AIA Los Angeles
Committee Overview
Architecture in Healthcare Committee
Striving to educate and inspire the healthcare design and planning communities.
Chair: Kevin Staten, AIA
Vice Chair: Ken Dowling, Assoc. AIA
Building & Performance Committee
Building performance is at the heart of designing for people and their environment.
Recent technological advancements in conjunction with progressive regulations hold the promise of increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and the overall wellness of occupants.
Our committee’s mission is to enhance our membership’s understanding of building science and building code with the goal of implementing effective design strategies that elevate building performance and occupant wellness. The committee advocates internally for increased design focus on building performance and advocates externally to project stakeholders and regulatory bodies that influence the statutory environment in which we work.
Co-Chair: Mark Oberholzer, AIA
Co-Chair: Lisa Canoy, AIA, NCARB
Committee on the Environment [COTE]
The Committee on The Environment (COTE) works to advance, disseminate, and advocate design practices that enhance the design quality and the environmental performance of the built environment. COTE serves the community as the local voice of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institutes of Architects (AIA) regarding sustainable design.
Chair: Tommy Zandi, AIA
Vice Chair: Brendan Townes Bailey, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, LFA
The Design Awards recognizes excellence in architecture and design as submitted by AIA members for projects either in the Los Angeles area or designed by members of the LA Chapter anywhere.
Chair: Alyce Wallace, Assoc. AIA
Vice Chair: Hansol Park, AIA, LEED AP
Emerging Professionals Committee
Capitalizing on our members’ limitless energy and imagination, AIA|LA Emerging Professionals (EP) is a dynamic resource for people looking for support in the early stages of their architecture and design careers. Connecting young architects licensed up to ten years, people working towards licensure, and students, AIA|LA EP offers a variety of events including ARE preparation, mentorship, volunteer projects, and opportunities to relax and socialize.
Chair: Morgan Sumner, Assoc. AIA
Vice Chair: Cynthia Sigler, AIA
Fellows Nominating & Mentoring Committee
The Fellows Nominating & Mentoring Committee recognizes Architects’ success and achievements that impact the profession and/or society deemed far over and above the norms of the practice.
This committee meets at least five times a year to discuss potential candidates, determine nominees to put forward from AIA Los Angeles, mentor candidates through the submission process, and ensure that submittals are complete by the deadline.
Once AIA National announces the annual slate of Fellows, the Fellows Committee hosts a reception for newly elevated Chapter members. We hope to return to Bulthaup in 2024. We’ll also be discussing another joint event with Emerging Professionals to take place next year.
Co-Chair: Krista Becker, FAIA
Co-Chair: John Mutlow, FAIA
Governmental Outreach Committee [AIAGO!]
The Governmental Outreach Committee (GO) mission is to help establish a political voice for architects
and perform leadership outreach to policy makers and elected officials on matters of importance to AIA|LA and its membership.
Co-Chair: Carlos Augusto Garcia, AIA
Co-Chair: John Arnold, AIA
Historic Resources Committee [HRC]
The Historic Resources Committee serves as a forum for celebrating repurposed built environments that are a continuity between yesterday, today, and tomorrow, preserving places, stories, and diversity. While acknowledging that much of LA’s architectural heritage includes a diverse legacy of world-renowned landmarks actively being preserved, the mission of this committee focuses on historic preservation through adaptive reuse. Expressly stated, we aim to highlight historic preservation that is both sustainably-driven and future-oriented.
Chair: Justine Leong, AIA
Vice Chair: Gabriel Cervantes, AIA
Interior Architecture Committee
The mission of the Interior Architercture committee is to use discussions of interior building spaces as a starting point for the exploration of creativity, design process, and cross-discipline collaboration. We seek ways to connect people to their environment while strengthening the community of designers, constructors, and vendors.
Chair: Suma Spina, AIA
Vice Chair: Severine Tatangelo, Intl. Assoc. AIA
Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity Committee [J.E.D.I.]
The J.E.D.I Committee seeks to advance issues of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusivity within the architecture profession. The committee can find itself most productive as a body to listen and understand the deeper issues, to facilitate and inspire commitment and action, to develop programs and initiatives that influence mission-congruent decisions, and to demonstrate progress through findings of measuring, reporting, and accountability tools.
Co-Chair AIA: Arman Massahi, AIA
Vice Chair NOMA: Breana Weaver
Professional Practice Committee
The mission of the AIA|LA Practice Committee is to advance the knowledge and skills of architects and emerging professionals to enable a better understanding of and ability to adapt to the changing landscape impacting the practice of Architecture.
Today’s AEC industry must grapple with rapid technological change in the tools and process of design, project delivery methods, construction techniques and processes, and new and constantly changing building materials, products and systems. Parallel to these rapid technological changes, changes in the economic, environmental, governmental, and legal environment and lifestyle changes add additional and challenging layers of complexity to the design and construction process, all of which impact our practices in ways that are not readily apparent. We aim for the AIA|LA Practice Committee to be a forum for discussion, thinking, and sharing of information and ideas to help architects adapt and evolve their practice and manage risk in this complex and fast-changing environment.
Chair: Michael Chang, AIA
Vice Chair: Anne Algaze, AIA, CID, LEED AP, IIDA
The goal of the Urban Design Committee is to better understand and better wrangle with the contemporary challenges of urbanization in Los Angeles and to serve as professional advocates for a more functional, equitable, and useable city.
Chair: Jonathan Rieke, AIA
Vice Chair: Kelly Nicholas, AIA
Women in Architecture Committee [WiA]
Advancing Gender Equity in Architecture: In 2016, the Women in Architecture (WiA) Committee developed from a strong desire to empower and promote positive change for women in the field of architecture, heavily fueled by the influential POWERFUL conference series.
WiA maintains a focus of embracing diversity through inclusion, encouraging professional growth through networking and interactions, promoting leadership and offering career guidance, endorsing community outreach, and providing support to women in their career development in architecture. And actively seeks collaborations with other groups and individuals who have similar goals.
Co-Chair: Alexandria Hoevel, AIA
Co-Chair: Sarah Jacobson, AIA
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Architecture for Communities Los Angeles (ACLA)
ACLA Communication Committee
ACLA Communications Committee seeks to amplify awareness of the ACLA’s mission and activities in the Los Angeles region through outreach to the public, media, and AEC community.
Co-Chair: Melanie Ryan
Co-Chair: Sigita Moran
2×8 Exhibition & Scholarship Committee
2×8 is an annual, non-profit scholarship program, design competition, and exhibition. It celebrates exemplary academic diversity within California, provides students exposure to the architecture, engineering and construction industry, and encourages local communities to engage in the dialogue of design.
Co-Chair: Athenna Lim
Co-Chair: Victor Macias, Assoc. AIA
Community Engagement Committee
Seeks to establish the ACLA as a trusted and accessible resource for communities in LA for all matters of architecture. Partners with neighborhoods and communities on events that can promote the value of design, address community needs, and introduce careers in architecture to students throughout the city.
Chair: Citlalli Castillo Gonzalez, AIA
Design by Diversity [DxD] Committee
DxD Day is the once-yearly event organized by the Design by Diversity Committee of the ACLA that connects professionals to students across many experience levels to inspire interest in design professions at a young age and encourage retention of diverse design professionals at all stages of their career. The Block Party-style event will include a variety of ways to engage, from information and activity booths to mentoring sessions, exhibitions, speakers, and more.
Co-Chair: Alise Robles, Assoc. AIA
Co-Chair: Pema Wangzome
