Did You Know...

• In 1920, the AIA began lobbying the schools to offer five-year programs in architecture instead of four-year programs. By 1950, the National Architectural Accrediting Board required a five-year course for accreditation. Today, of the 114 accredited schools of architecture in the U.S., 60 have students enrolled in a five-year BArch program

• That in 1909, the Institute was instrumental in persuading the City of Washington to move the remains of city planner/designer Pierre L’Enfant from an obscure grave in Maryland to their current place of repose in Arlington Cemetery? L’Enfant’s final resting place, on the hill directly beneath General Robert E. Lee’s Arlington House, offers one of the finest views of “the city he saw only in his imagination.”
  (From The AIA’s First Hundred Years, by Henry Saylor, FAIA, published by the AIA in 1957.

• That Glenn Brown, illustrious executive secretary of the AIA from 1898 to 1913, wrote the first book-length history of the U.S. Capitol building. But did you know that he also penned Water Closets: A Historical, Mechanical and Sanitary Treatise? Oh, and he designed the Dumbarton (Buffalo) Bridge in Georgetown —Andrew Brodie Smith

• How many of the 82 AIA presidents were also Gold Medal winners? Five:                               
  • Charles F. McKim (1909)
  • George B. Post (1911)
  • Milton Medary (1929)
  • Charles D. Maginnis (1948)
  • Ralph Walker (1957).

• April 13 marked the 263rd anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birth. In 1993, on the 250th anniversary, the AIA awarded our only architect U.S. president the Gold Medal. In 2007, as part of the year-long sesquicentennial observation, the Institute will celebrate Architecture Week from April 9-April 14.

• In its founding year, 1857, the AIA established three standing committees: Committee on Papers, Advisory Committee (for consultation on business concerns), and Committee on Examinations (under New York State law, which required survey and inspection of buildings by architects). In 1867, a Committee on Education and a Committee on Library and Publications were added. Today, we have more than 100 committees.. (From The AIA’s First Hundred Years, by Henry H. Saylor, FAIA, published by the AIA in 1957.)

• In 1907, the AIA Committee on Education recommended that a prerequisite for a degree in architecture be a proficiency in Latin. They also said an adequate architecture education should consist of a year of prep school; four years in a school of architecture, at least one (and preferably two or three) years of advanced study in Rome, Paris, or American ateliers; and at least a year of travel in Europe. (From The AIA’s First Hundred Years, by Henry H. Saylor, FAIA.)

• In 1992, the AIA/AAF Accent on Architecture gala served as the inaugural event of the year-long celebration of the White House’s 200th birthday. Shown here, First Lady Barbara Bush (center) meets 1992 Gold Medalist Benjamin Thompson and his wife and partner Jane Thompson at the Octagon’s bicentennial exhibit opening. Later, Mrs. Bush, standing in for the President (who was ill), presented Ben Thompson with his Gold Medal during the Accent gala at the Kennedy Center.

• The AIA’s magazine, the Journal of the American Institute of Architects, was first published in January 1913. Its editor was Charles Harris Whitaker. The Journal was replaced by a smaller, more Institute-focused magazine, The Octagon, in 1929. The magazine reincarnated as The Journal of the AIA in 1944 under the editorship of Henry H. Saylor, FAIA, and changed its name to Architecture magazine in 1983 while Don Canty, Hon. AIA, was editor. The AIA sold Architecture in 1989; it is still published today. In 1997, the AIA formed a strategic alliance with the McGraw-Hill Companies by which Architectural Record is mailed to all AIA members.

• In the early days of the Institute, the number of members who could be elevated to the status of Fellow was limited. In 1883, the limit—which at the time was 70—was lifted. Now, approximately 100 AIA architects each year are elevated to Fellow, and the College of Fellows currently counts 2,550 members among its ranks. (From The AIA’s First Hundred Years, by Henry H. Saylor, FAIA, published by the Octagon, Washington, D.C., in 1957.)

• In 1992, Betty Lou Custer, FAIA, received the Edward G. Kemper Award, conferred on an architect member who has contributed significantly to the profession through service to the Institute. Custer, who practiced for 28 years before becoming the executive director of AIA St. Louis in 1972, is the only woman to have been named recipient of the award in its 56-year history and the one person to have been so honored posthumously. (The Edward G. Kemper Award honors Edward G. Kemper, Hon. AIA, who devoted nearly 35 years of his life to the Institute as executive director from 1914 to 1948.

• On March 9, 2006, Louise Bethune, the first woman AIA member, will be inducted into the Western New York Women’s Hall of Fame, housed at Buffalo State College? AIA Buffalo/Western New York nominated Bethune for the honor. Zina Bethune—Louise Bethune’s great granddaughter—an actress, dancer, choreographer, and singer in film, television, and theater—will attend the induction ceremony.

• Frank Lloyd Wright accepted the AIA Gold Medal at the Institute’s national convention in Houston on March 17, 1949. He opened his acceptance speech with, “Well, it’s about time!” and ended with “That’s enough, isn’t it?” A total of 1,296 people were in attendance. (From The AIA’s First Hundred Years, by Henry H. Saylor, FAIA, published by the AIA in 1957).

