As part of our SJ Regenerate Week learning workshops, Carolyn Andrews led a session on key takeaways from the 2025 OAA Conference. The conference highlighted how our built environments are evolving to meet societal changes, exploring topics like urban revitalization, adaptive reuse, inclusive design, Reconciliation, and the relationship between built and natural environments.

The session highlighted compelling examples from the conference, including office buildings reimagined as homes, neglected spaces transformed into housing for the unhoused, and efforts toward Reconciliation with First Nations through the revitalization of existing buildings and landscapes. These projects all shared a common thread: the power of working collaboratively with communities and users.

Two themes resonated throughout Carolyn’s presentation:

Transformation Through Shared Vision

At its heart, the conference advocated for designers to deeply engage with the people who will inhabit and use the spaces they create. True transformation emerges from this collaborative spirit, ensuring designs are not just functional but also deeply meaningful to the community.

Reconciliation as a Guiding Principle

• Embrace a Holistic View: See problems from multiple angles and time scales, crafting solutions that address diverse concerns and foster deep meaning.
• Redefine Sustainability: Understand that cultural, natural, and economic systems are as foundational to long-term well-being as energy considerations.
• Prioritize the Process: Recognize that how we work is as vital as what we produce. This means expanding our partnerships to include non-profits, design collaborators, and other program groups to maximize impact for current and future residents.
• Cultivate Openness: Be vulnerable and genuinely open to learning from others.

Carolyn concluded the session by encouraging us to reflect on these insights and consider our own paths forward in our Architecture+Design work. She urged us to ask ourselves:

• Where do we aspire to be in the future?
• What specific goals are we striving to achieve?
• How can we further develop and leverage our existing expertise?
• What are the crucial questions our clients ask that we currently cannot answer?