'Green' Big Theme for 2008 AIA Conference

BOSTON-The American Institute of Architects brings its annual convention here this week for the first time in 16 years, with 25,000 members and 14,000 FOAs estimated for a three-day event beginning tomorrow at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. The conference is forecast to generate $30 million in economic gains, but an equally impressive dose of green is coming via the sustainability design movement now reaching a global fever pitch. The green platform will be widely promoted both inside and outside the convention hall, as evidenced by Mayor Thomas Menino’s plan to unveil Boston’s 10 “greenest” buildings this week at an event sponsored by AIA and the Boston Society of Architects.

“It’s a huge focus of the convention,” concurs Shepley Bulfinch principal Carole Wedge, whose own interest in environmental design dates to the 1970′s energy crisis. Against a backdrop of record gasoline prices and John McCain’s seismic shift this week on global warming, Wedge says sustainability will be a major element of the broader AIA 2008 theme, “We the People.” As the AIA’s largest chapter, BSA members are trumpeting the host community’s environmental progress, but where Boston stacks up against other major municipalities remains open to debate.

Wedge is among many impressed by the leadership of Menino and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, while BSA Executive Director Richard Fitzgerald says the Boston mayor was one of the first officials, nationally, to board the green bandwagon. “I give him a lot of credit,” Fitzgerald tells GlobeSt.com. Through Menino’s guidance, all major commercial real estate projects must be designed using green precepts, and Wedge says her feedback with colleagues is that many are coming to witness cutting-edge examples of sustainable construction in both Boston and Cambridge. By her group’s count, Boston has 20 LEED-certified buildings and another 46 in the pipeline. “Boston is looked to as a model,” says Wedge, who rates Chicago and San Francisco among its peers.