Message from 2024 President
Hello and Goodbye!!
It’s been my honor to serve you all as President of the Peconic chapter this year. I pass the baton to Benjamin Chaleff, with this letter, for 2025.
I inherited the reins from the very capable Lori Beppu (’23) and Frank Guittard (’22). I am in their debt for setting a clear agenda as well as their continued guidance, thus allowing me to be creative and relevant with our offerings to our membership this year and keep this local chapter of the American Institute of Architects moving forward in uncertain times.
I would be absolutely remiss here not to highlight the beating heart of this organization, Maria Fumai Dietrch, who as Executive Director sees our own capabilities as limitless, and our relevance as universal, in spite of our relatively small size. With her deep background in the cultural nonprofit sphere, Ria celebrates our role as civilizational standard bearers whose leadership in our region, I am sure she believes, is still in its infancy. We think you’re amazing.
My goal as president this year, building on a joint exercise with Maria initiated during my vice presidency to distill our values and priorities, was to position ourselves through the events we produce as community exemplars and stewards of the environment to the populace at large. Internally to our membership, our primary goal is to disperse useful knowledge as a fraternal and sororal organization dedicated to education of professionals of the highest caliber (us!).
I could show you some statistics about the health of our organization. The state of the chapter is strong:
Our membership has grown to 161, and our Allied members now stand at 76.
Our committees, staffed by our membership ‘faithful’ have allowed for some really great events to happen on my watch, including:
- An intimate, pointed discussion about our local community housing crisis jointly hosted by Ben Chaleff and myself with former AIA president Nilay Oza and a panel of experts;
- A film screening and an epic high seas boat tour initiated by board members Lori Beppu and Pamela Glazer, both hosted by the Women in Architecture committee;
- Networking events interspersed throughout the year, including a public exhibition of our ability to distill big ideas onto tiny, unpretentious surfaces in the form of napkin sketches, initiated by Brianna Lopez from our Emerging Professionals committee;
- A scholarship fundraiser, made possible by our capable Golf committee, led by Bob Ortmann, funding the education of future young architects from our region overseen by our Scholarship committee;
- A glittering awards event with a high-powered jury including Deborah Berke and Omar Gandhi, highlighting the best architecture the Hamptons has to offer;
- A discussion on important legal matters as pertains to architects in practice provided by an experienced attorney;
- A talk about the residential works of Alvar Aalto at the Parrish Art Museum given by an eminent professor;
- Outreach at our local secondary schools to get young people interested in the profession of architecture, hosted by Emerging Professionals and members of our board.
If you missed some or all of these events, I encourage you in the new year to come, participate, and make your voice heard. We have some amazing material in the works for 2025 including a design charrette based on our community housing discussion.
As I always say, what you put in is what you get out of AIA.
I have one last request to you all, if you have made it this far in my letter. In this new year I would request that each of you examine closely the work you take in your practices from an ethical standpoint. One aspect of working in our region is that we sometimes come in contact with people whose goals may not align with our AIA values and priorities, considering the sustainable communities we live in and the delicate environment we love. It may be tempting to take this work because of the fees associated with it. At the very least, we should consider how we might positively affect these people’s opinions about these local concerns as we work for them.
There is simply a power as AIA architects in saying NO to work that says volumes about what we think about where we live and what we want to leave as a legacy to our children and ensuing generations.
Think about it.
Yours truly,
Edgar Papazian
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