By Carol Loewenson, FAIA, LEED AP
Summer is finally here, but AIANY is still hard at work advocating for policies that improve the quality of life in our city.
An updated energy code is coming to New York, and we are working to ensure that architects are prepared for the changes ahead. We testified at the June 22nd city council hearing in favor of the new codes and pressured the council to pass them as soon as possible to allow architects and industry professionals time to prepare before the October 3rd effective date.
In order to make sure our members are ready for these changes, we are hosting a series of the Urban Green Council’s Conquer the Code training programs during July and August for both commercial and residential projects. Each course is led by a certified instructor and starts with the basics of energy code design and construction requirements, teaches the breadth of the provisions, and ends with clarification of the documentation and inspection processes.
On June 8th, we hosted the eleventh annual FitCity conference with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. This year’s conference was held at BAM Fisher, and much of the day focused on neighborhood change in the Brooklyn neighborhoods surrounding the venue.
FitCity 2016 addressed three key strategies for human-centered design: data-driven decision-making, community engagement, and finance innovation in healthy housing. Keynote speakers Ingrid Gould Ellen, Paulette Goddard professor of urban planning and director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at NYU, and Kai Wright, features editor at The Nation and host of There Goes the Neighborhood, bookended the day with two perspectives on neighborhood change.
Earlier this spring, we partnered with AIA New York State and AIA New Jersey to approach PANYNJ about making changes to the competition structure that would improve the process and the submitted designs. PANYNJ was receptive, and we are excited to see the results. Last month, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced the selection of an international panel of eight jurors for the Port Authority Bus Terminal International Design + Deliverability Competition. The jurors are experts in urban planning, transportation operations, architecture, construction management, engineering, and other fields. The jurors will select a group of finalists and advise the Port Authority Board of Commissioners in its recommendation of a competition winner.
AIANY continues to collaborate with government officials and peer organizations to consider the most relevant urban challenges and the ways that the profession is adapting.
Carol Loewenson, FAIA, LEED AP is the 2016 president of AIA New York and is a partner at Mitchell | Giurgola, New York, N.Y.
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