During the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design (AIA24) in Washington, D.C. CJA principals Sara Caples and Everardo Jefferson hosted a seminar titled: Many Voices: Erasing Invisibility in Equitable Communities.

Everardo Jefferson and Sara Caples’s session targeted ways of listening and engaging with assumptions and skills to produce better, more satisfying architecture. Architects should understand how to design for social equity, but too often this is presented as a choice between work that does good and work that looks good. When done well, building for social equity can directly enhance the formal, experimental and creative language of architecture.

Since founding their firm in the 1980s, Sara and Everardo have pledged to do more than 50% of their work in communities traditionally underserved by architects. Their work includes the Louis Armstrong Center and Weeksville Heritage Museum. This talk was informed by their histories of creating equitable and beautiful work, and their recent book Many Voices: Architecture for Social Equity.