• In 1954—a mere 52 years ago—Norma Merrick Sklarek, FAIA, touched history when she became the first African-American woman architect licensed in the U.S. A native of New York City, she earned a BArch from the Columbia University School of Architecture; moved to Los Angeles; worked with Gruen Associates and the Jon Jerde Partnership; founded Siegel-Sklarek-Diamond in 1985 and the Sklarek Partneship in 1989; and served for years on the AIA Ethics Council. Sklarek made history again in 1980—a mere 26 years ago—when she became the first African-American woman elevated to Fellow of the Institute.

• In 1950, the AIA Board voted to rebuild the garden behind the Octagon, under the direction of James R. Edmunds Jr., AIA. Landscaping included erection of a memorial at the southeast corner of the building, dedicated to AIA members “who gave their lives in world conflict for the security of their country and the cause of peace.” Sculpted by Lee Lawrie, Hon. AIA, that stele remains the sole vestige of the 1950 landscaping

• The number of attendees at the 54th AIA national convention, held in Washington, D.C., in 1921, had risen to an all-time Institute high of 200, necessitating for the first time parallel sessions to meet a variety of interests among the architecturally inclined. The 2005 AIA national convention in Las Vegas, the largest in the Institute’s history, hosted 24,444 registrants and 150 continuing-education sessions for the architecturally inclined.

• That the first time an AIA national convention was held in Los Angeles was 1941? It was the 73rd annual AIA convention held in the 84th year of the Institute’s existence. G. Edwin Bergstrom (who, with David J. Witmer, was designing the Pentagon at the time) was the AIA president. Since then, national conventions have been held in Los Angeles in 1956 and 1994. We’ve got the next one on deck for June 8–10 of this year
  
  

• In 1888, the Institute joined forces with the National Association of Builders to publish a “Uniform Contract” which was industry standard for a quarter century. In 1911, the AIA published the first edition of its own Standard Documents. Four years later, as a result of a study by the Committee on Contract Documents chaired by Frank Miles Day, a second edition was published. The committee had met extensively with representatives of the contractors, reports Henry H. Saylor in The AIA’s First 100 Years (AIA, 1957).
  
  

• That in 1990, during the AIA National Convention in Houston, the Institute and the USSR Union of Architects signed the AIA/USSR Union of Architects Accord on Professionalism that provided means for representatives of each organization to attend the other’s conventions and work together to advance the work of the UIA?

• That in addition to serving as AIA Executive Vice President/CEO since January 1999, Norman L. Koonce, FAIA, served 10 years as president of the American Architectural Foundation and 30 years in architecture practice (including 28 as a firm principal of Knight, Koonce, Howe and Associates)—as well as a national AIA vice president, president of AIA Louisiana, 1998 recipient of the AIA Edward C. Kemper Award, and 2001 AIA Louisiana Medal of Honor recipient?

• That for the four years before the AIA purchased the century-old Octagon House outright in 1902, we rented the building as a Washington, D.C., headquarters for $30/month? The landlord was the Tayloe Family, for whom the house had been designed by William Thornton.     

• The Institute formally adopted its first insignia at the convention of 1893. Based on the 1859 seal by AIA Founder Henry Dudley, it was gold and white and was the “permanent and official badge” of the AIA until November 1921 when the Board formally adopted a round blue-and-gold button based on H. Van Buren Magonigle’s 1912 seal design. In 1931, the Board appointed a committee “to study the problem of securing an original and meritorious design for the pin.” In 1944 designs were still being sought, developed, and considered for a new pin or button. Members wanted something original and legible at a three-foot range. A maroon and gold octagonal pin was officially adopted in 1947. It, too, was based on the AIA seal, as is the current cut out of the eagle and stump which has been in use since 1946. (Source: AIA Library and Archive, 1997.)

• The first AIA Seal was designed by charter member Henry Dudley and was adopted in August 1859. It was used on AIA publications, membership certificates, and the like. Lozenge shaped, it featured the name of the organization and the February 23, 1857 date of organization. In 1912, at the 46th convention of the AIA, a new design for the seal by New York architect H. Van Buren Magonigle, was approved. Ralph Adams Cram and Henry Bacon were also members of the seal committee and had designed seals. One of Bacon’s seal designs is now used as the seal of The American Architectural Foundation. (Source: AIA Library and Archive, 1997.)

• The first four architecture schools were opened under the direction of AIA members:
  • MIT (1868), under W.R. Ware
  • Cornell (1870), under Charles Babcock
  • University of Illinois (1870), under N.C. Ricker
  • Syracuse University (1873), under A.L. Brockway.
  (From The AIA’s First Hundred Years, by Henry Saylor, FAIA, published by the AIA in 1957.

• That the AIA’s first headquarters, acquired in 1858, was a “sparcely furnished room” in the University Building owned by New York University, in New York City? It rented for $10.33 per month. Two years later, the fledgling Institute acquired an adjoining room. With the start of the Civil War in 1861, the lease was terminated, the furniture sold to pay back rent, and the archives placed in a small chest (bought with the last $2.31 in the treasury) and stored in the home of John W. Ritch, one of the first members. It would be three more years before the AIA would resume operations, but rise from hibernation it did. (From The AIA’s First Hundred Years, by Henry Saylor, FAIA, published by the AIA in 1957.

• Louise Blanchard Bethune has a long list of “firsts” to her credit. After opening her own office at the age of 25, Louise Bethune organized the Buffalo Society of Architects in 1886. In April 1888, she became the first woman elected to AIA membership, and the next year she became the first woman Fellow. Bethune, designer of schools and commercial structures in Buffalo, arguably is best known for the city’s Hotel Lafayette, built in 1904 and a national landmark today.

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