My first AIA Convention experience included my first Hackathon, a tour of film sites throughout Atlanta and the opportunity to speak at the Convention.
On Day One I attended the Equity by Design Hackathon and it was awesome. I’m really excited about the format. My mind has been spinning with possibilities since the session wrapped. You can read more about the event and participants’ reflections on their experience here.
This is what a hackathon looks like.
On Day Two I spoke about integrating social media into firm communications alongside Mike Davis FAIA of Bergmeyer. We had a great time. If you attended the session, thank you for joining us.
What a great crowd!
If you missed it, AIA recorded our session for AIAU. AIA also recorded sessions conducted by my colleague, Andrea Love, our Director of Building Science. All sessions from Convention will be available in the coming months – stay tuned for details.
MASSIVE THRONG of arch’s watching “nerdy” Andrea Love @PAYETTEpeople demo the new AIA2030 reporting tool! #AIAcon15 pic.twitter.com/k5RwIGFXGF
— Mike Davis (@MikeDavisFAIA) May 15, 2015
In the exhibition hall there was so much to see. I even try tackling all of it. Notably, I really loved the way photos of the award winning projects were displayed.
One powerful image per “board” – fabric stretched over a piece of wood. The colors in the photos really popped and I liked the dimensionality of the mounting.
After completing my speaking obligations, I hopped on a tour of film sites throughout Atlanta. This was such a fun way to see the city. Apparently Atlanta is “great for post-apocalyptic type movies” according to the tour guide. We heard stories about filming for The Walking Dead, The Ring 3 and The Hunger Games. We even heard the story behind the artwork for “Run Devil Run.” I was grinning ear to ear throughout the tour because of all the great “behind-the-scenes” stories we heard. And the tour allowed me to see the city from a new vantage point.
For Hunger Games fans, this is from the District 11 Victory Tour in the first movie.
This one is my personal favorite of all the locations we visited.
Seeing the city from new heights.
While I was checking out the city, Bob Schaeffner received his College of Fellows medal.
On my final day in Atlanta I visited the city’s arts district. After three days spent in a convention center, I was content to walk around the neighborhood and appreciate Los Trompos, an exhibit on the Sifly Piazza in the center of the Woodruff Arts Center.
What were some of your favorite sights from the 2015 AIA Convention in Atlanta?
We are honored to share PAYETTE has received two 2026 Green Good Design Awards from The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies—Land’s Sake Farm and The Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard.
“Green GOOD DESIGN identifies and emphasizes the world’s most important examples of sustainable design and works to develop a public awareness program that informs the general public about which global companies are doing the best job in ecological and sustainable design for our world. Architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning projects, as well as product, packaging, and graphic design projects from over 30 nations were honored with the 2026 Green GOOD DESIGN Award.”
#designalways #bostonarchitecture #archdaily #archisource