From Left, Michael Stills, Dan Hart, Mary Stills

AIA National President Inauguration

This past year on December 10th, Mary Stills and I traveled to our nation’s Capital to witness the inauguration of the AIA’s 2022 National President, Daniel S. Hart, FAIA, PE. We had the honor of being invited to attend the ceremony installing him as the AIA’s 98th President.

Mr. Hart has a special gift for storytelling. In his eloquent acceptance speech, he tied the fact that he lives in Austin, Texas which is on the 98th meridian, to his being the 98th president of the AIA. His story also introduces a young lady named Claudia Alta Taylor, who ended up in Austin, married a politician and later would become known as Lady Bird Johnson. She went on to lead a new kind of environmental action through conservation. She spoke at the 1968 AIA Convention in Portland, Oregon after keynote speaker Whitney M. Young Jr. Their respective discourse was about climate and justice, something we are still struggling with over 50 years later. But as Mr. Hart’s speech continues, we as architects have the ability to make a difference in the built environment through our profession, our design. Ask yourself how you would respond.

I saw this opportunity not only as a guest, but also silently as a the AIA El Paso Chapter President alongside Mary as the El Paso Architectural Foundation President and the experience as my own little inauguration. We were in the presence of 17 past National Presidents. Oh, what prominence filled that room. Although I did not have near the extravagant inauguration experience at the Greenery last month, I did become the 76th El Paso Chapter President. When I looked out, I saw leaders and past presidents as well as potential future ones.

“So deep is the environmental crisis; so urgent is the demand for change; that architecture must become not only a profession…but a form of public service.” - Lady Bird Johnson