Taubman College Los Angeles–based architect Kevin Holland, FAIA, M.Arch ’98, was recently elected to a two-year term on the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Board of Directors as an at-large director. He will serve from 2022 to 2024.
Holland has supported AIA National, AIA Los Angeles, and the National Association of Minority Architects (NOMA) in a number of capacities. Since 2020, he has been the secretary for the AIA Los Angeles Board of Directors. He also served as a member of AIA National’s Government Advocacy Committee from 2016 to 2018. Additionally, Holland has served on NOMA’s Board of Directors as the Immediate Past National President (2017 to 2018) and 1st Vice President/President-elect (2013 to 2014). He was also vice president of NOMA’s Midwest Region Board of Directors from 2009 to 2012.
Holland is the managing principal of k.michael architects LLC in Los Angeles, where he is committed to providing quality design to all income spectrums. He identified four key values and initiatives as part of his candidacy:
Creating Space and Opportunity
Diversity, equity, and inclusion is a must to fulfill the promises of this nation. We must continue to forge paths and space within our respective firms for all underrepresented groups to be represented as staff and as firm leaders.
Citizen Architect
Architects inherently are problem solvers. We must lend our voice to the issues of homelessness, food deserts, accessibility, and climate change at all levels of government — local, county, state, and federal. Let’s all get involved!
[Affordable] Housing Solutions for Everyone
For many working-poor, the dream of being able to attain housing remains elusive. In Los Angeles, the Skid Row corridor is a neighborhood of 4,000+ homeless people. Our architectural solutions should be dignified and affordable. Our collective voices should advocate for funding necessary to address this crisis.
Essential Work to Lessen Debt
In the age of COVID-19, we have become familiar with the term “essential workers.” We should advocate on behalf of those that lend their architectural services to “essential work” (affordable housing, disaster relief, and emergency building solutions) be provided with the opportunity to work towards forgiveness of the student debt.
When asked why he wanted to hold this leadership position at AIA, Holland shared:
“I have had many conversations with architects who have started conversations with, “AIA needs to…” My response has typically been to encourage that person to become involved with AIA in some capacity. We find ourselves at a unique sociopolitical crossroads in which the generations that follow will judge our generation, our government — and our Institute — for our positions. AIA, as much as it is not a political organization, is not immune from the effects of this current political climate. Our 44th U.S. president was quoted as saying, ‘Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. … We are the change that we seek.’ The decisions and policies that are made today will affect members of the Institute and the profession for, at least, a generation. Essentially, I want to hold this leadership position to make an impact on those things that require fairness, justice, and empathy.”
