Spotlight
Laura Lesniewski moderates the Keynote Panel at AIA Conference on Architecture 2021: Selling Sustainability to Your Clients
Laura Lesniewski, FAIA, moderated an event at this year’s AIA Conference on Architecture. Throughout Summer 2021, the AIA Conference on Architecture was divided into four event sessions featuring topics on firm resilience, sustainable practice, community engagement, and building efficiencies in Architecture and Design. The session took place on Thursday, July 8, and covered sustainable design practices that can be implemented into a firm or studio’s portfolio. As a Principal at BNIM, firm recipient of the 2011 AIA Architecture Firm Award, Laura was joined by speakers Antoine Bryant, Assoc. AIA, of Moody Nolan – the 2021 AIA Architecture Firm Award winner, and Kim Yao, AIA, of Architecture Research Office (ARO) – the 2020 AIA Architecture Firm Award winner, and moderated the event’s Keynote Panel: Selling Sustainability to Your Clients.
A’21 Keynote Panel Learning Objectives
- Review the challenge that architects face in convincing clients to support sustainable design.
- Understand basic financing and business models that prejudice clients against sustainable design.
- Consider clients’ underlying psychological barriers and other non-material obstacles to sustainability.
- Explore narratives and evidence – financial and otherwise – that will help architects change clients’ minds.