The Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) opened its doors on March 19 in its new Midtown location. The 9,000 square foot space on Peachtree Street, across from the High Museum, greatly increases the museum's visibility with more pedestrian traffic and a storefront presence. Bruce McEvoy, associate principal at Perkins + Will and MODA Board President, offered the new location in the first floor of P+W's building rent free for three years, and donated design services and $1.5 million for the transformation of the space. MODA features exhibitions on architecture, industrial and product design, interiors and furniture, graphics, fashion, and more.

Read about MODA's move in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

What is the open rate of your organization's emails? 12% is average for nonprofits, according to the 2011 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study from NTEN and M+R Research Labs. Now in its fifth year, this practical and informative study examines email click-through rates, fundraising response rates, average gift amounts, and other online marketing statistics. It demonstrates that many nonprofits are using social media, but have room for improvement. For example, for every 1000 email subscribers, nonprofits in the study only had 110 Facebook users and 19 Twitter followers. See how you organization stacks up.
View a concise graphic that summarizes the Benchmarks study.

For an innovative use of Twitter, see Architecture for Humanity's Japan disaster relief initiative: if their donation link is retweeted 100,000 times, Cameron Sinclair has pledged to donate 10% of his own salary.
Read about Sinclair's Twitter donation campaign.

Last weekend, the Structures for Inclusion conference brought together activists, designers, funders, and policy makers who are at the forefront of designing in the public interest. Leading voices weighed in, including Rural Studio, Public Workshop, Trung Le, and Thomas Fisher. The theme throughout the conference was how design can enable every person to live in a socially, economically, and environmentally healthy community.

Read the conference wrap-up from Katherine Darnstadt from Architecture for Humanity Chicago.

AAO welcomes several new members this month: AIA Austin/Center for Architecture, Hawaii Architectural Foundation, Christopher James Alexander of the Getty Research Institute, Triangle Modernist Archive, Richard Bettini of West Essex Regional High School, Columbus Area Visitors Center, Roberta Miner of the Seattle Architecture Foundation, and the Florida Foundation for Architecture. Welcome!

Interested in becoming a member? Click here.

In other member news... The American Architectural Foundation announced that Scott Lauer, founder of Open House New York, has been appointed Vice President for Programs at the Foundation. Meanwhile, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust magazine, Wright Angles (see page 10) , offers a brief introduction to the Trust's new President and CEO Celeste Adams, pictured at left.

Over the last month, we've seen a number of exciting architecture and design exhibitions open. In Ohio, an interesting collaboration has created "Don Hisaka: The Cleveland Years." The bountiful grouping of partners in this exhibition on mid-century modernism include the Cleveland Artists Foundation, AIA Cleveland, The Cleveland Restoration Society, Cleveland Public Art, Cleveland Public Library, Kent State College of Architecture and Environment, and the Cleveland Arts Prize. The exhibition will travel to the Cleveland Clinic and the Mansfield Art Center after its initial run at the Cleveland Artists Foundation.

Click here to see the listing of other March architecture and design exhibitions, including those at RIBA, the National Building Museum, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and more.

The March issue of The Atlantic magazine features a lengthy section on skyscrapers. It's great to see architecture content reaching such a broad public audience in an accessible manner.
"How Skyscrapers Can Save the City" Edward Glaeser argues in favor of increasing urban density, cheering its ability to foster social capital as well as its ecological benefits.
"How High Can We Go?" This infographic illustrates the issues with building vertically, from material concerns in 1893 to the economic limitations of today.
"The Architect of the City" Following the skyscraper theme, The Atlantic reviews recent publication, The Architecture of Adler and Sullivan.
"A Conversation with Paul Goldberger" Bonus: this interview on The Atlantic website covers Goldberger's thoughts on architectural criticism.

"To change the world, we need a generation of new minds equipped with new ways of thinking" writes Trung Le on fastcodesign.com. In discussing the value of design education, he describes Christian Long's Prototype Design Camp, a three-day opportunity for high school students to work with professionals on real-world design challenges. The camp provided youth with an immersive experience in the design process. Educators might think to visit the camp's website, which has a wealth of resources about the definition and process of design thinking.

Check out Prototype Design Camp's curriculum resources.

What will the role of architects be in 2025? A new report by RIBA's think tank, Building Futures, claims that "architect" will be increasing replaced with terms like "creative consultant." The report serves as a wake-up call, encouraging architects to foster their firms commercial viability. From 2008 to the present, the demand for architectural services has decreased 40%. However, at the same time, enrollment in UK architecture schools has increased 23%, and celebrity endorsement of the career choice rises. As Jonathan Glancey writes, "when you have the likes of Brad Pitt, Justin Bieber, and Barbie knocking on your studio door, how can anyone say there's no future for architects?"

Pentagram has launched an elegant, straightforward new website, asking leaders in design which books have significantly shaped their output. It's a fun place to spend a little free time. Some books are direct from architecture school reading lists, like Giedion's Space, Time, and Architecture, while other results are more surprising. Would you have expected Nabokov's Lolita to appear on the reading lists of Michael Sorkin, Massimo Vignelli, and Richard Meier?

Explore www.designersandbooks.com.