Charting a Path to Zero at AIA25
LPA leaders brought hard lessons and a bold challenge to the heart of the national conversation.
The annual AIA Conference on Architecture & Design is a pulse check for a profession doing battle on multiple fronts. AI, venture capital, climate change, social injustice — from June 4th through 8th, the halls of Boston Convention Center were buzzing with big ideas. They poured out of session rooms and into the restaurants and cocktail parties, reverberating on their way back, eventually, to architecture studios all over the country.
As more than 100 LPAers left for Boston, it was ostensibly to receive the 2025 Architecture Firm Award — the highest honor the AIA can bestow on a firm. But more importantly, we came for these conversations — to share lessons from our journey here and our roadmap forward. Over three packed days, we participated in four blockbuster sessions, signed copies of two new books and delivered one unmistakable message: the path to zero is already being built — and its time to pick up the pace.
Tech anxiety was the unofficial theme of Wednesday, after a keynote session on the AI set a thousand tops spinning. It was a familiar feeling for participants for members of CEO Wendy Rogers’ first panel, “Maintaining Relevance in a Time of Disruptive Technology. The Innovation Design Consortium was established by 40 of the industry’s biggest firms to collaborate on solutions to shared technological threats. Wendy shared how the sense of partnership of the Consortium informed her collaborative style at LPA.
By the end of the day, a long-awaited shipment arrived at the AIA Design Shop: the first 50 copies of our new book, just in time for a signing on Friday.
Thursday started with Director of Sustainability & Applied Research Ellen Mitchell, the AIA Climate Justice Working Group and a wide-awake 7:30 a.m. crowd. Ellen shared research around the disproportionate impacts of climate change on marginalized communities. and shared a new resource the group is developing to help designers view their projects as levers of social change.
Shortly after 9:00 a.m., Wendy stood with the LPA’s Board of Directors to accept the 2025 AIA Architecture Firm Award before a packed convention center of 6,000. She was giddy. Then humble. Then dead serious as she put forward a challenge to the profession:
“Carbon must unite us and align our disciplines in a common cause. The task is too big to tackle alone. It requires partnerships, innovation, and a shared belief that our work is always better when everyone sits at the table as equals,” she added.
That afternoon at Trinity Church, Design Director Matthew Porreca’s elevation to the AIA College of Fellows was a joyful reminder of the progress we’re making. His work was called “a celebration of passive design as a path to achieve high-performance design.”
The afternoon ended with a panel on leveraging design data to drive project performance. LPA President Keith Hempel dug into some of the tools we use to drive environmental performance. Sitting on a panel of disparate firms solving different problems with data on massively different scales, Keith stressed the importance of transparency across the industry.
Friday’s conference brought a deeper focus on How we’re fighting climate change — and what it really takes to eliminate carbon from the built environment. Building on the week’s conversations around innovation, collaboration and shared responsibility, LPA leaders shared strategies rooted in practice, culture and measurable impact.
The day began with the debut of “No Excuses: Integrated Design for a Sustainable Future.” On sale early at the AIA Design Shop (and sold out by the end), the book distills lessons from LPA’s evolution as an integrated firm — and offers a roadmap for building a practice where sustainability drives value, instead of competing with it. CEO Wendy Rogers, President Keith Hempel and Design Director Ozzie Tapia signed copies at a table that rarely slowed. Alongside them, K–12 Director Kate Mraw signed copies of “Creating the Regenerative School,” co-written with Alan Ford and Betsy del Monte.
The afternoon expanded on our roadmap with an AIA-hosted panel recognizing LPA as the 2025 Architecture Firm Award honoree. Leaders from LPA joined members of the AIA’s Committee on Design, Committee on the Environment and past Firm Award winners to discuss what’s next for the profession. It was a showcase of the firm’s integrated design philosophy in action, as a parade of architects, engineers, landscape architects and interior designers joined Keith and Wendy onstage — a visible reflection of the collaborative culture behind the work.
Our conference closed with a party at nearby Artists for Humanity EpiCenter, a former industrial space now home to creative programs for youth in Boston. It was a fitting place to reflect. After a year spent developing the AIA Firm Award submission and building new resources to share what we’ve learned, the celebration served as a inspiring reminder:
