Racial, ethnic, & gender equity at AIA
Harnessing the passion of our members and the broader design community, AIA is taking steps to advance racial justice and equity in our organization, our profession, and our communities.
Advancing racial justice & equity
AIA is advancing racial justice and equity across architecture and design in the following ways:
- Dismantle barriers within all AIA systems: governance, honors and awards, internal policies, vendor selection, hiring/retention, and any business practice that intentionally or unintentionally contributes to injustice and exclusion (policies, practices, and programs)
- Expand inclusiveness and diversity within the profession through K-12 and higher education engagements and advocate for effective pathways into the profession. Expand the participation of racially and ethnically diverse populations, women, and other underrepresented groups.
- Conduct training, enhance education and knowledge dissemination, and increase the number of high-quality new resources for the Board, staff, volunteers, and members.
- Ensure alignment with the AIA 2021-2025 strategic plan.
We have no illusions about the scope of the challenge. Fully living up to our highest ideals and values won’t happen overnight, but neither can it wait another day.
Read AIA Board Statement on systemic racial justice.
Questions regarding race and equity at AIA? Email us
AIA’s commitment to evaluation
AIA is participating in the NAACP 2020 Diversity & Opportunity Report Card for the Sustainable Building Sector. Slated for release in 2021, the audit will evaluate equitable practices within the AIA, including: staffing (composition and perceptions), programs and services, procurement, and governance. Part of the NAACP’s Centering Equity in the Sustainable Building Sector (CESBS) Initiative, the program will examine the building sector along four categories: design firms, contractors, nonprofits/professional organizations, and higher education institutions. We have considerable room for progress, and the NAACP Report Card will set a transparent, comprehensive marker to measure against.
Dismantle barriers within AIA institutional systems:
Audit and change governance policies, by-laws and practices, appointment processes, honors and awards, media partnerships, internal policies, vendor selection, hiring/retention, and any other business practice that contributes to injustice and exclusion. Board adopts critical position statements and approves framework and direction on equity.
Anticipated outcomes
Barriers to inclusive participation are reduced and ultimately eliminated. AIA systems and positions support justice, equity, human rights, dignity, and inclusive participation.
- January 11, 2021: AIA publishes Member Demographics Report with 82.6% member participation
Honors & Awards review
AIA conducts reviews of its Honors & Awards programs to further foster justice and equality in our organization, in our profession, and in our communities.
- September 1, 2020: The AIA Board Directors approved the plan on H&A. We have begun soliciting information from organizations to assist it with the audit of AIA Honors & Awards programs.
Supporting and amplifying the work of our 98,000+ members involves partnering with hundreds of organizations from vendors to venues to affiliated professional groups. The vast majority of the companies and organizations we partner with do good work that aligns with our goals and values. However, when a partner operates in a way that fails to fulfill our expectations or uphold our values, it can reflect negatively on AIA and our members. We take such errors—intentional or unintentional—seriously, and we’ll be taking steps to ensure we partner with others who share our values.
Making connections & building bridges
Develop stronger connections to bridge workforce, equitable communities and climate action priorities.
Anticipated outcomes
Equity in workplace culture, communities and climate action are elevated to the highest level of priority within the AIA. Volunteers and staff work together collaboratively leveraging interdependencies.
As AIA seeks to enhance programs and initiatives that serve as gateways to opportunity and advancement within the profession, we’re proceeding immediately with launching the next phase of a new leadership and governance program for ethnically diverse women. A task force formed after the 2018 adoption of Next to Lead (Resolution 18-3): Diversity Pipeline and National Representation completed its work earlier this year, and we are in the process of implementing its recommendations, developed in coordination with state and local components. The recruitment phase is underway, and we will announce details soon.
Diversify the profession & improve culture (ongoing)
Expand inclusiveness and diversity within the profession through early career awareness, K-12, and higher education engagements. Champion effective pathways into the profession working in partnership with ACSA, NAAB, NCARB, AIAS, NOMA, NOMAS, identity-based affinity groups and other partners. Collaborate in support of efforts that prioritize the participation of racially and ethnically diverse populations, women and other underrepresented groups within the profession.
