Dear AIA Baltimore members,

Happy New Year! We are once again poised at the start of a new calendar facing both uncertainty and promise for the year to come. Firstly, my hope is that you and yours are in good health and spirits as we navigate this most current wave of the pandemic.

As an organization, AIA Baltimore begins the year navigating substantial change as we search for our new executive director. It is, however, a change eased by the existence of our new strategic plan update for 2022-2024. Thank you to everyone who participated in the update. It functions as a touchstone to guide us both in our leadership transition and beyond.

We have aligned our mission statement more closely with AIA National while ensuring it reflects the character of our chapter:

 AIA Baltimore inspires and empowers architects and designers throughout the Baltimore region to engage with communities to improve society and transform the world through the built environment. We drive positive change through the power of design and focused activism. 

We seek to fulfill our mission by targeting four goals:

• Advance justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the profession and built environment
• Develop the Center for Architecture and Design as a new cultural institution for the design community and the public
• Advocate at the local level on key issues including climate change and impacts of the built environment
• Provide exemplary core member services

Having just completed strategic planning positions us to clearly communicate our intentions as an organization to candidates for our next Executive Director. We have formed a Search Committee with representatives from AIA Baltimore, BAF, and MDASLA to solicit and evaluate candidates and to coordinate between organizations for smooth interim operations. Scott McGovern, AIA, our Immediate Past President, is chairing this committee. Please thank him for his continued commitment to leadership via the search committee in addition to his dedication as our chapter president during last year’s sesquicentennial.

We are also exceptionally grateful for our wonderful staff during this transition. Nathan, Margaret, and Olivia will be taking on extra responsibilities for several weeks, and I ask that everyone help support them with your patience, appreciation, and by budgeting extra time for requests.

2022 will be a year with big changes for our organization, both in leadership and hopefully further opportunities for in-person programming at The Center for Architecture and Design. If you’ve joined us there for an event in 2021, you’ve seen the promise of that venue for convening important and meaningful conversations about design, our built environment, and our profession. If you haven’t, it is my sincere hope that you’re able to join us there in 2022. Until then, we look forward to your continued collaboration this year, whether that be through virtual, hybrid, or in-person programming.

Thank you!

Laura Wheaton, AIA, LEED AP bd+c, Associate

2022 AIA Baltimore President