Conference Day 4. AIA24. Washington D.C. ArchiWeek.
Written by Aliya Pinnock, Edited by Aliya @archistudentnotes
Archiweek
ArchiWeek is the sub-section of archistudentnotes sharing week in the life accounts from Architecture Students, Architectural Assistants and Architects from all over the world. It is free to read and free to submit!
This ArchiWeek we have a week in the life submission of my experience at the American Institute of Architects Annual Conference 2024 in Washington D.C! I was invited by the AIA due to the work I have done here at archistudentnotes so what better way to share my week than with a (rather long) ArchiWeek submission here at archistudentnotes.com!
This post Day 4 of the Conference itself! If you are interested in reading my week from Monday click here!
Would you have tackled the week any differently?
AIA Conference Day 4.
The last full day. Sad. Truly, after such an amazing and informative week I was very sad to see it coming to an end and honestly as I am writing this as well. Still, the last day, waa good one! We started by making our way to the third and final keynote event of the Conference which today started with a speech from the next President of the AIA 2025 (and Founder of Practice of Architecture), Evelyn Lee who shared a video and some information regarding the AIA25 Conference to be held in Boston, I have, of course already started looking at flight and hotel prices.
We then got straight into the next keynote speaker, Ruth E.Carter, introduced by her cousin, an Architect if I remember correctly (I am very annoyed I didn’t catch his name, if you do - please comment below!). The talk started with a video showcasing Ruth’s insanely large and stunning portfolio which really set the scene as she took us through the story of her career focusing on ‘the power of storytelling and representation in design’, really well done. She ended her talk with the work most known to me, the costume design for Black Panther. It was fascinating to hear where the inspiration for each tribe and individual character had come from, revisions that had to be made and very interestingly the flexibility and adaptability needed to create a very well recognised headdress for under $30.
Leaving the final keynote, I of course took a photo in front of the advert for next year's conference and made my way to my second to last seminar of the week. Meme, Myself and I: Utilizing Social Media in Your Firm. This talk was not very well attended but I really found it valuable and I am 100% sure, judging by the multitude of questions specific to the attendees needs, that others in the audience found it helpful as well. It was actually run by the Director of Communications who was incredibly friendly, personable and engaging. (I must remember to add her on LinkedIn)
After the seminar and a quick stop at the AIA shop where I was gifted a notebook by my Partner which I was very thankful for and purchased a gift for my Mothers birthday, it was time for the very last seminar: Staying Relevant: PR, Branding and Storytelling for Design Firms. I sat at the front of the room for the first time, settled in and watched the room very quickly fill up. A very well presented talk full of Architects of all levels looking to learn how to stay relevant. I don’t have an architecture firm so I was mostly there to learn to help with archistudentnotes but I could see that the attendees were really finding the talk useful for their work too. It really felt like a brief intro into marketing that made me really want to look into it further as it is an incredible tool for every business. The talk ended, I passed over my business card as I took the speakers (because I am like that now of course… yes this was my one and only card that I gave out lol), and with that my experience at the conference was over! My experience in D.C however had at least another 24 hours so off we went to the African American Museum for the slot that my Partner had very kindly booked us earlier in the day.
The building, designed by David Adjaye is, inside and out and stunning building. Externally, it sits within the grounds of the Washington Monument, well placed with simple landscaping and then internally the space is open and light with the odd view out to the surroundings. We however found it kind of hard to navigate.
We heard a lot of people asking for directions and where to go and start if they had x amount of time and the information desk was helpful, don’t get me wrong, but it was also quite busy. We consulted the physical map we picked up from the information desk which was different from the online version and we were able to figure out where we wanted to start. We considered grabbing some food from the Sweet Home Cafe but the queue was quite long and we only had a few hours to explore before it closed.
We started in the basement at C3, slowly worked our way up to C1, came out into the main building and saw that there was no queue at the Sweet Home Cafe so we obviously had to go in and grab some food which was excellent. After lunch we stopped in the Contemplative Court which was stunning and then we explored the upper floors, starting at L4, jumping to the shop before it closed and then back up to L2. My partner then reminded me that the Black Panther suit was in the museum too, so we had to find it, took a bit of asking but it was on the Concourse Level in the Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures exhibition, if you were interested. So it was nice to hear Ruth E.Carter talk about the story of the costume and then see if person later in the day. We love a full circle.
We left the museum in high spirits, glad we got the chance to visit and headed to the White House as it felt like something we should definitely see before we left. Unbenowest to us, there was a protest going on which made everything busier than usual and THEN we ran into the Washington Pride Parade which just so happened to be between us and our hotel. No biggie, we asked if we could get through, we couldn’t but hey, that just meant getting to join the parade and festivities…. Yeeeeah, for about 2 miles… in the heat after a very long and tiring day. The atmosphere was great and glad we got to experience it, but very happy to get to the end of the parade route and get back to the hotel via a quick food pick up to rest our very tired feet!
Stay tuned for tomorrows post to find out what I got up to on the last day in Washington!
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