon recognizing architects as bona fide professionals, deserving of fees commensurate with our knowledge and skill.

Global engagement results in direct benefits to all AIA members:

• Collaboration on new work comes from global professional networks.
• Outreach to distant members attracts new members and retains existing ones.
• Professional satisfaction and growth stem from exposure to other cultures.
• Respect and recognition abroad give AIA members a competitive edge.

Global involvements are important to the Institute:

• The AIA has thousands of members positioned in key foreign markets.
• Offshore Chapters have among the best growth and retention rates within the Institute.
• Honorary Fellows are among the world’s most respected architects, enhancing our stature.
• We can learn much from our overseas counterparts and their organizations.

AIA Continental Europe and How It Got That Way

AIA Continental Europe is about to enter its 20th year as a Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.  Our charter encompasses all of Europe, so we meet every six months, each time with a conference in a different city.  That allows our members to attend at least one meeting each year, where they also earn their CES credits.  Here is our web site: www.aiaeurope.org

The Chapter was my idea -- I organized the small group that founded it.  With help, I did all of the initial work: the chartering petition, the long term plan, the short term plan, responses to the AIA “component performance criteria,” pro forma budgets, our bylaws.  Our first sponsor, the Herman Miller Company, at the time had a showroom on the Champs-Elysées.  They made things very much easier for us from the outset. 

Most of the early help — and it was substantial — came from Françoise Vonier. She handled the mail (it was all “postal” then, with some business conducted by facsimile).  She wrote, produced and mailed our print newsletters.  She wrestled with the French bureaucracy and handled most of our correspondence.  She organized our first great meeting in Paris, graciously hosted by the then US Ambassador, Pamela Harriman.

Another generous and bright woman, D Marie Wagner Assoc AIA (who was trained both as an architect and as an attorney, and who is now a lawyer in Texas), also gave very freely of her time.  She drafted the French articles of incorporation and helped us to get them through the French system.  Alan Schwartzman FAIA offered advice and support.  Several other people came to our early organizing sessions and signed the original petition.

The Chapter owes gratitude to several other people from early days:  LW “Bill” Chapin II, the Institute president in 1994, and Terry McDermott Hon AIA, the chief executive at the time, were very supportive.  They signed our charter and presented it personally to a group gathered at Jean Nouvel's Fondation Carier in Paris (monsieur Nouvel also attended the ceremony, characteristically late, but just in time for a long lunch).

James P Cramer Hon AIA, a former Institute chief executive, and W Cecil Steward FAIA, a past AIA president, also helped.  Werner Rüegger AIA and Betrand de Sénépart AIA (both still in Switzerland) were in it from the beginning—Dominique Tomasov AIA (still in Barcelona), Charles Croigny AIA (still in Belgium) and Jocelyn Brainard AIA (still in Paris), too, along with Dieter Waldschmidt AIA (still shuttling between Germany and Maryland).

Building AIA Continental Europe is among the most rewarding experiences I've had as a volunteer.  For nearly everyone involved -- and this is hundreds of people at this stage -- the Chapter has created lasting friendships, unparalleled business opportunities and many wonderful occasions.