Dean Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter recently joined a series of juries and panels to advocate for cultural diversity, gender equity and design justice. Last month, she was invited to jury the 2020 Millennium Award, the highest honor for the AIA|LA Design Awards. She also participated in the AIA|LA Powerful conference for gender equity, and joined the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) panel to discuss faculty diversity in design education.
Millennium Award
Celebrating the best architecture realized during the first twenty years of this new millennium, the winners of the “Best of the Millennium Awards” were selected from entries that earned AIALA design awards from 2000 to 2019. This recognition of the role of important and forward-leaning design was also reflected in changes to criteria in existing AIALA Design Awards categories for 2020: the namesake 2020 AIALA Design Awards which honor completed projects, and the Next LA awards which consider designed but as-yet unbuilt work.
AIA|LA Powerful conference
Women in Architecture, WiA AIA|LA’s, Powerful conference (now entering its 7th iteration) has grown into an international caliber event. AIA Los Angeles brought women in architecture to the spotlight. Motivated by The American Institute of Architects’ effort to re-position itself as a more equitable organization (and inspired by AIA San Francisco’s annual conference The Missing 32 % Project), AIA|LA coordinated a design symposium that highlighted best practices in design leadership. The symposium served as a forum to hear from emerging professionals who are currently navigating the pathway towards a successful career. It featured inspirational and energetic presentations that showcase women who are leading the design profession in architecture, art, social impact and innovation.
ACSA: Faculty Diversity & Excellence
The webinar sought to unearth and address implicit assumptions and expectations in current faculty hiring practices, and to consider what characteristics and experiences are privileged by the application of these measures in order to more directly apply a diversity-minded approach to defining excellence. In the context of today’s changes, challenges, and opportunities in teaching, the panelists will present and explore innovative new practices which seek to diversify the profile of an architectural faculty.