NOMA @ AIA Austin Design Excellence Conference

DESIGNING AGENCY: RACE, PLACE, AND THE FUTURE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

AIA Austin hosted NOMA National President Bryan C. Lee and Germane Barnes for a two-hour session at the2025 AIA Austin Design Excellence Conference! The presenters engaged the audience in an open, unscripted conversation. Through stories, projects, and personal insights, this session explored architecture as a tool for resistance, storytelling, and cultural affirmation—pushing beyond buildings to examine how space shapes, and is shaped by, race, memory, power, and identity.

NOMA Central Texas hosted a Happy Hour after the session with Germane Barnes. Thank you for a wonderful presentation!

A special thank you to Nkiru Gelles, AIA Austin 2025 President-Elect, who played a huge role in orchestrating this session and expressed her intention to make it available to NOMA members even if they didn’t attend the full conference.