And that’s a wrap.
It is hard to believe it has been a year, but serving as your president has been a humble and enjoyable experience. I started the year with an agenda around four core initiatives: Be of Service, Become Engaged, Make Connections, and Grow Relationships. These initiatives were to allow you, an AIA member, to be active and participate at all levels with your AIA chapter and other components of AIA.
The success of AIA Dallas relies on our AIA members – you – along with our allied members, sponsors, and our hard-working staff. Several staff members have moved on or retired, and I express my thanks to Cathy, Katie, and Cristina for your more than 3 decades of combined service to AIA Dallas. We also have some wonderful additions to our evolving staff, welcoming Cindy, Sarah, and Adriana this year, and Julia, who will start with us in January. And we have the core staff that has served us for many years – Elizabeth, Conleigh, Liane, Preston, and Zaida! They have all been the backbone of our organization and support AIA Dallas and the Architecture and Design Foundation.
The year has been busy, and I would like to highlight a few areas at the core of our success. We attended the AIA Leadership Summit in Washington DC in February and AIA Dallas received a Presidential Citation commemorating the 100th anniversary of our charter which originally covered the North Texas.
The golf tournament was expanded for the first time to two complete courses and was highlighted-actually darkened!- by a full solar eclipse. The experience was great, and we will return to Trophy Club in 2025. I hope you will join us! As an annual tradition, our honors and community awards in the spring showcased our best firms and projects in the region, and we recognized Jeff Potter, FAIA, as the recipient of the AIA Dallas Lifetime Achievement Award. I am looking forward to presenting his medal in January at our upcoming Architecture Gala at the Winspear Opera House. That will be a fun evening!
We were proud to celebrate the 50th anniversary of KRob, a program unique to AIA Dallas that showcases and recognizes some of the best in architectural delineation. In addition, our Columns Magazine, the only chapter in the AIA network with a full volunteer editorial team, successfully transitioned to an all-digital platform to complement our transition to a new AIA Dallas website. We also launched our greatly anticipated Advanced Leadership Development Program (ADLP) in August, providing an opportunity for firm leaders to learn through a series of mini-MBA-type sessions.
For me, the continued expansion of our Architecture Matters series and adding a new series, Firm Fridays, was essential to reinforce the four initiatives that have expanded the programming for our members, particularly our emerging professionals and the next generation of architects. I thank the five firms, Gensler, BRW Architects, Malone Maxwell Dennehy Architects, JHP, and DSGN, for being our charter firms for 2024 and making this a widely successful new program for our members. We have already filled the seven firms for Firm Fridays in 2025; be sure to join us next year at one of these Friday afternoon socials and learn about the firms that make up our chapter.
We closed the year with a slate of awards and recognitions during our two holiday parties at the AD EX in Dallas as well as with our Northeast Texas members at the Greyhound Inn in Tyler, and I expressed my sincere thanks to all of the board members who served alongside me and made 2024 a success. Lastly, for the first time in the history of AIA Dallas, we brought together 23 of our living 33 past presidents for an evening of sharing memories and camaraderie. It was a memorable evening, and I look forward to building on this in the future.
As I move on to new endeavors, I leave AIA Dallas in a good place with growing membership, evolving programming, and elevating the membership experience for the long term. Our incoming president, Mattia Flabbiano, AIA, has assembled his board of leaders and drivers who will continue to achieve our strategic goals and mission – “to advance the transformational power of architecture.”
Yesterday, I was learning. Today, I have been leading. Tomorrow, I will be leveraging and encouraging the next generation of architects and leaders to do their best for the profession and their careers.
I will not be venturing as far as I continue to engage in different roles within AIA Dallas and the Texas Society of Architects, in parallel with my new role as incoming vice chair for the National AIA Regional and Urban Design Committee. My focus will be elevating a vital part of our family of AIA knowledge communities focused on urban design and raising awareness through committees and networks offered locally, regionally, and nationally.
Thank you again for letting me serve you and for joining me in elevating the architecture profession in Dallas and making a difference. I wish you all a safe and enjoyable holiday, and I look forward to seeing you all in 2025!
Peter Darby AIA
2024 AIA Dallas President