Lying on the beach, the office fades. But as certain as the waves tumbling in, fall approaches on the heels of summer’s ozone-laden days. Before you roll over and toss this issue aside, make a mental note: Architectural Record has plans for you, combining sights, socializing, and intellectual engagement into a cool season of hot activity. Mark these future dates down, if only in the sand.

September. The Adriatic remains warm enough–trust us–for a dip on September 12, offering a cleansing balm following the Architecture Biennale, themed “Metamorph” by its director, former Centre Canadien d’Architecture director Kurt Forster. In two days’ time, attendees will gain an overview of what architects are thinking globally. This premiere architectural exhibition, which runs from September 12 through November 7, should attract more than 100,000 people to the Giardini, the Venetian public gardens. Stop by to chat, because we’ll be there. In partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, architectural record is responsible for curating the U.S. pavilion.

Record editors have assembled an exhibition entitled “Transcending Type”—to be housed in the pavilion’s Neoclassical quarters (a mini-Palladian homage designed by Delano and Aldrich in 1930)—in which six talented groups of architects rethink familiar American building categories, including shopping malls, parking garages, and sports arenas. Support for this effort came quickly from the enthusiastic teams themselves (enumerated in a News story in this issue), as well as from corporate sponsors, and, uniquely, from larger firms that are cheering the next generation along. Kudos to them all. You will see and meet them all there.

October. Enough tanning; time to pay the bills. On October 26–27, the magazine will host a five-star business-development conference. Held in conjunction with McGraw-Hill Construction’s signatory “Outlook” conference in Washington, D.C., which gives industry leaders a preview of upcoming economic trends, this development conference has been tailored for your office’s perpetual marketing needs. If you are like most, you always want to learn better ways to find a project, meet a client, nail an interview, and get the job, get the job, get the job. At this conference, a distinguished group of experts will help you fatten up your bank accounts for winter.

November. The pace quickens. As a follow-up to last year’s highly popular Innovation conference, we are convening a new version in New York on November 15–16. In 2003, we invited a spicy potpourri of Nobel Prize laureates, shipbuilders, material scientists, and architects to discuss advances in making and assembling projects. In 2004, we will address the subject of “Innovation in Tall Buildings” more directly. Certainly, we can hear your caveats: I don’t make high-rises; I don’t have those budgets, so why should they concern me? But tall buildings serve as vertical laboratories for architectural ideas, permitting urban density and energy efficiency all in one place, provoking creative design solutions, from walls to systems. The results of these concentrated design and engineering efforts spill over to buildings at a range of scales, including those you probably do make.

On November 16, join three superb teams and decide for yourself. Renzo Piano Studio, together with Fox & Fowle, will present their work on the forthcoming New York Times headquarters building; SOM, on the highly publicized “Freedom Tower” in Lower Manhattan. Finally, Chicago architect Helmut Jahn introduces his engineering partners, including facade engineer Matthias Shuler and structural engineer Werner Sobek, who will describe their shared work on the award-winning Deutsche Post headquarters, in Cologne.

From Europe to your own backyard, fall promises to stimulate and provoke us. Slathered in suntan oil, you may resent being reminded of the real world. If so, flip over and rest for now. Shorter days arrive soon enough.