Summer’s winding down and as the kids go back to school and the weather cools, business picks up for residential builders, architects, landscape architects, interior designers, and other industry pros. It’s also a popular time of year for conferences. We’ve rounded up 11 upcoming events that provide education sessions, professional credits, new product exhibitions, networking opportunities, house tours, plus a few days in a new place. Peruse the list and see which ones make the grade for your fall calendar.
Conferences are listed in chronological order:
2014 CRAN Symposium, Sept. 18-20, Charleston, S.C.
The AIA’s Custom Residential Architects Network (CRAN) hosts its 7th gathering in the historic city of Charleston. This year’s event—The Architecture of Influence—focuses on the importance of context in residential design. Speakers include Andres Duany, Robert A.M. Stern, David Salmela, Gary Brewer, Gil Schafer III, Marieanne Khoury-Vogt, Marc Appleton, Julie Snow, Lorcan O’Herlihy, and Robert M. Gurney.
EEBA Excellence in Building Conference & Expo, Sept.23-25, St. Louis
More than 50 sessions on building science are offered alongside the latest high-performance products. A full day session called Houses That Work will explore home design, materials, systems, appliances, codes, products, and strategies.
SXSW Eco, Oct. 6-8, Austin, Texas
The cool thing about this fledgling sustainability conference is that all of the sessions are crowd-sourced. And although it’s not specifically geared toward building pros, it does offer insight into what homeowners want and need. The Smart Cities track includes presentations on biophilic design, community water management, integrating the built environment with the natural one, and more.
Dwell on Design, Oct. 9-11, New York City
Dwell magazine’s annual design conference has expanded to include a fall addition in an East Coast location. Session topics include Healthy Design, The New Face of Affluence, Material Research, and The Cooper-Hewitt renovation: The Ultimate Home Makeover.
Reinvention Conference, Oct. 13-14, Washington, D.C.
Our sister publication, Residential Architect, hosts its annual gathering down the street from our home offices. This year’s Shelter Lab theme will spotlight research and development for architects to help you integrate innovation into your designs. In addition to the conference sessions, attendees can opt to take a tour of houses by leading architects in the Washington, D.C. area as well as attend the reception and presentation for the Builder’s Choice & Custom Home Design Awards. How Housing Matters Symposium, Oct. 16, Washington, D.C.
The National Building Museum presents this one-day conference discusses they ways the having affordable, stable, secure, durable, and appealing housing affects so many aspects of people’s lives. The symposium takes place in conjunction with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s research project of the same name.
ULI Fall Meeting, Oct. 21-23, New York City
The Urban Land Institute invites planners, architects, engineers, builders, and realtors to attend general sessions covering topics such as healthy houses, water management, adaptive reuse, net zero for developers, and what home buyers want.
Vision 2020 Sustainability Summit, Oct. 21, New Orleans
Also sponsored sister publications, EcoStructure and EcoHome, Vision 2020 is a full day of sessions taking place just prior to Greenbuild. Presentations cover energy efficiency, building science, indoor environmental quality, water conservation, codes and standards, materials and products, design, and sustainable communities.
Greenbuild, Oct. 22-24, New Orleans
The USGBC’s Greenbuild conference offers a full week of events in addition to the three-day conference and expo, starting and ending with green building tours on Oct. 20 and 25. The busy days in-between provide education sessions, exhibitions by green product manufacturers, a film festival, leadership awards, networking events, and more.
Remodeling Show | DeckExpo | JLC Live, Oct. 22-24, Baltimore
Three powerhouse industry experts–Remodeling, DeckExpo, and Journal of Light Construction band together for one big conference and trade show. Education tracks focus on business, design, construction techniques, marketing, production, legal matters, and all things deck-related. If you can’t make it to Baltimore, JLC Live has regional shows coming up as well: JLC Live Northwest, Dec. 3-5, Portland, Ore.; and JLC Live New England, March 19-21, Providence, R.I.
Architecture Boston Expo, Oct. 28-30, Boston
This once regional conference has grown to include more than 15,000 building industry pros from the Northeast and beyond. The residential track offers home designers and builders insights into good-looking high-performance houses, durability, designing affordable net-zero houses, tracking energy use, ideas for sensitive renovations, and more.
