The Boston Society for Architecture stands with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in the fight against anti-Asian racism. We are horrified by the shootings on March 16, and by the racist actions that have allowed this kind of targeted violence against minority groups for generations.

In honor of Women's History Month and International Women's Day, BSA staff is proud to present our staff picks highlighting the rich and varied contributions of women in our community, our profession, and our world.

In today's climate of racial reckoning, it's fitting for Moody Nolan, the nation's largest African American-owned architecture firm, to be honored with the 2021 Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The annual award is the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture practice. The award recognizes a firm that has consistently produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years. This is the first time a Black-owned architecture firm has ever received the award in the AIA's 58 years of conducting the annual recognition.

Hosted virtually on December 2, 2020, the 2020 Women in Design Award of Excellence ceremony featured presentations by the three awardees, Kathryn Crockett AIA, LEED AP; Lynne Deninger AIA, LEED AP BD+C; and Cheri Ruane, FASLA.

The BSA is proud to continue our long-term partnership with Apprentice Learning to bring hands-on design to Boston students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This week wraps up the fall workshop series with Boston eighth graders, where they worked at a variety of scales understanding the impact of design on the built environment.

This week’s elections weigh heavily on all of us. Regardless of our political preferences, we believe there is tremendous work to focus on toward making a resilient, equitable, just, and architecturally vibrant city and region.

At the third annual Housing Innovation Workshop, “Distributed Density: Middle-Scale Housing for Sustainable Communities'', participants were asked to apply an anti-racist lens to their proposed solutions and strategies to address the ways in which racially exclusionary policies have materialized as barriers to the creation of multifamily housing today.

The BSA EDI Network is proud to release a collection of firm sample policies, practices, and procedures for reference while shaping your own policies to encourage equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. All are invited to reference these firm policies in updating your procedures to establish a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.