HKS at AIA26: From Advocacy to Action
The most urgent challenges in architecture today aren’t abstract—they’re the ones being asked on projects of all shapes and sizes each day. How do you deliver a project on time and under budget without compromising quality? How do you translate client ambitions to outcomes that can actually be measured? How do you move policy when you’re not a politician? At the 2026 AIA Conference on Architecture and Design (AIA26) in San Diego, HKS practitioners meet these questions head on and will bring their insights to AIA 26.
Join us:
AIA International Presents: The Edge Condition in Global Architecture Practice
When: June 10, 8:45 am – 12:30 pm PT
How does contemporary architectural practice operate at the boundaries—geographic, cultural, environmental, technological, and organizational—that define global work today? HKS’ Manon Koestoer will join a panel of leaders from across the industry to explore how architecture performs in conditions of transition, conflict, hybridity, and change, positioning the “edge” not as a peripheral condition but as a central site of architectural agency, responsibility, and decision-making in global practice.
Transforming Student Life: UCSD’s Award-Winning Living & Learning Community
When: June 10, 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm
What does it look like when a campus stops being a collection of buildings and starts being a place?
UC San Diego’s North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood is an ambitious answer to that question: 1.6 million square feet across 11 acres that seamlessly weave student housing, academic buildings, dining, retail, lecture halls, and public art into a single, walkable district. It’s focus: Truly integrated community designed for the way students actually live and learn.
In this session, HKS’ Jeff Larsen will explore the project. Learn how a network of landscaped areas serves as an organizing framework, introducing a park-like openness while connecting the various program elements. The session will also explore how the project incorporated a comprehensive set of sustainable design strategies that contributed to its LEED Platinum certification and recognition with an AIA COTE Top Ten Award. If you design for higher education, housing, or mixed-use environments or you want to understand what human-centered density can look like at scale, this is a project worth a look (or listen).
Insights from AIA/AAH Healthcare Design Award Winners
When: June 11, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm PT
Healthcare environments are among some of the most technically demanding and humanistically complex projects in architecture. In this roundtable, HKS studio practice leader Kate Renner will join industry peers to present nationally recognized projects including the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU Children’s Tower, digging into frank conversations about design process and iteration. If your practice touches healthcare, this session will sharpen your process and your perspective.
Inside Gaylord Pacific with HKS: Transforming Chula Vista’s Bayfront
When: June 12, 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm PT
The 1,600-room, 22-story-tall Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center transformed Chula Vista’s waterfront into a world-class business and leisure destination. This walking tour, led by HKS Vice President Augusto Rodelo MacGregor, will take attendees through the interiors and exterior spaces while exploring the strategies behind the designs. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to engage community stakeholders, government authorities and a hotel operator while keeping a project on time and under budget. Bonus: learn how the project harnessed transparency to provide spectacular bay views while also enhancing the site’s access to nature.
Influencing Change Through Grassroots & Industry Advocacy
When: June 11, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm PT
Most architects care deeply about pressing public policy matters, from climate to equity to public health. However, many aren’t sure how to turn that passion into policy. At AIA 26, HKS’ Julie Hiromoto, Amanda Barton, Kristen Fraumeni and Sammy Shams will pull back the curtain on how HKS helped integrate Dallas Climate Action priorities into a $1.25B municipal bond program and how the approach can be applied elsewhere. This session will give attendees a repeatable framework of goal setting, stakeholder engagement, coalition building and communications to build influence beyond the project’s property line.
Performing Beautifully: The 2026 COTE Top Ten Winners
When: June 12, 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm PT
Each year, the AIA COTE Top Ten awards provide a clear picture of what exceptional design performance looks like. In this year’s session, HKS Chief Sustainability Officer Emeritus Rand Ekman joins COTE leadership to unpack the 2026 winners and extract what made them work. Leave with inspiration, checklists, metrics and practice-ready tactics for client alignment.
Recognizing HKS Industry Leadership
In addition to the panels above, HKS leaders will be spotlighted during AIA awards programs on site at the convention. Whitney Fuessel, a Partner at HKS and Regional Practice Director, Health, in our Houston office, will be recognized in the newest class of AIA College of Fellows. Only three percent of AIA members earn FAIA designation, which recognizes exceptional work and contributions to architecture and society.
In addition, Amanda S. Barton, AIA, will be formally recognized as a 2026 recipient of the AIA Young Architect Award. As a Vice President and Project Designer at HKS, Amanda champions resilience, sustainability and equity across the architectural profession, integrating these values into her work, advocacy and mentoring initiatives. She is the co-author of the Resilience Design Toolkit, a practical, evidence-based guide published by AIA National that helps architects incorporate resilient design strategies into projects, address climate threats and bolster community safety. At HKS, she has established firmwide initiatives championing sustainability, including an annual two-week, firmwide ESG in Design celebration.
Amanda’s leadership extends deeply into the AIA community and other professional organizations. As the youngest president of AIA Miami in 2023, she helped elevate critical issues, fostered record-breaking membership growth. She is a consistent advocate for diversity, inclusion and young professionals, from bringing the SAY IT LOUD exhibition to Florida to amplify the work of underrepresented architects to her involvement with the National Organization of Minority Architects, her mentorship of emerging professionals and her revitalization of AIA Miami’s one-on-one mentorship program.
Amanda’s public-facing advocacy work, such as advancing equitable, resilient policies and community engagement initiatives, underscores her unwavering commitment to ensuring that architecture serves as a powerful force for positive change. Her multifaceted accomplishments demonstrate her exceptional ability to lead and inspire, shaping the future of architecture and leaving a profound impact on her profession and community.
