2014 AIA National Convention

We saw the 20-foot-high letters Donald Trump put on the side of his SOM-designed tower. We hit the Expo floor to find some great products, be it composite panels on a building under construction in San Francisco or metal panels wrapping a building at the University of Chicago. We partied at a Studio Gang-designed building in the South Loop. We hit the PechaKucha night to listen to rapid-fire architects on all sorts of things. We did so much more...

We listened to Mayor Rahm Emanuel welcome the thousands of architects to the city and announce the Chicago Architecture Biennial that will take place at the Chicago Cultural Center in fall 2015.

We heard Theaster Gates and Jeanne Gang talk about the great work they are doing in their hometown, respectively including the conversion of a drug house into the Black Cinema House on the city's South Side and the transformation of the former Meigs Field in Lake Michigan into an ecological urban habitat, now under construction.

We listened to the AIA firm of the year Eskew+Dumez+Ripple talk about the core values of their impressive portfolio, and pay tribute to late founding partner Allan Eskew.

We heard AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion winner Harrison Fraker speak about architects as "agents of desire and delight" and the urgent need for improved building performance in an age of warming, sentiments echoed by Ed Mazria and the Resiliencey Panel that took the stage on Friday.

And we ventured around the city to look at all the great architecture – old and new – that Chicago has to offer. But for some reason we could never avoid those ugly 20-foot-high letters overlooking the river.