Cocktails & Conversation: Kimberly Dowdell

Cocktails & Conversation is a series of dialogues about design that joins an architect with a critic, journalist, curator, or architectural historian to discuss current design issues. For this program, Kimberly Dowdell, AIA, 2024 President of the American Institute of Architects, will engage in a spirited conversation about her career and the future of architectural practice with Beatrice Galilee over a custom-crafted cocktail. 

Speaker: 
Kimberly Dowdell, AIA, NOMAC, President, American Institute of Architects; Principal, Director of Strategic Relationships, HOK

Moderator: 
Beatrice Galilee, Executive Director, The World Around 

About the Speakers: 
Kimberly Dowdell is the 2024 President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). As the 100th AIA President, she is the first Black woman and first Millennial to hold the institute’s top office. Dowdell previously served on the board of directors of the Architects Foundation, the philanthropic partner of the AIA, and sits on the board of the Chicago Central Area Committee, which works to shape the city’s growth, equity, and quality of place. From 2019 to 2020, she was the President of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). At HOK, Dowdell is a Principal and the firm’s Director of Strategic Relationships. She co-chair’s HOK’s Diversity Advisory Council, and co-founded HOK Impact, the firm’s social responsibility arm. She was educated at Cornell University and Harvard University, and was elected to Cornell’s Board of Trustees in 2022. 

Beatrice Galilee is a British curator and international writer on design and architecture. She is the founder and executive director of The World Around, a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to “architecture’s now, near, and next” and is the author of Radical Architecture of the Future, published in 2021. From 2014 to 2019, Beatrice served as the first curator of contemporary architecture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has curated several Architectural Triennales and Biennales including those in Lisbon (2013), Gwangju (2011) and Shenzhen/Hong Kong (2009). Beatrice was educated at the University of Bath and the Bartlett School of Architecture in the United Kingdom and is a visiting professor at Pratt Institute where she lectures on curating.