Anticipated outcomes
Moving the needle after nearly 170 years of lag in the proportion of underrepresented demographic groups working and leading in the profession. AIA and the profession of architecture becomes reflective of U.S. demographics.
Climate action
Anticipated outcomes
It is 2030, and we have met the seemingly insurmountable climate crisis with courageous, creative, and decisive action. People everywhere are united under a common pledge to create an equitable, resilient, regenerative, and carbon-free future.
Equity focused resources
Understanding identity
Where are the women? Measuring progress on gender in architecture
Learn how women are reflected through several avenues of the profession. This report was written by ACSA and it explores how women are represented beginning with education, to licensure, all the way to established professionals. The data also compares women and men in terms of honors, awards, and career milestones as practicing architects, designers, and academic personnel.
Where Are My People? Hispanic and LatinX in Architecture
Hispanic and Latinx in Architecture chronicles both societal and discipline-specific metrics in an effort to highlight the experiences of Hispanic and Latinx designers, architects, and educators.
National Museum of the American Indian: Essential Understandings
Explore the National Museum of the American Indian’s Framework for Essential Understandings, which outlines key concepts about the rich and diverse cultures, histories, and contemporary lives of Native Peoples. These concepts tell untold stories about American Indians that can expand your knowledge of history, geography, civics, economics, science, engineering, and other subject areas.
Visit the Smithsonian Latino Center to learn about Latinx history and culture, including an overview of influential Latinos, bilingual materials for the classroom, a virtual museum toolkit for educators, and more.
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center is a museum without walls, presenting history, art, and culture through digital initiatives. Visit their site to attend their new educational web series breaking down Asian Pacific American bias, or to explore the digital storytelling initiative that presents and preserves Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander stories, plus much more.
National Museum of American History: LGBTQ History
LGBTQ+ history is a part of American history that the National Museum of American History has been documenting since its founding. Explore the museum's online resources, news releases, exhibitions, and collections.
National Museum of American History: Disability Rights Movement
The National Museum of American History explores the Disability Rights Movement, looking at the efforts of people with disabilities, plus their family and friends, to secure civil rights guaranteed to all Americans.
#BlackLivesMatter: What Matters
What Matters combines documentary narrative with interviews to illuminate specific, timely issues, aiming to create safe dialogue to promote freedom, justice, and collective liberation. What Matters is a salve and a safe place where we can connect, learn, think freely, and transform the world.
National Museum of African American History and Culture: Talking About Race
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture's website for resources on race, including a history on the foundations of race, addressing bias, and community building.
Explore the ninth edition of NCARB’s annual report, which highlights key insights into data long the path to licensure, diversity in the profession, and more. The 2020 report includes results from a survey on equity, diversity, and inclusion in licensure conducted in partnership with NOMA.
Architect Magazine: Increasing Diversity in Architecture
A three-part series on diversity in architecture that highlights the barriers to entry, designer-led solutions to increasing diversity, and improving representation in the building profession.
Increasing Diversity in Architecture: Barriers to Entry
Increasing Diversity in Architecture: Designer-Led Solutions
Increasing Diversity in Architecture: Firm Initiatives
When Architecture and Racial Injustice Intersect (Architectural Digest)
This Architectural Digest article details the work that the National Trust for Historic Preservations' African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is doing to preserve Black history.
A part of a research series, "Where are My People? Black in Architecture investigates the intersection of race and academia specifically through the architecture lens. This report written by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) provides data to illustrate the impact of systemic racism throughout history and how it reflects today.
Understanding firm culture
AIA Guides for Equitable Practice
The Guides for Equitable Practice are a vital part of AIA’s long-term commitment to lead efforts that ensure the profession of architecture is as diverse as the nation we serve. These guides will help you make the business and professional case for ensuring that your organization meets the career development, professional environment, and cultural awareness expectations of current and future employees and clients.
2019 Membership Demographics Report
Working toward greater equity, diversity, and inclusion requires reflection and transparency. AIA’s Annual Demographic report is a critical tool to assess demographic trends in the architecture profession.
You'll learn architecture’s challenges—including white male–dominated structures, the hero-architect trope, and extreme criticism—clash with collaborative practices, work-life balance, and practitioners’ diverse backgrounds. This guide covers questions to assess organizations’ intercultural competence levels along with concrete steps individuals and firms can take to create a level playing field and effect structural change.
