Design DC 2008: Renewal
14 07 2008
Last Wednesday we got invited to the beautiful Reagan Trade Center for the AIA’s Design DC 2008. The three day peer-to-peer conference was filled with exhibits and lectures for the areas top architects and design professionals, but we were just excited about getting free conference swag (you can never have enough pens and stress balls).
The conference was kicked off by a keynote address by Marshall Purnell, AIA’s 84th president, and design principal at Devrouax & Purnell. Throughout his career, Marshall has been instrumental in the creation of a number of notable Washington landmarks, including the Nats’ new stadium, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, and the New Convention Center.
Purnell spent most of the address reviewing some of the greatest hits from his firm over the last 30 years, but it was his comments on diversity that were the most poignant. He showed a map of downtown DC and said that in the cities core “Golden Triangle” only one building in the entire area was designed by an African American Architect, illustrating how much further the profession has to go.
The keynote was followed by a “lavish” reception in the exhibit hall. There were a bunch of interesting exhibits but we will get to those in some posts later this week.
[Photo: DCMetrocentric]
Wow I figure it was not open to the public, wish I was an Architect
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