AIA In The Community
AIA Bucks County Awards First George J. Donovan Memorial Scholarships
George J. Donovan Memorial Scholarships
The Bucks County Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently awarded its first scholarships to support the college education of two Bucks County high school seniors. The first scholarship was awarded to George School senior Julian Courtney-Bacher. Julian will be studying architecture and engineering. The second recipient is Shannon Adams from Central Bucks South. She will be pursuing a NAAB-accredited degree in architecture at Thomas Jefferson University. With the pursuit of a NAAB-accredited degree, she is eligible to receive an additional matching scholarship from AIA National.
The scholarship was created by the Bucks County AIA in memory of George J. Donovan, AIA who was instrumental in shaping the architecture of Bucks County with a career of over 50 years until his passing in 2018. George’s wife, daughter, and son-in-law were the presenters of the first award. The scholarship is made possible through donations to The Bucks County Foundation. Please consider donating: The Bucks County Foundation
The recipients were selected based on their past interest in architecture through related courses, an essay, and their GPA. Future scholarship applicants are encouraged to attend one of Bucks County AIA’s educational opportunities like the Design Like a Girl event offered to middle school girls this summer or our birdhouse design competition.
Skateboard Design Competition
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The Emerging Professionals of AIA Bucks County took blank skateboard decks and created (functional) pieces of artwork to auctioned for charity.
The skateboards were hung as a public display and on May 24th 2022 in the Doylestown Marketplace. All the proceed went to benefit local equity, diversity, and inclusion causes in Bucks County.
Design Like A Girl 2024
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Design Like a Girl 2024
The Bucks County AIA recently hosted two free workshops as part of the Design Like a Girl initiative, aimed at introducing middle school girls to careers in the design and construction industry. The event was a resounding success, with participants engaging in hands-on drawing and design exercises while gaining insight into the architectural profession.
The Design Like a Girl program pairs young girls with professionals from various fields, including Architecture, Engineering, and Landscape Architecture. Through direct mentorship, participants have the opportunity to explore these dynamic careers, regardless of their socioeconomic background, race, or ethnicity.
A heartfelt thank you to all our participants and the dedicated volunteers who made this event possible!
Interested in volunteering for this event in the future or other events? Please reach out to buckscountyaia@gmail.com
Mini Golf Design 2022
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Holy Ghost prep High School
AIA Bucks County partnered with Holy Ghost prep and their art and engineering classes. The high school students are currently designing a mini golf hole and bridge respectively. Several of our members spent an afternoon with the classes presenting the profession of architecture to them. The students then presented their sketches for their projects and the AIA members held small group critiques. Since the students will not complete their projects until the second semester, AIA Bucks County will meet with them again in the spring.
This has become a tradition that we participate in every year. If you are interested in volunteering reach out to buckscountyaia@gmail.com and find out how you can get involved!
The Nest (Bird Blind) On Going
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George School
This birdblind is of special significance as it will be a memorial to honor the memory of Maggie Popkin, a former student of The George School who passed in November of 2019. The birdblind will be on The George School’s campus and was requested by the Popkin family.
AIA Members, Michael Raphael, Gretchen Ginnerty and Charles Chichester have been working with The George School to organize a mentorship program this Spring to construct a Birdblind (A birdblind is a screen or structure that enables bird watchers to observe Birds without being seen). We are pleased to announce that the school and our organization are moving out of the schematic design phase and moving into design development.
Get Involved
The Bucks County board has been hard at work to move our very busy 90 member chapter into 2022 with some new ideas.
We want our community to be involved and we want to hear from you. The best way to reach out to us is buckscountyaia@gmail.com. Getting involved with the board has many benefits such as connection, interaction and personal development.
If you have any interest in joining the volunteer efforts within the chapter or know of someone else that might be interested, please do not hesitate emailing buckscountyaia@gmail.com
This year we are looking forward to reaching out with our emerging professionals. If anyone you know that is new the field of architecture and design or a recent architecture graduate have them reach out to AIABucksEP@gmail.com so they can get involved with other EP’s within their community.