Thank you to the 400+ attendees, which included architects, Associate members, students, Allied members, and sponsors, for gathering for the AIA Arizona State Conference Thursday, October 23 at Clayton House in Scottsdale. It was an invigorating day filled with powerful, insightful presentations by notable speakers from across the country. Key themes: Optimism, innovative design thinking, and a clear-eyed look at our future.
The 2025 conference was chaired by Elizabeth McLean, AIA, Associate Principal at Ayers Saint Gross who is the 2025 president-elect of AIA Arizona.
The conference speaker lineup included:
- Jonathan Boelkins, AIA, an architect and educator, he is the exhibition architect and project coordinator on the U.S. Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Biennale.
- Kim Carson, who will engage in a dialogue about the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-augmented creativity.
- Vishaan Chakrabarti, FAIA, architect, urbanist, and educator who leads the firm Practice for Architecture and Urbanism | PAU in New York, and is the author of the book The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy.
- Zena Howard, FAIA, NOMA, an architect with Perkins&Will who is shaping architecture through Remembrance Design, a design process that responds to inequity and injustice by restoring lost cultural connections and honoring collective memory and history.
- Suchi Reddy, FAIA, NOMA, architect and founding principal of her own practice Reddymade in NYC. The guiding principle of the practice is “form follows feeling,” a design ethos informed by neuroaesthetics, the study of how the brain responds to the design of our surroundings.
The conference was moderated by:
- Tania Katan, known globally for cracking up people and perceptions, is the author of “Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back into Your Work & Life” (Penguin Random House). She is a top-rated inspirational speaker, teaching creativity and innovation.
THANK YOU TO OUR CONFERENCE SPONSORS
Title Sponsor Arcadia
Platinum Sponsors Commercial Lighting Industries / Elevate and SWBR / Kimley-Horn / McCarthy / Monograph / PENTA Construction / Primak Construction Group / U.S. CAD, an ARKANCE Company / YKK AP
Conference Patron Sponsors ADM Group / Amrize / Arizona Architecture Foundation / Ayers Saint Gross / CCBG Architects / Concord General Contracting / Corgan / DFDG Architecture / DLR Group / DPA Architects / DWL Architects + Planners Inc / Gensler / Holly Street Studio / Jones Studio / Kovach / Optima / PK Associates / Rider Levett Bucknall / Salt River Project / Schaefer Structural Engineering / SmithGroup / Stantec / Stuckey Insurance / The Green Room Landscape Architects / Varitec Solutions / Walter P Moore / Willmeng
Speakers’ Dinner Sponsor McCarthy
Conference Partner Sponsors Airpark Signs / Archsol / Arizona Residential Architects / BWS Architects / Clark Hill / Coreslab Structures / DPR Construction / GLHN Architects & Engineers, Inc. / HDR / Illumination Systems / KCL Engineering / Kitchell / Meyer Borgman Johnson / Mortenson / Okland / Repp + McLain Design & Construction / Sundt Construction / Weddle Gilmore
Coffee Cart Sponsors Architekton / Caliente Construction / Dibble / Precision Property Measurements / Shepley Bulfinch
Luncheon Sponsors 180 Degrees Design + Build / 1GPA / AIA Phoenix Metro / Arizona Masonry Council / coLab Studio / Colliers Engineering & Design / Dig Studio / Gammage & Burnham / Grace Design Studios / Line and Space, LLC / PHX Architecture / Sazan Group / Schneider Structural Engineers / Swaim Associates
Student Champion Sponsors Aline Architecture Concepts / DeBartolo Architects / RLGA Technical Services LLC / suoLL Architects
Student Advocate Sponsors Michael Taylor Architects, Inc. / Reproductions Inc / Richärd Kennedy Architects / Shepley Bulfinch / WORKSBUREAU
Tucson Bus University of Arizona CAPLA