Dear AIA Member: Eff You.

Fresh from this year’s AIA convention in the City of Brotherly Love, the sense of contempt that the national organization can express toward its members (either on purpose or purely through a lack of creativity) is truly breathtaking. At least the sense of contempt that was on display at this annual gathering, thanks to the event’s planners (I hesitate to use the word “architects”). The convention has long been an opportunity to catch up with colleagues and friends, peruse some of the latest products, and rack up continuing education credits, all of which were in abundance in Philadelphia. But what dribbled in around the edges and through the cracks of what continues to be an irrelevant national professional organization is the sheer derision directed at the members in attendance, perhaps most flagrantly demonstrated by AIA’s last-minute pick for its kick-off keynote speaker.

 The word “keynote” here is important. What is a keynote? According to Webster’s it’s “the most important idea or part of something.” Last year in Atlanta, AIA had the good fortune (which it gave to Bill Clinton for his keynote address) to choose someone with a message about how we ought to make our place in the world, or make the world a better place. (I know, very sappy.) No matter what you think about Clinton’s performance as President, the man is intelligent and has a perspective on the world worth listening to, whether you agree with him or not. Sounds like a keynote to me. This year AIA couldn’t get another President, so it decided to get a fake one: actor Kevin Spacey from the series “House of Cards” was up as the kick-off keynote speaker. About a week or so before the convention Spacey abdicated, and another phony politician was hired, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who stars in “The Veep.” In a Q&A with NPR’s Terry Gross and Louis-Dreyfus, there was hardly a word spoken about architecture, amid a flurry of F-bombs and wink-wink, nudge-nudge remarks about croissants.

 This is the best AIA can do? The intent of the convention planners seemed clear: don’t talk about the hard stuff, they can’t handle it. Keep it light but edgy, plenty of bread and circuses. Entertain them with shiny beads and bits of colored string, don’t challenge them with a kick-off keynote event that might be a downer, or agitate them to consider tough questions. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

 The celebrity Bacon Brothers duo, Kevin and Michael, were also on hand for entertainment. The native Philadelphians are the sons of Edmund Bacon, the city’s legendary post-war city planner for more than 20 years. I can see where this is going. In coming years AIA members will be treated to headliners who aren’t architects “…but I play one on TV,” or descendants of dead architects who haven’t the slightest interest in or insight into architecture but are chosen for their supposed stardom, or maybe some kind of higher power to channel their long-gone relatives. AIA convention séances with Frank Lloyd Wright and Lou Kahn can’t be far behind.

 A whiff of condescension was in evidence even at the Honors & Awards Celebration on Thursday afternoon, when award winners gathered to be recognized for their design work, service to the profession, and aspiring leadership (among young architects). “Let’s just get on with it,” AIA CEO Robert Ivy muttered to the audience as the event got underway. I’ve known Bob for over 30 years and he has always been a gentleman, so it was at this point that I suspected there was a script and we were being treated to a bit of AIA experimental theater. After all, as it was explained to me by an astute observer at the convention, this is the “Year of the Disrupter.” Perhaps everyone at the convention with a speaking part was posing as The Donald or The Bernie, saying outrageous stuff served up with a side of sneer. It was all very entertaining. Get it?

 The highpoint of the Honors & Awards bit was a surprise visit by 84-year-old Denise Scott Brown, God love her, who took the stage and eloquently walked the audience through the years of AIA National’s intimidation, stupidity, tone-deafness, and stonewalling in denying Robert Venturi the Gold Medal because he had the audacity to insist that he couldn’t accept it unless the honor was equally bestowed upon his partner. Then, a year or so ago, someone at AIA finally woke up (after being called to task by outraged AIA members around the country) and suddenly realized that architecture is a collaborative endeavor and, yeah, maybe we could give a Gold Medal to two people at the same time. To Scott Brown’s credit, she delivered her remarks without the slightest hint of hard-earned disgust. Classy.

 It’s been obvious for awhile now that AIA National is feeding off the good work of the AIA components and chapters. I can’t imagine there are many AIA members who joined because of the national organization; it’s the components and their support of the profession on the local level that make membership worthwhile. The dues structure makes it impossible to join a chapter or component without being a member of National, which ups the dues amount. So it’s basically an extortion racket. Someday the racket will be brought down, as components and chapters get better at collaborating with each other on their own, end-running National, making it even more irrelevant than it already is.

 Until then, we are stuck with what we’ve got, and it looks like it’s about to get worse. I was amazed by the faces people made when I shared the news that next year the AIA will convene in the architectural desert of Orlando. The pretense will be completely gone. But we’re not a bunch of used-car salesmen best served by a convention with trashy entertainment and rounds of golf. We are supposed to be an intelligent, thinking, feeling profession whose members got into this line of work for myriad reasons having to do with beauty, accommodation, and giving something back through our talents. If a trash-talking cable star as a kick-off keynote seems at odds with your view of why you became an architect and continue on in a profession that is routinely roughed-up in the world of making buildings...it’s not you. The problem is the people running your so-called professional organization.