Dear AIA Members and Friends:
Hold onto your hats and umbrellas as the Monsoon season is clearly upon us!
Along with the whirlwind that is our spring weather in Hong Kong, May has become our defacto “Art, Design and Planning” month. Look out for the Art Basel show which is in town from May 15-18. Later in the month, between May 20-22, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) will be hosting their Asia Pacific Summit featuring seminars on a wide range of topics across a broad spectrum of Architecture, Planning, Property and Public Policy issues.
The AIA Hong Kong Chapter is pleased to offer a special architecture-oriented tour of Art Basel on May 17. And, as we are a supporting organization of the ULI, they have offered those of our AIA members who are not already ULI members special rates for attendance at this, their seminal annual event.
Last month, we organized several AIA Hong Kong events including a wonderful presentation and tour given by Simon Yu of Zaha Hadid Architects, of their competition-winning design for the Innovation (Design) Centre at PolyU in Kowloon.
And earlier in the month we were pleased to host a multi-city regional presentation, given by Michael Armstrong, CEO of NCARB, about the Architect Registration Examination (ARE) that is now available in Hong Kong for the first time. It is exciting to see so much interest from emerging professionals in the pursuit of their architectural licensure which is now enabled through the local testing facility. We urge all interested to take advantage of this opportunity to further your career in this way.
Next month, from June 26-28, the AIA Convention will be held in Chicago. This annual gathering of like-minded Architects and colleagues from the industry is always an inspiring and re-invigorating experience. Following my personal experience at the very motivational conference last year in Denver, I highly recommend the event. If you are able to attend, now is the time to plan your trip.
Please remember to check our website frequently at www.aiahk.org to keep informed about our upcoming local and regional Chapter events as well as a number of other related activities which we support.
With warm best wishes for a happy month of May.
2014 President – AIA Hong Kong Chapter – Christian Low, AIA