Dear Colleagues:

I write this letter under the San Diego sun, where along with 1st VP Kristen M. Scott, EVP Marga Rose Hancock Hon. AIA, and perhaps a hundred of our AIA Seattle colleagues (see list at right), we've gathered with architects (AIA reports 18K attendees!) from around the world for several days of AIA learning, collegiality, and business at AIA Convention.

On Friday evening May 9 more than 70 'home folks' gathered joyfully at Croce's in the Gaslamp Quarter for the AIA Seattle Dinner, to celebrate some special high points for Northwest design: with our much-admired Miller|Hull pals aglow with the AIA 2003 Firm Award; with four freshly-minted Fellows and their families and friends, fresh from the impressive Investiture held at the magnificent Salk Institute, complete with trumpets and the release of doves; Jon Magnusson Hon. AIA; and Dr. Kathryn Anthony, a recipient of AIA Honors for Collaborative Achievement (for which AIA Seattle nominated her) for her scholarly observations of the profession. Perhaps you'll join the crowd to celebrate further with at least the majority of these honored friends, along with recipients of AIA Seattle 2003 Honors, at the Honors Gala June 7.

Other highlights of our gathering here:
• A rich and inspirational menu of experiences illuminating the theme "Design Matters: Poetry + Proof," a brilliant conception and manifestation by AIA President Thompson Penney FAIA, Convention Chair Paul Boney FAIA, the AIA San Diego host component, and colonies of workers and volunteers from throughout the AIA system.

• Poetry indeed in plenary remarks by Tod Williams FAIA and Billie Tsien AIA, describing the inspiration for their poetic projects; and perhaps most stunningly in a keynote address by Daniel Libeskind AIA. "How many times do you see an auditorium-full of architects in tears?," as Peter David Greaves AIA asked, as we came away together from those amazing moments. What an effort this architect makes to understand and capture the emotional power of space! Truly awesome!

• Gathering with our Big Sibling colleagues, learning from our common and uncommon experiences in AIA's large urban components. Cumulatively and individually, we take seriously our civic and professional responsibilities, and related opportunities to advance the design message and to share the concentrated resources we can muster, in order to achieve maximum benefit for the profession and our society as a whole. Big stuff indeed.

• The AIA Legacy Project here in San Diego, a study undertaken by Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture with the support of the AIA College of Fellows Latrobe Fellowship, will generate valuable information and knowledge to advance both professional and public understanding of the importance of design in all aspects of our work - the ways we collaborate, our delivery systems, the built products that result, and the effect of the whole sequence on those who occupy, visit, or otherwise experience the structures we help manifest.

• I should probably also mention a 'lowlight:' The business of AIA attracts relatively little interest and a tiny percentage of AIA's national membership of some 70,000. A notable phenomenon of this and other Conventions: crowds of 5,000 or more assemble to hear Tod & Billie, say; then 4875 or so of them disappear as the business session begins. Some might blame 'exclusive' procedures for delegate qualification, the opacity of AIA governance, or a 'leave it to the organizational wonks' attitude. Maybe our organization does 'just fine' without a lot of attention; but many of us can't help thinking how much better it would be if more people helped make it all happen - and at the same time let something happen to themselves, in the process! The delegates did pass a measure to allow electronic voting at future AIA business sessions (which we in the AIA NW+Pacific Region refer to as 'the Sue Lani Madsen amendment'). You can read about the AIA national elections, and the resolutions passed, in other AIA communications about the Convention.

As AIA Poet Laureate, our own Marga offers 'Reflections on Poetry + Proof,' reproduced below, an occasional verse conveying impressions of the theme and our gathering here.

Back at home, I'll hope to see many of you at the Honors Gala and also at the Summer Solstice Mini-Conference & Feast on Friday June 20, a time to share stories of 'Generations of Leadership,' to enjoy a summery afternoon at a series of intriguing sites along Seattle's central waterfront, to don ethnic garb (optional), and to make beautiful (or not!) music together. At Convention, and particularly at the Minority Fellows reception on Saturday evening, Donald I. King FAIA helped secure positive responses from some favorites among the national Diversity community to join our local storytellers in the Solstice circle -- including Alpha Blackburn, Stephan Castellanos FAIA, Frances Halsband FAIA, Stephen A. Kliment FAIA, Charles McAfee FAIA, Norma Merrick Sklarek FAIA, and Michael Willis FAIA.

Later this summer, look forward to August 4, when we've invited AIA 2002 President Gordon H. Chong FAIA to join us in observing the 109th Birthday of AIA in Seattle and Washington with a Membership Festivity on the Pacific-outlook deck at the offices of ZGF in the 2nd & Seneca Building, Seattle. More to come on that soon ...

Later in August, many of us will join our regional colleagues at 'Practice Made Public,' the AIA NW+Pacific Region Conference in Portland August 19-20. You'll find this an outstanding opportunity to learn with and from our colleagues from around the Region. AIA Seattle will host the 2005 Region Conference August 4-7 (also the occasion of the 111th Birthday of AIA in Seattle and Washington), uniting partners in education and practice in a case study approach to the World Architecture we create. More on how you can join in the materialization of that idea soon ...

Here in balmy San Diego, we do pause for a moment of pride (on Mothers Day weekend, yet!), before resuming our home, office, and professional responsibilities. Congratulations and thanks, all, for a great time in the sunshine for Northwest design!

Sincerely,
Rena M. Klein AIA
President
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Reflections on Poetry + Proof
I learn by going where I have to go.
- Theodore Roethke, "The Waking," 1953

The people draw together in a rhythm,
Our steps making a music and a beat --
Cadences that gather fully with them
To constitute a poem when we meet.

The forces of our union create space
Where seekers crave the truth of what we know;
And in our communion, in our place
For finding what it takes to make it so.

"Does beauty heal?" "Does order give us peace?"
Where lies the proof of what we all believe?
Art embraces science without cease
As by design, our ideals interweave.

Together in our questing, we find more
To illustrate the making of our days;
And in the light that we came looking for
The strength that guides the finding of our ways.

- Marga Rose Hancock Hon. AIA
AIA Poet Laureate