The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has officially canceled its annual conference due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Originally slated to kick off May 14 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the AIA Conference on Architecture 2020 was postponed in mid-March while the organization mulled rescheduling possibilities for later in the year. Any possibility for a reshuffled event held in L.A. or elsewhere has now, not that surprisingly, been scrapped as the AIA looks ahead to the 2021 conference in Philadelphia instead. The conference joins a growing list of major architecture and design events to be initially postponed or rescheduled for later in 2020 but ultimately canceled or moved to 2021 as the pandemic widened.

AIA 2020 president Jane Frederick, FAIA, announced the decision in a press release:

“After carefully monitoring COVID-19 developments, we have determined that we will not be able to reschedule conference given the number of uncertainties we face as a nation in the coming months,” “We believe this decision is in the best interest of the health and safety of our members, colleagues, exhibitors and speakers and out of consideration for all attendees. At this time, we are focusing all of our efforts on assisting our members through these economic uncertainties and supporting their important work in contributing to the COVID-19 response.”

The AIA will issue full refunds to attendees for registration fees. More information on the cancelation is available on the AIA 2020 website, and AN will add more to this breaking story as new developments come in.