2020 Directory

16 WYOMING ARCHITECTURE .20 | www.aia-wyoming.org Finding Relevance on the Way of Saint James BY DAN HART, FAIA T here is an ancient pilgrimage route across Northern Spain’s rugged terrain. It’s a network of paths leading to the Cathedral of Saint James called the Camino de Santiago. Most people now travel one of the more popular paths, but the original pilgrims set out from their own homes to make their way to the cathedral. Pilgrims on this journey are headed toward enlightenment, but face ob- stacles all along the way. At the beginning of this year, the AIA National Board knew we were facing a certain set of obstacles; in fact, it was the crisis of climate change, and we were focused. We knew we had work to do when it came to climate action, and we needed to bring it home in two different ways. Metaphorically, we needed to bring it home to ourselves and our members — to clarify and inform people what real climate action is. More literally, we needed to bring it home by making climate action real and consequential in our firms, chapters and communities. Little did we know what other obstacles lay ahead. At that point, the coronavirus was a blip on the screen … a seemingly inconsequential threat located far, far away. Suddenly, toward the end of March, it came near and loomed large, and the whole world went home. Then, in late May, George Floyd was killed, and those who had suffered the consequences of centuries of racial injustice and inequity awakened those of us who hadn’t been paying attention. Racial injustice, the coronavirus pandemic and climate change are three interrelated challenges, three nested crises. The combination is over- whelming. Or it would be, except we know how to approach highly com- plex, interrelated challenges through design. Design is our superpower. As architects, we know that the only durable impacts on any of these three challenges will holistically address all three. There is an interesting