Justice and Equity in the Built Environment Symposium

Beyond equity, diversity, and inclusion is a farther-reaching goal of justice: systems and processes that reverse long-standing injustices and that go beyond merely what is fair. In the creation of the built environment.  Taking a page from the recent AIA Guides for Equitable Practice supplementary edition, Justice in the Built Environment,AIA Connecticut is offering a full-day in-person event on raising awareness and understanding of this topic.

This year’s symposium, Justice and Equity in the Built Environment is hosted by the Justice Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Knowledge Committee and will be held Thursday, September 15th, at Aria in Prospect, CT.

Clients and the public increasingly expect that places and spaces will support human safety, dignity, connection, community, prosperity and that they will disrupt current injustices and help heal from past ones. The presenters, a mix of AEC professionals, scholars, and diversity coaches that include, Rohan Freeman, PE LS President and CEO of Freeman Companies, LLC and 7 Summits Construction; Natasha Espada, AIA Founder/Principal of Massachusetts’s STUDIO ENÉE; Sharon Prince, CEO/Founder Grace Farms; Phil Bernstein, FAIA, Associate Dean and Professor Adjunct at Yale University; and Edgar Alvarado, Yale University, will address the role of diversity and resiliency in project work; understanding what creates barriers for yourself and life and a history of slave trade and the influence it still has today on working conditions, forced labor, and materials.