The idea for Architalx, like many great ideas, was born over a kitchen table. In 1986, designer Lori Rohr had been to a few architectural lecture series in Boston, and was scheming with friend and colleague Judy Schneider about starting something similar in Portland.

The first lectures were presented in 1987 at the Baxter Library Building with a large roster of regional architects. As Architalx grew, it broadened its reach to include speakers who were not only architects, but also landscape architects, engineers, and interior designers. In 1992, Carol Wilson (then president of AIA Maine), Greater Portland Landmarks, the Portland Museum of Art, and the Maine State Landscape Architects (now the Maine Section of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects) collaborated to move the Architalx lectures to the Portland Museum of Art to accommodate an ever-expanding audience.

With a combination of hard work, determination, good connections, and fearlessness, the Architalx Board has consistently drawn award-winning, cutting edge architects and designers to Portland to speak each Spring and is dedicated to continuing this mission into the future.