Committees of AIA|LA
Committee Overview
To champion the transformation of existing buildings through innovative adaptive reuse strategies that advance AIA|LA’s commitment to sustainability, design excellence, and urban revitalization.
Through education, advocacy, and collaboration, we honor our city’s past while building its future.
We advocate for policies that encourage adaptive reuse, provide educational resources and networking opportunities for architects and designers, and promote Los Angeles as a leader in sustainable urban renewal—advancing our chapter’s commitment to climate action, our rich heritage, and community resilience.
Architecture in Healthcare Committee
Striving to educate and inspire the healthcare design and planning communities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
