Dear AIA Silicon Valley Members, Industry Partners, and Friends,
As we reflect on the past year and look toward an exciting future, I am proud to share some of our chapter’s key accomplishments during my term as board president, along with an introduction from this year’s board president and a glimpse of what’s ahead.
2025: A Year of Achievement
Our chapter’s success in 2025 is a testament to your engagement and dedication. We celebrated many milestones, including:
- Vibrant Programming: We hosted nine informative chapter meetings and five sold-out Building Tours, offering valuable educational and networking opportunities, thanks to our Programs Committee, led by Chair Afsha Ali. And chapter member Sassan Pedramrazi organized monthly Sketching Together meet-ups, free and open to everyone, at various locations.
- Major Events: Our tentpole events—the Design Awards, the Golf Tournament, and Home Tours—all saw exceptional turnout, with over 100 participants at each. It takes dedicated teams to put on these events. Many thanks to our committee members and especially the committee chairs: Afsha Ali, Jason Holleb, and Jennifer Kretschmer, respectively.
- Giving Back: Thanks to our Scholarship Committee members and particularly Committee Chairs Clayton Cravea and Danielle Vogel, we proudly awarded $11,450 in college scholarships to deserving architecture students who will be attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, USC, and University of California, Berkeley (three) in the 2025/2026 academic year, and we continued our commitment to the community through Public Outreach initiatives like Kids Draw.
- Recognition: AIA California recognized our efforts to build and sustain our profession with the prestigious AIA CA Emerging Professionals Chapter Award for facilitating the Christopher Kelley Leadership Development Program, a year-long program in which fourteen of our emerging professionals participated, an effort championed by Board Member Madhubala Ayyamperumal.
- Chapter Operations: Thanks to our dedicated staff, we migrated our member engagement platform to Givebutter to improve our chapter member messaging and engagement.
2026: Looking Ahead
The upcoming year is shaping up to be one of our most significant yet! Planned events include:
- 75th Anniversary Gala: Mark your calendars for the celebration of the 75th anniversary of our chapter’s founding. This milestone event, scheduled for Thursday, April 30, 2026, will be held at the San Jose City Hall Rotunda.
- ai.26 Conference: Our biennial conference, ai.26, is scheduled for Friday, May 15, 2026, and is already shaping up to be a landmark event. Sharon Refvem and Hadley Stevick, our co-chairs, and our enthusiastic committee members are working hard to make this another outstanding event. We will be releasing the full list of speakers and topics soon.
- Our annual Home Tours event is scheduled for Saturday, September 12th. To help you get ready for the tours, the Meet the Architects presentation will take place at our August chapter meeting.
- Strategic Growth: We will focus on initiatives to increase both membership and member participation across all our events. If you have ideas for what else we can do to make your membership more valuable and inspire greater participation, please reach out to us at [email protected].
- Advocacy: We will be stepping up our efforts in Advocacy and Public Outreach. Of particular concern is the U.S. Department of Education’s reclassification of architecture as a “non-professional” degree under the new loan regulations in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would drastically lower federal borrowing limits for graduate students from potentially unlimited (cost of attendance) to around $20,500 annually, creating a major funding gap for costly, multi-year architecture programs and threatening access and diversity in our profession. AIA strongly opposes this limitation.
- Innovation: We will be exploring AI and other tools that can help us reimagine the practice of architecture.
And finally, please join me in welcoming Mary Morris, our 2026 President! We are excited to have Mary at the helm as she leads our chapter toward another successful year.
Thank you for being an active and vital part of AIA Silicon Valley. I look forward to continuing to work with you to make 2026 our best year yet!
Sincerely,
Leticia SooHoo, AIA
2025 AIA Silicon Valley President