You’ll learn how workplace culture affects individuals, firms, and the profession—from retention to strategic planning and perception of the field. This guide also contains the legal aspects of harassment, including individuals’ responsibilities, questions to assess organizations’ workplace culture, and ways to improve your own organizations’ workplace culture.
Learn how to maintain a diverse workforce and compliance with laws governing recruitment and promotion. This guide includes concrete steps individuals and firms can take to increase fairness, build healthy pipelines, and boost retention.
You'll learn what equitable and inclusive mentorship and sponsorship look like, abiding by harassment and discrimination laws, maintaining ethical relationships, being an equitable mentor, mentee, and sponsor, and encouraging a culture of mentorship and sponsorship.
You'll learn how firms and institutions can help support career advancement equitably by clarifying criteria for promotion, supporting networks, changing workplace culture from career ladder to lattice, and providing access to training and development. This guide details the importance of approaching career advancement as a shared responsibility between employee and employer.
Understanding opportunities
BIPOC studios listed with job openings
A group of architects and designers have created a dynamic Google Docs spreadsheet to highlight design, architecture, engineering or planning studios founded by black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) that may have job opportunities.
Diversity Advancement Scholarship
Incoming and current architecture students can apply for the Architects Foundation's Diversity Advancement Scholarship, which was created to help more minority students pursue a successful career in architecture.
Applications for the 2021-2022 academic year are now open through January 15, 2021. Submissions for the 2022-2023 academic year will open in Fall 2021.
Amount: $20,000
Paul R. Williams Student Scholarship
This scholarship provides financial assistance to African-American students studying or about to start studying at a NAAB-accredited architecture program.
Amount: $500
Professional resources for black designers and architects
If you're looking to join a networking group or expand your community within the profession, consider one of the organizations on this list that have made it their mission to support architects and designers of color.
Donate to the Diversity Advancement Scholarship
Many donors support the Architects Foundation’s work with an unrestricted gift to our Architects Fund, enabling us to address the needs of our Diversity Advancement Scholars as they pursue their architectural education; innovate and grow our programs; and maintain the historic Octagon. Please consider a gift of $20 to support our 2020 efforts.
Enact change by voting in your local, state, and federal elections. Register to vote, get election reminders, and more here.
Black Lives Matter toolkits for conflict resolution, healing justice, ways to take action toward racial justice and resources to intervene when violence is inflicted on Black communities.
Linkedin: Free Courses to Help You Become a Stronger Ally and Have Inclusive Conversations
LinkedIn's free courses can help you understand and confront unconscious bias, have inclusive conversations and communicate across cultures, and create a diverse and inclusive workplace.
5 free courses (Business Insider)
Consider taking one of these free online courses about race and America's history of injustice from three Ivy League schools. The open courses present an average time commitment of 2-4 hours per week.
Where are the women? Measuring progress on gender in architecture
Learn how women are reflected through several avenues of the profession. This report was written by ACSA and it explores how women are represented beginning with education, to licensure, all the way to established professionals. The data also compares women and men in terms of honors, awards, and career milestones as practicing architects, designers, and academic personnel.
Workplace norms are changing, but how inclusive is the profession for LGBTQI+ architects? Read some firsthand experiences from LGBTQI+ architects
Honoring North America's first architects, and working toward change
Tammy Eagle Bull, FAIA, shares her perspective on honoring the architectural legacy of indigenous people, and working toward a more inclusive profession.
AIA Film Challenge
Watch finalist films from the AIA Film Challenge 2020 that highlight how architects, civic leaders, and their communities are working together to design a just world.
1908 Springfield Race Riot Memorial
Boxville: Creating a Just World
Creating Community Through Art: The Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative
Dallas Holocaust & Human Rights Museum
The Guides for Equitable Practice are a vital part of AIA’s long-term commitment to lead efforts that ensure the profession of architecture is as diverse as the nation we serve.
Next to Lead is a new pilot association leadership program that removes barriers to AIA leadership positions for ethnically diverse women.
Explore a status update outlining progress toward achieving and advancing objectives adopted under the Framework to Address Systemic Racial Injustice and Inequity.
Explore a special series highlighting architects who overcame adversity to make an impact.