April 20th | 11am - 12pm



DVC Architecture Lecture Series: Bas ten Brinke

Join DVC’s Architecture program for their Spring Archiecture Lecture Series! 

No registration required! Attend this lecture here:

Https://4cd.zoom.us/j/95569023512

April 20th | 4pm - 5:30pm



RYSE Commons Design Tour

RYSE Commons, our 2022 BEYOND Design Award recipient, is a new campus dedicated to youth leadership in Richmond, California. It serves youth, ages 13-21, across Richmond and West Contra Costa County. The project resulted from Black, Brown, Indigenous and Young People of Color (BIYPOC) calling on adults to listen, invest, and rethink young people’s place in the city.

April 20th | 6pm - 8pm



Young Architects Happy Hour at Drake's Dealership

Join us for a casual and social networking event for Young Architects and Emerging Professionals. First drink is on us!

April 22nd | 10am - 5pm



The Future of Shelter: Where do we go from here? | OWA+DP 50th Anniversary Symposium

Looking forward to the next 50 years, the Organization of Women Architects and Design Professionals offer this symposium, The Future of Shelter: Where do we go from here?, as an opportunity to think together about some broad questions!

April 25th | 6pm - 7:30pm

AIA East Bay Lecture Series: Institutional

Join us as we look at the influence of healthcare, education, recreation, and public works in the East Bay with Marc L’Italien, Clarence D. Mamuyac Jr., Chuck Davis, and Kit Ratcliff.

This panel will be moderated by Ursula Currie, our 2023 Board President. 

April 27th | 5pm - 6:30pm



Building Electrification and Decarbonization (1.5 LU|ZNCD)

This session will explore why building electrification is a key pathway to building decarbonization, which combined with a renewable grid and energy generation will have California reach carbon neutrality by 2045. This session details the barriers to building electrification, California energy code updates, MEP technology and smart design strategies to achieve cost conscious and carbon efficient all-electric buildings.

May 3rd | 5:30pm - 7pm



KTGY Firm Tour

Join our Young Architects & Emerging Professionals for a firm tour of KTGY’s Oakland office and see how KTGY runs their office in downtown Oakland!

May 8th | 5pm - 7pm



Parenting Charrette: An Interactive Dinner Discussion about Juggling Parenting and Your Career | SEAONC

Much as design charrettes facilitate a space for project stakeholders to determine the best path forward, this event will provide a space for participants to interact with their peers and facilitators with relevant parenting experience to determine how to best navigate being a parent while moving their career forward.

SEAONC has given us a discount code to pass along to our members! Use code: AIASE3 to receive member pricing.

May 9th | 12pm - 1pm



Launching Your Practice as a Design Project (1 LU)

Join us as we work to answer the questions “Why start a practice?” and “What does it take to grow a practice?”!

Learn best practices with respect to revenue and profitability, as well as business development strategies in a competitive marketplace, with Hannah Brown of Brown Creative Consulting and Michael Bernard of Virtual Practice Consulting.

May 11th | 12pm - 1:30pm



The Juggling Act: Firm Management, From Day-to-Day to Long-Term(1.5 LU)

As firm owners (perhaps sole practitioners), we don’t have the luxury of being told what to do on any given day. And it’s up to each of us to set longer-term goals for our practices. What tools (daily habits, paper records, apps on our computers and phones) can we use to prioritize and organize our time? How do we prevent tasks from falling through the cracks? We’ll explore these questions and more through a panel discussion and Q&A.

May 11th | 6pm - 7:30pm



Professional Practice – In Conversation with Small Firm Leaders (1.5 LU)

Please join us on May 11th for in-person conversation with the principals of three accomplished entrepreneurial architecture firms in the Bay Area: Mahya Salehi Studio, Ogawa Fisher Architects, and Síol Studios. This will be a moderated panel discussion focusing on the business practice of these unique, award winning and dynamic firms.

May 16th | 12pm - 1pm



Profit Motive & The Business of Design – The A+D Leader’s 101 of Firm Financial Management (1 LU)

This session focuses on how finance, metrics and performance influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as an A+D firm culture and its bottom line. Staying fit is an ongoing goal, and a long-haul effort that focuses on all aspects—physical, mental, emotional, and even, creative – to the extent that mental fitness is integrated in Elisabeth’s work with clients particularly around the area of financial fitness which is critical to their success.

Meet Dong Kim | Member Spotlight

Dong Kim was in his first year of college as a physics major when he pulled his high school yearbook off the shelf. Flipping through the pages, he read an inscription from a classmate that said, I see you making models in art class. You’ll be an awesome architect. A light went on, and nine months into his physics program, he completely switched majors, changing the trajectory of his whole life. His family, though surprised, wasn’t unsupportive. As he pursued his dream, he came to find that his father had unrequited dreams of becoming an architect. He had always wanted to go to school for architecture.

