2025 President’s Letter

Dear members and friends of the AIASVC chapter,

Happy New Year! As we welcome 2025, I want to take a moment to reflect on our journey over the past year and share our plans for the year ahead.

2024 Recap:

  • 2024 was filled with incredible accomplishments, thanks to the dedication and leadership of our past president, Brent McClure, and the entire board.
  • We welcomed 452 new and reinstated members into our community, enriching our diverse perspectives and comradeship.
  • Our attendance at the AIA Leadership Summit in DC was significant as we advocated for key legislation that impacts our profession and your interests. We lobbied successfully for lifting the statutory fee limit for architectural and engineering services from 6% to 10% for fee-based federal Department of Defense (DoD) projects, and advocated for the importance of not imposing architectural style mandates on federal GSA buildings.
  • We hosted various engaging building presentations and tours, including the visit to Adobe’s Founders Tower in San Jose, Intuit in Mountain View, and Sunnyvale City Hall.
  • Our ai.24 Symposium was hugely successful, providing learning opportunities and networking for our members and members of the industry-at-large for about 250 attendees. The symposium covered 12 sessions under Sustainability, Equity and Inspiration and served as a signature learning and networking event for the chapter.
  • We hosted Sustaining Partner and social / network events throughout the year to engage to continue to build a community of our members and partners.
  • The Golf Tournament was a success this year, with many attending filling up the event at capacity.
  • We completed the Christopher Kelley Leadership Development Program (CKLDP) and brought together 13 emerging architects from diverse backgrounds for a year-long series of sessions focused on leadership skills such as entrepreneurship, collaboration, and client development. The inaugural cohort benefited from scholarship support and came from a variety of firm sizes, including solo practices. The program not only advanced their professional growth, with many achieving career milestones, but also marked a significant milestone as AIA Silicon Valley became the first West Coast chapter to implement the CKLDP pilot program.

2025 and Beyond:

  • More Engagement and Advocacy: Our goal for this year is to further strengthen engagement between new and long-time members, emerging professionals and seasoned practitioners, local communities and governments, and partners in the construction industry through events and advocacy.
  • Help solve local issues through participation: we are the experts in the built environment. I am hoping on a chapter level, we can engage various cities within our region to start conversations about pressing issues such as housing shortage, homelessness,  and urban blight and see how architects can be part of the solution.
  • Future of the Profession: Bring architects to the table to help make important decisions regarding our future, such as climate action, housing affordability, and sustainable development while also mentoring and supporting the next generation of leaders of the architectural profession.
  • Strategic Plan update: We are developing a new strategic plan that reflects our vision going forward for the next five years and addresses the changing and diverse interests of our profession.
  • Committees: Our chapter will restart the Advocacy Committee and also are in the process of starting a new one, the Design and Practice Committee, which along with our other active committees will continue to work diligently to deliver content and events for you. You can view each committee’s description here. Please feel free to contact us if you want to volunteer for any of these committees!
  • Design freedom: with the current administration proposing an executive order to make revisions that mandate architectural design preferences, AIA has strong concerns that mandating architecture styles stifles innovation and harms local communities. AIA is actively reviewing the White House’s executive orders and will keep our members apprised as we prioritize the interests of the profession and our impact on society. Locally on the chapter level, I am hoping our members will advocate the design of federal buildings must first be responsive to the site context, and communities who will use those buildings, not adhering to a certain architectural style.

As always, we are thankful for our chapter and our event sponsors’ generous support and participation. We look forward to continuing our partnership and seeing you at our events in 2025.

Thank you again for being part of the AIASVC community! Please reach out to me and the board here for any questions you may have or thoughts you’d like to share.

Here’s to another year of connection, growth, and collaboration! Wishing you and your loved ones a joyful and prosperous 2025.

Sincerely,

Leticia SooHoo, AIA
2025 President

2023 President's Letter

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