Celebrating Architecture Week - October 2-10

By Anthony Schirripa, FAIA, IIDAAs architects, we practice architecture every day, and enjoy it always, but once a year, we truly celebrate it: Architecture Week. In its 2010 iteration, stretching from October 2-10, we'll open two exhibitions, host programs for every generation, set sail on architectural cruises, and roll out the red carpet at Heritage Ball on October 7, the biggest industry party of the year. Heritage Ball, which we hope will fill Chelsea Pier's Pier 60 with 1,200 professionals from the architecture, engineering, construction and real estate industries, will be a night to remember. While we all love the black-tie networking, we're really gathering to celebrate design excellence and leadership, with four exemplars of it: Vicki Match Suna, AIA, of the New York University Langone Medical Center, the 200 West Street Project Team, Henry Cobb, FAIA, founding partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects, and the Clinton Climate Initiative, a Program of the William J. Clinton Foundation. In our brief dinner program, we'll hardly have time to discuss the details of each honoree's accomplishments. That's why, in addition to Heritage Ball, we'll be hosting programs with Vicki Match Suna, the West Street Project Team and the Clinton Climate Initiative during Architecture Week. These are all free, and promise to offer insights for professionals and the public both. Visit aiany.org/architectureweek for the complete schedule. Architecture Week is not just for architects. We want all New Yorkers to celebrate our built environment, so we've developed programs for the public, families, students, and kids as well. Gain a new appreciation for our city from the water—we'll be hosting four of our acclaimed architectural cruises that week, or explore the city by foot, with openhousenewyork. We're co-sponsors of the annual festival, and in addition to opening an impressive list of hard-to-access buildings on their roster, our 2010 New Practices winners will be offering studio tours, and our Emerging New York Architects committee will be giving tours of the historic High Bridge. For the younger openhousenewyork attendees, the Center for Architecture Foundation will be hosting a Family Festival here at the Center, where families can take part in fun design activities. Somewhere between the tots and the tuxes are the next generation of architects, currently architecture students. Each year, we have a show of student work from the fourteen area architecture schools. This year, the deans of those schools will converge on the Center for Architecture on Saturday, October 2 for the Deans' Roundtable, where they'll discuss their approaches to design education. The final component of our biggest week of the year is our exhibition openings. We'll be opening two very special shows. "Innovate:Integrate - Building Better Together" is a show I developed with the Center for Architecture exhibitions team to explore the ideas behind my presidential theme, Architect as Leader. It looks at how the architects and engineers who design and build our projects lead the way to execute innovative design in today's buildings. Technology has changed both the design process and the construction process - and it is building technology that unifies the show, as we explain everything from patent-pending curtain wall designs to Building Information Modeling (BIM) programs. Nineteen exhibitions out of twenty, our shows are at the Center for Architecture on LaGuardia Place. But this October, we'll be going underground again...to the West 4th St. subway station. Riders of the A/C/E/B/D/M and F - and those curious enough to spend a subway fare on the exhibition, which will cover the walls of the station's south entrance - will be treated to two hundred new projects designed by AIA New York members. From the NASCAR Hall of Fame by Pei Cobb Freed to FXFOWLE's new King Abdullah FD Mosque in Riyahd, the exhibition demonstrates the quality, diversity, and reach of New York architects. In fact, that's a theme that runs through the entirety of Architecture Week. I hope you'll join us as we celebrate leadership! Anthony Schirripa, FAIA, IIDA, is the 2010 president of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, New York, N.Y.