AIANY Civic Leadership Program group logo. Credit: AIANY
The KPF Designer will participate in the AIA’s six-month mentorship and training program, which helps emerging and mid-career architecture professionals develop skills to engage with the civic process.
Darien is interested in the complex relationship between culture, architecture, and race in the built environment. They have spent their academic career exploring this through the lens of music and urban design, compiling a body of work which includes a series of albums under the alias Rico Alice. Darien’s writing on these entangled topics has been featured by NPR, Garage Magazine (Vice Media), and The Knight Foundation.
The AIA Civic Leadership Program (CLP) seeks to educate and reorient architecture professionals to better serve the urban communities they design for. “By increasing connections to their communities, developing their advocacy capacities, and supporting their pursuit of public service in elected or appointed office, the CLP develops the next generation of civically minded design leaders,” says AIA New York.
Read more about Darien and meet their AIA CLP 2024 classmates here.