A Message from the Executive Director

Dear Members, Partners and Friends,

AIA is pleased to share with you our 2022 Annual Report. The year started with continuing COVID concerns, causing event disruptions and a decision to extend our strategic plan one more year, rather than try to plan extensively in a time of uncertainty. Our major events – Build Pittsburgh and Design Pittsburgh – were happily held in-person. While attendance was not back to 2019 levels, there was a robust turnout for both and an energetic vibe of a community reuniting.

We continued to seek ways of building relationships and collaborating. We were quite successful with the introduction of Architecture Week (14 partners), the reintroduction of PechaKucha Night, the AIA-MBA Owners Roundtable, the AIA-GBA Mass Timber series, the AIA-ULI event, “Built by Women: How would women design cities differently?,” and support of the reception for the Daniel Libeskind presentation at CMU, among other events.

Internally, our biggest project was a much-needed website redesign. The new website went live in November and we will continue to add material and features. We now have an easy to find Calendar of Events, an easier to use Job Board, a simpler way to search decades of news and blog stories, and a super fun “Back in the Day” digital archive of COLUMNS magazine from 1987-2011. Each AIA Committee now has its own page, so check out what issues and topics are being worked on and take action on issues you care about - join a committee! You can follow the growth of the Pittsburgh Architecture Foundation (PAF) on its new web page, and view PAF’s exciting new logo.

After three years of reacting to many external forces, we ended the year with a concerted effort to look ahead, way ahead. The Board held a Strategic Foresight Workshop in December, exploring scenarios for the future of the architecture profession in 2035. The top two issues that surfaced were climate change and the impact of technology / AI on the field. These and other identified issues will feed into our planning for the years ahead so we not only deliver programs and services on what is happening today, but also prepare our members for tomorrow.

As always, thank you for being part of the AIA Pittsburgh community,

Michelle Fanzo Executive Director