Press Releases

New York City, December 14, 2021 – On Thursday, December 9, 2021, AIA New York welcomed its 2022 Board of Directors at the Board Inaugural. Executive Director Benjamin Prosky, Assoc. AIA, and Immediate Past President Kenneth A. Lewis, AIA, began the evening by celebrating this year’s achievements, particularly in light of this year’s challenges and uncertainties. Following the passing of the gavel, incoming 2022 President Andrea Lamberti, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB, discussed her presidential theme, Just Practice.

2022 PRESIDENTIAL THEME – JUST PRACTICE

Lamberti’s 2022 Presidential Theme, Just Practice, encourages practitioners to leverage the profession’s capacity for lifelong learning to do better, working together to build a more just and equitable future. “For many of us who are lucky enough,” said Lamberti, “the decades needed to build and contribute to a professional practice offer the opportunity for continued professional and personal growth and reinvention.”

In her inaugural speech, Lamberti invited AIANY members to dedicate 2022 to join her in learning about several issues, with the goal of better understanding how a Just Practice can improve equity outcomes across communities. Lamberti invited members to come together to learn about how public funds are distributed for civic and community infrastructure and how incentives for private development can be crafted to improve equity across the city. She called for the chapter’s membership to continue to focus on issues surrounding affordable housing and homelessness and to continue the work outlined in the chapter’s statement calling on architects to cease the design of spaces of incarceration. Noting how resilience continues to elude us, Lamberti also encouraged chapter members to deepen their understanding of green, living infrastructure “that can not only contribute to a better and more sustainable planet but also to a more just and fair realm for historically underserved communities.”

After addressing these large-scale issues, Lamberti invited members to advance these goals through the daily activities of practice. She asked, “As citizens and practitioners privileged with professional degrees, how can we ensure that our cohort becomes more reflective of our population as a whole?” In 2022, the chapter will focus on the pipeline toward licensure by supporting K-12 initiatives, by building on the Chapter’s career discovery program, by continuing AIANY’s partnership with nycoba|NOMA, and by establishing a mechanism to connect New York area firms with architecture departments at historically black colleges and universities.

“We must be bold in our endeavors to improve, not only the quality resulting from our output, but also our behavior, so that it reflects our aspirations for a more inclusive and welcoming profession,” concluded Lamberti. “How can we be the people we mean to be? Just practice Just Practice.”

CHAPTER RECOGNITION

The inaugural also served as an opportunity to recognize members and projects of the architecture and design community for their contributions. AIANY’s Vice Presidents recognized the Chapter’s program committees with Vice Presidential Citations for contributions in each of the organization’s mission areas: design excellence, public outreach, and professional development.

AIANY Vice Presidential Citations
AIANY Citation for Design Excellence: “Future of Cultural Centers” program series, organized by the AIANY Cultural Facilities Committee
AIANY Citation for Public Outreach: “Fight or Flight” program series, organized by the AIANY Design for Risk and Reconstruction Committee
AIANY Citation for Professional Development: AIANY Custom Residential Architects Network
 

THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS NEW YORK 2022 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President
Andrea Lamberti, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB
Rafael Viñoly Architects

First Vice President / President-Elect
Matthew Bremer, AIA
Architecture in Formation

Vice President for Design Excellence
Hana Kassem, AIA, LEED AP
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Vice President for Professional Development
David Leven, FAIA
LEVENBETTS

Vice President for Public Outreach
Rocco Giannetti, FAIA, LEED AP ID+C, NCARB
Gensler

Secretary
Scott Briggs, AIA
Lee H. Skolnick Architecture & Design Partners

Treasurer
Kathy Chia, FAIA
Desai Chia Architecture

Director
Bruce Eisenberg, FAIA
New York City Housing Authority

Director
Benjamin Gilmartin, AIA
Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Director
Vivian Lee, FAIA
Woods Bagot

Director
Peter Miller, AIA
Palette Architecture

Director
Gustavo Rodriguez, AIA
FXCollaborative

Director
Pascale Sablan, FAIA, NOMA, LEED AP
Adjaye Associates

Director
Gregory Switzer, AIA, NOMA, NCARB
Gregory Switzer Architecture

Director
Richard Yancey, FAIA, LEED AP, NCARB
Building Energy Exchange

Director
Ayodele Yusuf, Assoc. AIA
Perkins Eastman

Public Director
Amale Andraos
WORKac; Columbia GSAPP

Public Director
Fiona Cousins, PE, CEng, LEED Fellow
ARUP

Public Director
Ifeoma Ebo
Creative Urban Alchemy

Public Director, Oculus Advisor
Lisa Green
Selldorf Architects

Public Director
Jha D. Williams
MASS Design Group

Student Director
Nicole Bass
Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, CCNY

Immediate Past President
Kenneth A. Lewis, AIA
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Executive Director
Benjamin Prosky, Assoc. AIA

About Andrea Lamberti, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Since joining Rafael Viñoly Architects 20 years ago, Andrea Lamberti has been involved in every aspect the practice, from project conceptualization to project delivery, marketing and business development. She has overseen projects through all phases of work, from master planning and brief development to scheme design, detail design, and construction administration. Her experience with clients in a broad range of sectors—education, research, healthcare; cultural, performing arts, civic, commercial, and corporate—has taken her across the United States and around the world, including the United Arab Emirates, China, and Singapore. Lamberti is actively involved in the firm’s research, education, and publication efforts, overseeing release of a 2011 monograph and Pressures and Distortions. Lamberti received a Master of Architecture from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

About AIA New York
Founded in 1857, AIA New York is the oldest and largest chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The Chapter’s members include 5,500 practicing architects, allied professionals, students, and public members interested in architecture and design. AIA New York is dedicated to three goals: design excellence, public outreach, and professional development. www.aiany.org