From left to right: 2011 Co-chair Jimmy Castellanos, 2012 Co-chair Celi Sims, 2012 Co-chair Lorena Toffer, 2011 Co-chair Yesenia Blandon.

At our last LiA meeting of the year, we introduced Celi Sims (Rees Associates, Inc. ) and Lorena Toffer (Corgan Associates, Inc) as the AIA Dallas Latinos in Architecture Committee 2012 Co-chairs.
They are both an excellent example of professional commitment and dynamism and we are looking forward to another great year for LiA under their leadership.

Congratulations to both of them!

Last week, LiA members visited Moises E. Molina HS, Pinkston HS, and Skyline HS!

We surely exceeded our goals for this year collecting 546 books and over 700 architectural magazines!
Thank you very much to each of you who donated a book or has volunteered time to this program; Your donation will provide local educational institutions with an architectural library, supporting education, creating awareness of architecture and art and raising exposure of our profession as a career path. THANK YOU!

Special thanks to the Bookshelf Leaders at the architecture firms, that donated their time and effort to make the program known, and successfully collected so many books, to the Comex Group for sponsoring this year’s book drive and to everyone that participated.

Our two beneficiary schools will be L.G. Pinkston High School (West Dallas) and Moisés E. Molina High School (Oak Cliff).
We will be updating you on the distribution of the books.

As you now, LiA is currently running the bookdrive program:
Help us develop an Architecture library for a local school. Donate a book TODAY!

And now that we are talking books, we'll like to share the following:

"20 Beautiful Novels for Architecture Students": http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2011/20-beautiful-novels-for-architecture-students/

“20 Educational Architecture Books Anyone Can Enjoy”:

http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2011/20-educational-architecture-books-anyone-can-enjoy/

Have a good reading and remember, you can take your book donation to the Dallas Center for Architecture!

Please join the AIA Dallas Latinos in Architecture for the second year of "From an Architect's Bookshelf"!
This book donation/library development program would provide local educational institutions with books that are essential for the teaching and research of Architecture but too costly for most schools or scholars to afford.

You are encouraged to write a note of insight or encouragement inside the cover of the book to personalize and humanize the gift to the students. You can contribute something from your personal collection or buy a book to donate.Donations can include: Architecture, interior design, art and construction books.

Your book donation will help:
- Motivate a young student to stay in school and pursue a college degree education; Raise awareness of Architecture as a career path as well as its profile to make the profession more diverse and attractive; Inspire the Architect's of tomorrow: With this program if we touch one student who will pursue a career in architecture, go on to licensure, and become an AIA member, that will make it a success.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank Mesa Design Group for their kind donation of 80 books, that are helping us jump start our book drive! Also, we are pleased to announce that this year we will be running the program with LiA Austin and AIA San Diego.

BOOKSHELF LEADERS: If you are interested in being one, please let us know.
Collections are July 11 - August 19.
There will also be a collection point at the Dallas Center for Architecture (DCFA)- 1909 Woodall Rodgers Fwy., Suite 100 Dallas, TX 75201

We invite you to take a look at this video “AIA Dallas Latinos in Architecture, From an Architect’s Bookshelf”, that depicts the soul and the intent of the book drive program:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9kcWMeFmxk

Thanks to everyone that joined in the celebration at Corgan Assocaites last Friday, for LiA's first year as a committee of the AIA Dallas.
Corgan was a very generous and great host for all the LiA members and guests that came to learn more about the committee, and the future programs, like the sucessful "From an Architect's Bookshelf", a book drive that was launched in 2010 and that will be run again this year.

Go to LiA's facebook page to see more photos of the event:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.234560686563147

The Oak Cliff Society of Fine Arts (OCSFA) is pleased to announce their popular Salon Series for Spring 2011.

On Thursday May 12, : “A Century of Women in Architecture: A Short History” by Susan Appleton, AIA, Rebecca Boles, AIA and Dr. Norma Figueroa, CAAPPR. All colleagues/assistant professors at UT Arlington and well respected for their work in architecture and research. They will present an illustrated lecture on the achievements and contributions of women in the field of architecture over the past 100 years. Among other topics, they will talk about the relationship developed between domestic architecture and women architects; the prevailing definition of the architect as male; and how gender relations have limited, and at the same time, given shape to the identity of the architect.

