Make a Difference

Candidate for Vice President

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Make a difference: Cast your vote for me in Denver. The AIA must stimulate demand for excellent buildings and communities, designed by AIA members. This is the central mission for our professional society as it advances our work. As your vice president, I will help us to capture the public imagination, reach new markets and expand client allegiance. Chapters are the place to focus — to innovate and to influence. Please choose Thomas Vonier for vice president.

California asks questions!

4. Organizational Structure While all can agree that a revitalized, relevant, and robust AIA to lead and support the profession is critical, there is still uncertainty whether the AIA has the will to make the significant and substantive changes necessary. In view of the findings of the Repositioning Study, what recommendations would you make about the AIA’s current service and delivery model to the membership?

AIA members do want significant, substantive change—management and staff share this aim.

We must break with established procedures and experiment with realigned roles and responsibilities. Our challenges are to:

-- Forge strong ties to the contracting and building product industries.
-- Engage critical client groups and user groups in all of our programs.
-- Unite with allied professionals to bolster our power and influence.
-- Attract young talent with early opportunities to lead meaningfully.
-- Address matters of social equity and need by taking concrete action.
-- Connect with political leaders and the public on key community issues.
For the membership, AIA must deliver two basic things at reasonable cost:

Unsurpassed programs and expert member service. The national body must provide resources efficiently and fitted precisely to needs. One size does not fit all.

We need to rethink how we deploy our human, financial and technical assets. The key is to ensure that all resources—which come from the members, and belong to them—perform at peak for the greatest good.

Experimentation and new approaches must be part of our future. This means wider latitude and greater resources for components.

All of the questions and answers are here:

http://www.aiacc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/vonier.pdf

The Maison La Roche and the Fondation Le Corbusier

Françoise and I have lived in an apartment overlooking these two Corbu building for almost twenty years, but this is just the second time I've been inside one of them. Endless streams of architects and architecture students wander down the small private alley (le Square du Docteur Blanche), making a pilgrimage from all parts of the globe -- and especially, these days, from China. Above, touring recent renovations with historic properties architect Pierre-Antoine Gatier (Photo: Jeff Potter FAIA).

Response to a question from the AIA California Council

What the AIA must be: An organization to which every architect wants to belong. A place members immediately feel is their own. A place to meet someone—or to see something—interesting and useful. A showplace of innovations and great work. A beacon of ethics and high standards. Of direct value to members, professionally and personally. An organization where direction and performance are open to regular member review. The dominant influence in educating and regulating the profession. Influential in all aspects of public policy related to design. Engaged at all levels with government agencies and client groups. Representative of all segments of society. Cohesive, connected to members and active in communities. An organization that listens to its members and gives them voice.