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All Gender Restrooms by Kerwin Lee, AIA

The current Code Change Cycle, the 2022-Intervening-Cycle, has some interesting items from bringing more of Chapter 11A elements into Chapter 11B. The thought of the Division of the State Architect (DSA) is to make things easier for the user. This misguided thought of having Chapter 11A “Multi-family housing” requirements, which are regulated by the Fair Housing Act (FHA), apply to “Public Housing” under the ADA does not align with the Federal regulations. This approach is flawed and could be misleading to the user for compliance with the Federal Standards. Although this is important, that is not what this article is about.

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AEC Cares Volunteer Opportunity

For one day each year, AEC Cares brings together AEC professionals from all over for one shared purpose: to give back. We partner with a local nonprofit, building material suppliers, contractors, and designers to give back to those most in need in the gracious cities that host the AIA Conference on Architecture each year. AEC Cares teams up with ConstructConnect and the AIA, along with our generous sponsors, donors, volunteers, and designers to make as big of an impact as possible in a single day. Go to www.aeccares.com to register for volunteering, or email [email protected] if you can help with building product donations. 

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A'23 Needs Volunteers!

Volunteer registration for A’23: AIA Conference on Architecture 2023, June 7-10.   A’23 volunteer with this sign-up link! It’s a way to attend for free. AIA National and AIASF have numerous volunteer opportunities throughout the conference from June 7 to 10, and volunteering is a great way to get involved and receive free access to the conference.

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Show your support for two critical pieces of pro-housing legislation sponsored by our friends at the Housing Action Coalition.

These crucial pieces of legislation have the power to make a real difference in our community, but they need your voice to become a reality. Contact your representatives today and urge them to take action.

Senate Bill 83 (Wiener) - aims to regulate the timeline for Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) to connect projects to the electrical grid.

Assembly Bill 281 (Grayson) - sets shot clocks for Special Districts to respond to permit applications. 

We ask that you submit letters through the CA Leg Portal here.

Trailblazer: Erick Mikiten

Originally published to Alta Online. Written by Jessica Klein.

What does a 5,000-unit public housing complex in the Bronx, New York, share with the suburbs of San Antonio, Texas? While growing up in both, AIA East Bay member Erick Mikiten received the same message: “You’re not welcome here.” That’s because as soon as Mikiten, now 59, began walking, he started breaking bones—a result of osteogenesis imperfecta. Neither of the buildings he lived in was wheelchair accessible.

Read Here

Seventh Street Residence Sidell Pakravan Architects

Originally published to Architectural Record.

Seventh Street Residence begins as a formal inquiry emerging from a critical reexamination of Berkeley’s context—in particular the prevalent wood-framed bungalows from the 1920s that share a consistent spatial typology and relationship to the street.

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A proposed multi billion-dollar regional bond signals a shift in how Bay Area affordable housing is funded

Originally published to The Mercury News.

A renewed push to tackle the Bay Area’s housing crisis at a regional level is underway, and it could be the solution for cities and counties tapped out of local funds for affordable housing.

Read Here

Congratulations to oWOW for Winning Woodworks Innovation Network's Wood Design Award!

Built in Oakland, CA, 315 12th Street is is a multi-family mass timber project by oWOW. This unusual project saw the transformation of a one-story commercial building into a five-story mixed-use building, all within the original footprint.

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ABI February 2023: Business conditions remain soft at architecture firms

Architecture firm billings remained soft for the fifth consecutive month in February. The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score of 48.0 indicates softer business conditions than in January. However, while overall billings have declined every month since October 2022, the pace of the decline remains relatively modest, and has not accelerated dramatically. This could potentially indicate a shorter slowdown at firms, rather than a more dramatic downturn and full-blown recession.

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Project Manager - Healthcare - Emeryville, CA

Ratcliff’s Healthcare Practice is a regional leader in the planning and design of complex healthcare facilities, including acute and ambulatory care facilities as well as medical campus master plans. We are seeking a Project Manager to join our team and contribute to positively transforming the built environment.

Project Manager - Community & Commercial - San Francisco, CA



William Duff Architects (WDA) is looking for a Project Manager with 10 years of experience to join our Community and Commercial Practice. We are an award-winning, inclusive architecture firm, comprised of bright, creative, motivated people. Built as a people-based practice, we were recognized as the only architecture firm to make it on the San Francisco Business Times Best Places to Work List (2020, 2022). With capabilities in multiple sectors, we specialize in residential, workplace, community, hospitality, and retail across the Bay Area and beyond. We offer competitive salaries, full benefits, a transit-friendly brand-new workplace, and opportunities for professional growth.

Architectural Specifier - Oakland, CA

The Specifier’s focus is writing, editing, and coordinating project specifications to coincide with the project drawings in providing specifications for project manuals on a wide variety of projects. The position also includes periodic quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) reviews during document preparation phases and final production as defined by SERA’s Process Manual.

Project Architect / Project Manager - San Francisco, CA

KERMAN MORRIS ARCHITECTS LLP is looking for a talented, motivated and personable Project Architect / Project Manager to join our design studio and contribute to our expanding practice. We offer long-term growth and leadership opportunities. We are committed to encouraging professional development and supporting employee participation in professional organizations, continuing education and licensure. We firmly believe in fostering a healthy work/life balance with benefits including flexible hybrid work schedules.