2016 CSR CONFERENCE EXPERIENCE

​My name is Josh Kunkel and I am an Architect in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I was awarded the AIA CSR EP Leadership Traveling Scholarship to attend the Central States Conference in Manhattan, Kansas.  Instead of taking the traditional, written approach, I will show you through pictures my experience (you know, we architect’s are visual, right?). 

" I hope to show you that the conference is much more than attending sessions and getting continuing education credits."

Like most of the folks attending the conference, I traveled by car.  However, unlike most folks, I took the scenic route.  The scenes from the Flint Hills were incredible, vast landscapes of unspoiled prairie.  Much of the time I was the only car on the road for miles and miles.

There were many small towns along the way, which provided for some unexpected sights.  This phenomenal building was originally the high school.  Now, it sits, rotting away into oblivion.

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There were many small towns along the way, which provided for some unexpected sights.  This phenomenal building was originally the high school.  Now, it sits, rotting away into oblivion.

Many of the small towns had much of their original main streets intact, with many handsome brick and stone buildings. 

After Chit Chat a group of us ended up at Bourbon & Baker, which has a wide variety of Bourbons.  Many great conversations were had and new friendships were formed.
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Once in Manhattan, I checked in to the AirBNB, which I have done for the last several conferences (and has been excellent all around).  We had prime views of the newly constructed park, as well as the science museum.

The evening consisted of the opening reception at the science center and then the Chit Chat at Box Lab.  I was was one of the lecturers and gave my presentation on my local chapter’s ARE Success Teams.  The venue was fantastic and it was standing room only.  It also happened to be the first time I have presented before.  We saw seven other exciting presentations from students to artists to architects.

The next day officially kicked off the convention.  Three keynote speakers, the student design competition, and a variety of breakout sessions await.  The first keynote speaker was Yen Ong, Principal at 5G Studios out of Dallas.  He had an incredible story about succeeding against all odds and becoming one of the premier design studios in the world in a very short amount of time.

The next session for me was “The Aural Landscape”, which provided insight into a forgotten aspect of architecture.  The biggest takeaway for me was that, in general, our spaces are too loud and open office situations really need to have a designed white noise system to provide acoustical isolation.

​Next up, which was my favorite from the entire conference, was Steve Dumez out of New Orleans, Louisiana.  Steve’s office completes work that is representative of an rooted in place.  My favorite part was that he shared some of his process, which I found fascinating.  The diagram shown is a site plan exercise in which the congregation of a church all selected their ideal locations for the new church and the aggregate location became where the building sat.  This provided a great deal of ownership and satisfaction for the clients.

The next session was a breakout session titled “Achieving Outstanding Design: College of Fellows + Young Architects + Associates”.  The panel consisted of 5 panelist with a varying range of experience as well as being not licensed all the way up to FAIA.  I found it fascinating to see the varying answers  based on the size of firm the panelist worked for.  Night and day difference.  This stood out to me probably more than most because I have worked in small, medium, and large corporate firms.  To sum up the session: Good Design Matters.

The next session was a breakout session titled “Infrastructure: Framework for Well-Being”.  The session was about BNIM’s opportunity to transform a vacant building in Kansas City into their new office.  The project ultimately was not completed, but much knowledge was gained in the arena of high performance design.  They spoke as much about their office culture and beliefs as the project itself.  Here is one slide about their values for the project:

​The day wrapped up with the final keynote by Allison Williams from AECOM.  It was incredible to hear her story of working for and leading some of the largest firms in the world.  She shared a few gigantic projects that she lead.  Overall, extremely impressive lecture.


Dinner for the evening ended up at Tallgrass Brewing Company.  Fish and chips = awesome.  I had the Buffalo Sweat, which is an oatmeal cream stout, the best I have ever had.  This was my view from the bar:

​Now onto the awards ceremony.  It was hosted at the historic Warham theater in downtown Manhattan.  Beverages and appetizers were provided, of course.  Overall, I was incredibly impressed by the quality and quantity of well designed project out of the central states region.  El Dorado’s projects were my favorites, and apparently the jury agreed.

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After the award ceremony, several of us went out to celebrate a successful conference. The first place we landed was Harry’s, which happens to also be owned by the same folks who own Bourbon & Baker. Harry’s is in one of the old downtown row buildings and has been meticulously restored to it’s former glory.  
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Up next has to be one of my favorite places in Manhattan yet, Varsity Doughnuts, located in “Aggieville” (the college student “downtown”).  It is a small food truck tucked in the back of an alley, complete with movies being projected on the alley walls.  I had the Mac ‘N Cheese(with bacon!) and the Bacon Bomb.  Ridiculous.  I’ll let the photos do the talking.

From there we went to one of the random bars, just like you would find in any college town.  Nothing really to write home about.  That was it for the evening.

The next morning I packed my things and went to the AIA CSR business meeting.  In the meeting we talked about a variety of things and voted on the next CSR RAD.  Nothing out of the ordinary here.  Meeting adjourned.

Lunch ended up being at Taco Lucha, which is a Luchadores themed mexican restaurant.  Good food here, even better margaritas.

With that, it was time to make the gorgeous, long drive home.

So to sum it all up, attending conferences like the AIA CSR are vital to my growth and development as an architect.  The value is in learning from those outside your circles and some of the best in the nation, networking with like-minded, talented individuals across the central states, exploring the local establishments(I am a strong proponent of local businesses, if you couldn’t tell), and seeing parts of the country first-hand that I might not otherwise experience. Sometimes learning is more than just earning continuing education credits.