Greetings from the 2023 AIA Ohio Convention!

It's been an exciting two days of workshops, networking, and learning. We kicked off the convention with drinks, dinner, networking and the AIA Ohio design awards. Congratulations to GBBN for bringing home a hat trick of awards! The Awards ceremony was held at the new Columbus Crew stadium, and it was great to get a sneak peak of the architecture and the field. 

Continuing Education sessions were held in various locations around downtown Columbus and provided attendees with a variety of venues to experience, from the Columbus Athenaeum to the Ohio Statehouse and NBBJ’s new offices, there was no shortage of cool spaces for AIA members to see. 

Sessions included an update on the new Existing Building Code, leadership, the housing crisis, a keynote session on the redevelopment of Ohio’s waterfronts, and even a session on Olson-Kundig, one of my personal favorite design studios. A speed-networking session with a complimentary beer tasting and burrito bar, followed by an after-party at Pin’s Mechanical capped off a second day of learning sessions. 

As it's always good to get out of the classroom, several walking tours were offered, and the early fall weather made for a delightful stroll through downtown Columbus. All in all, it was a great event, and I would encourage more Cincinnati chapter members to attend in future years. As in years past, I chose to attend the convention in order to benchmark what other industry peers were doing, learn what their challenges are, and how they are solving them, plus the camaraderie of like-minded architects is a refreshing break from our daily routines as architects. Of the more than 200 attendees, I counted less than 10 from our chapter, and as far as I could tell, only three of us attended the full conference. Let's rally next year and make sure "The ‘Nati" is well represented as it will definitely be worth our while!

Graham Kalbli, NCARB, LEED AP
Principal, New Republic Architecture