Registration remains open for the 2012 AIA COD + HRC Conference, “The Role of Style in Defining Architectural Design Excellence”. During the course of a week, earn continuing education credits in one of the more humane urban environments on the planet. Visit the legendary Casa de Retiro Espiritual, winner of a 1980 PA Award, designed by Emilio Ambasz, and two sites on almost every architect’s bucket list: The Grand Mosque in Cordoba, and The Alhambra in Granada. If you’re really in for it, put your feet on African soil, visiting the famed blue villages of Chefchouan and Tetouan and the unmatched Medina of Fez in Morocco. —via Mike Mense FAIA, Anchorage Alaska, 2012 Chair AIA Committee on Design