Jacksonvile AIA emerging design professionals

I am honored this year to be part of the EDP board. Last night was the board transition meeting, held at Perdue, which is a very nice space downtown. By the way, I need a nice task light and tested out their “Dash” product (from Steelcase) while there. My first impression was that the build quality was a bit flimsy, but I found the LED quality (mostly color temperature) and dimmability to be almost exactly what I’m looking for. Still, I think I’ll look around a bit more. I’m sure Perdue has plenty other task lights. product link: ”Dash, by Steelcase”

Back to EDP: as competition chair, I will oversee two competitions for our Emerging Design Professionals this year, including putting together a jury, creating a competition brief, and administrating the submission, entries, and juror process. I’m really looking forward to it as new (for me) and potentially transformative initiative. For those unfamiliar, EDP (Emerging Design Professionals) is a younger brother to the AIA, where young professionals (10 years out of school max) can band together in order to learn from one another, make a difference in our community and generally further the cause of good design. Other places have similar but differing names for it, but there is usually some subsection of the AIA that is engaged in promoting the growth of young architects. I personally would like to see us rename as the Young Architect Forum, since EDP sounds like an epidemic disease, but nevertheless, I want to be a contributor to what they’re doing. EDP Jacksonville has a facebook page, run this year by Ana Picardo. I have been very involved in organizations in the past and have always noted a sad but pervasive truth: business as usual. Organizations like the AIA have been around for so long that even younger more energetic arms tend to get slowed down by a lack of buy-in from colleagues and the public. It is the difference between organization and organism. In an organization, things are business as usual. It is difficult to get new and exciting initiatives agreed upon, and momentum tends to lag most of the time. This is because years of organizational detritus have slowed the mechanism for decision making and risk taking. In an organism, things can be pretty dynamic. Each component of an organism is mutually dependent on another and influences are constantly changing the decision making dynamics. One of essential key factors of functioning like an organism is to be open to the differing strengths of different people. This is where EDP needs to place an open call to all young design professionals: we need you. Do you want to see Jacksonville thriving? Do you want to see downtown take off? Do you want better design in our region? We can be part of the engine that demands a better built environment, incrementally pushing for change. Yeah, the budget is always small. Doesn’t matter, we’ll figure it out. Yeah, it’s the same old people. Well, I’m new - and you will be too. Check the facebook page for upcoming events and initiatives.

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