March 27: UK CoD Lecture, Preservation Futures

Apr 7: AIA East Kentucky Board Meeting

Apr 12-18: Architecture Week

Apr 15: UK CoD/ AIA EKY Lecture – Carol Ross Barney, 5 PM at UK CoD Biagi Forum

Apr: Design Slam - check your email and socials for information coming soon

Apr 25: AIA EKY/ SEAoK Pickleball Event

May 21: Thursday Night Social with CSI at The Campbell House from 6:30pm-10pm

July 25: Car-chitecture at Lexington Legends Stadium starting at 4pm

SEAoK + AIA EKY Pickleball Tournament

Register Here

The 2026 AIA KY | IIDA Legislative Day saw an incredible turnout, with design professionals coming together to advocate for the safety and welfare of the Commonwealth. Our members made significant progress in promoting more frequent, expert-led reviews of the Kentucky Building Code to ensure our standards remain both modern and reliable. We also held productive discussions regarding fair permitting, emphasizing that efficiency should always go hand-in-hand with public safety. Additionally, our teams effectively voiced the importance of protecting professional services from business-to-business tax burdens in the upcoming biennial budget. It was an inspiring day of advocacy that reinforced our role as vital resources for Kentucky's future.

Building Code Oversight: We advocated for the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction (DHBC) to conduct more frequent, expert-led regulatory reviews rather than relying on piecemeal legislative changes.

​Safety First in Permitting: While supporting efficiency, our teams highlighted critical concerns with SB 52 and HB 530, ensuring that expedited 30-day "deemed approved" timelines do not compromise public safety on complex projects.

​Protecting the Profession: We voiced opposition to any new taxes on professional services in the 2026-2028 biennial budget, explaining how these taxes can ultimately hurt the consumer.

​

Ongoing Resource: Our members reinforced that AIA and IIDA are the premier technical resources for the General Assembly on all matters involving architecture and the built environment.

​Thank you to all our participants and supporters for your dedication and hard work!

AIA Kentucky representatives had a wonderful Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. this year, it was full of great lectures, keynotes, and a wonderful day on Capitol Hill where we spoke to state representatives. During our Hill Day, the Kentucky delegation met with Legislative Assistants from 4 offices, Andy Barr, Morgan McGarvey, Rand Paul, & Mitch McConnel. In these meetings and conversations, our group advocated on four issues, 179D High Performance Building Innovation Credit, Architects Support Housing Crisis Solutions, Design Freedom for Federal Architecture, and Architects Are Professional and Oppose Federal Limits. Our delegation was able to tie all instances of the issues back to physical examples in the state of Kentucky, this connection allowed our groups to have a conversation about the items we are advocating instead of bombarding our Capitol Hill representatives with information. These meetings went well, and I walked away from all 4 feeling like our voices had been appropriately heard and am hopeful that we made an impact on some of these issues.

Beyond Hill Day the Summit had a wide variety of wonderful speakers and attendees, with over 600 AIA members from 49 states being in attendance to share thoughts and support our cause. Some of the sessions I attended felt like I walked away with a great new base of knowledge including Mentors and Mentees in AIA, Architects in Politics, and Architecture Week in K-12 schools. These 3 sessions were highly informative and included lots of lessons and tools that we can bring back to Kentucky. On top of the formal sessions this summit is great for Networking, and I was able to make connections with folks from Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, Colorado, and North Carolina. In these more informal conversations, we had discussions about what items may be working well or not so well for the boards in each state, and what we can learn from each other. This has opened a new avenue of resources from other boards that we are working to bring back and implement at home, we also had some ideas and approaches that these folks will take back to their boards. I am hoping by sewing this seed and keeping communication open we can continue to build from this relationship and have ongoing success with boards from other states.

Alexander Short. Assoc. AIA

Project Coordinator Rosstarrant Architects

AIA EKY 2026 President

Any AIA Member interested in attending please visit the SEAoK Website go to Events Tab and click on REGISTER under SEAoK 2026 Annual Conference. Here, you will be prompted to enter your email, the next page will have a list of options, select "Architect Attending CSI Party". Admission is free!

Join us at Lexington Legends for an evening of low riders, classic cars & trucks, and Euro/JDM/project cars - plus a car parade lap in the outfield before the game. A portion of the proceeds benefits Gods Pantry .

Want to show your car? Email Robert Barnhart (rbarnhart@grayaes.com) or Alex Short (ashort@rosstarrant.com) for more information.

Member Benefit Spotlight: Legal Line

• AIA Kentucky is still offering member firms with FREE access to legal professionals who can help you with practice-related risk-management questions. Email Kelly Ives for more info.



Individual & Firm News:

Newly Licensed:

We are pleased to congratulate the following members, who recently completed the A.R.E. and received their license in the state of Kentucky: 

• No newly licensed Architects this month.



Welcome New and Returning Members

(Joined or reinstated since November, 2025)

• Brian L. Tune, AIA - Champlin | EOP, Lexington
• Joey McDaniel, Assoc. AIA - Champlin | EOP, Lexington

Keep up to date on what we're doing by clicking on the links below!

Allied Membership is recognized by all three local components, with a portion of dues supporting local programs. Learn More

AIA East Kentucky

aiaky.org/eastkentucky