Dr. Norma Isa Figueroa, PH.D, MArch, CAAPPR, will be talking about the history of the profession from the gender perspective, analyzing newspaper articles about women architects in Puerto Rico from 1945 to 1980. Although her focus is women architects in Puerto Rico, these findings apply almost everywhere. It is a cultural study that reveals the challenges that the first women architects faced when joining the profession and how society preferred the male ideal.

The events will be held at the historic Turner House, home of the OCSFA, as part of their mission to be a resource for art and architecture:
Turner House: 401 N. Rosemont, 75208.
The presentations will all take place between 7:30 and 9 pm. Refreshments will be served. Tickets will be $15 for non-members and $10 for OCSFA members; Tickets can be purchased at the door or through their website: www.turnerhouse.org.

For more information please contact Kenda North, 214-563-9852,
kenda@kendanorth.com

The School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin will be hosting a two-day symposium celebrating architecture throughout the Americas on March 31 + April 1.

YAF & LIA would like to thank our sponsor for this event:

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Guillermo V. Nunez- Account Executive
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Office: 972-455-2006 Cell: 214-457-8871
guillermo@wellingtonfundingusa.com

Instead of giving the traditional pearl gift for its 30th anniversary, MESA landscape architects opted for a gift of 80 architecture books to the American Institute of Architects Latinos in Architecture committee's book drive for local schools.
This year LiA will also run its successsul bookdrive program "From an Architect's Bookshelf", and this generous donation is a great way to start!
We would like to thank MESA for such a wonderful gift. Hopefully this will inspire others to contribute once the program starts in June.

MESA's book donation to AIA Dallas (AIA Dallas Latinos in Architecture Committee) in celebration of their 30th anniversary was featured in BisNow, an influential commercial real estate e-zine:

http://www.bisnow.com/dallas-fort_worth_commercial_real_estate_news_story.php?p=13338

We are glad to announce the formation of Latinos in Architecture (LiA) Austin as a new committee of the American Institute of Architects' Austin Chapter!

Chair: Jaime Palomo, Partner/Owner CasaBella Architects

Find them at their AIA Austin website: http://www.aiaaustin.org/committee/latinos-architecture-lia

or in their Facebook Group page:http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_162581360457393

Jimmy Castellanos’s article: From an Architects Bookshelf, makes the top of the list for the National YAF newsletter!
The article explains how the bookdrive program came to full creation and how LiA intends to run it again in 2011.

Find it here:

http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/ek_members/documents/pdf/aiab087416.pdf

On December 10th, 2010, Adolfo Ayuso, Mexican Consul of Cultural Affairs in Dallas, Julian Lizarazu and Yesenia Blandon members of LiA were part of the jury for the final presentation of Emmanuel Ramirez' Advanced Design Graduate Studio at UTA this past Fall semester.

The project, called "Rethinking Borders" defined strategies in the territorial boundaries of the international border between Mexico and the United States, specifically addressing relevant topics such as:
- The border and the Culture and Education
- The border and the Environment
- The border and the Water
- The border and its Connectivity

During a period of seven weeks, the students developed a regional plan for a chosen site, building up their projects in different stages, testing their ideas in various scales raging from regional to local.
The quality of work, and design solutions, not only at the design architectural level, but the questions that these projects raised, in every realm of the border's social compass were truly inspiring.
Great work!

More photos of the final presentation, by Navid Tehrani at LiA's facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118157504870133

About Emmanuel Ramirez Ruiz:

Co founder of “MMX Studio”, Architect and Urban Designer, holds a degree in architecture by the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and a master degree in Urban Design by the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Awarded by the "FONCA" with the "Mexican Young Creators Award 2003" he has been an invited critic and lecturer at the AA and The Bartlett School of architecture in London, UTA in the United States as well as a variety of universities in Mexico.

Prior to co-founding MMX Studio He worked in various renowned international practices such as Alberto Kalach studio in Mexico City, SOM -Skidmore Owings and Merril- in London and Chicago as well as David Chipperfield Architects in London where he consolidated his design skills in different scales raging from architecture and urban design to regional and national plans.
His Practice MMX Studio, is a collective firm dedicated to research, development, and the execution ideas. The studio has a strong focus on the design process and seeks to understand the implications that architecture and urbanism have upon our societies. The studio aims to balance theory and practice, design and construction as well as architecture and urbanism.
mmx Studio: http://www.mmx.com.mx/