December 13, 2024

AIA New Jersey – 2025 President’s Welcome Message

I am honored to serve as your 2025 American Institute of Architects New Jersey Chapter President. My theme for the 2025 year will be “moving forward.”

As the third African-American President to lead this chapter, I am humbled and honored to continue the legacy of William M. Brown, Jr., AIA, and William M. Brown, III, FAIA, NOMAC.

I offer my extreme gratitude to our immediate past president, Brian Penschow, AIA. I thank him for his passion and leadership in advancing our professional community.

Thanks to the 2024 Board for completing the 2025-2027 Strategic Plan for the organization. The Strategic Plan committee included representatives from all sections and the AIA NJ Board members. We look forward to implementing the strategic plan this year.

As the County Architect for Passaic, I know that government entities directly employing architects demonstrate the value of an architect not only to the legislators but to the public. I will continue to push for our County officials and municipalities to employ architects directly for their organizations.

As an architect working for many years in the public sector, political advocacy is very important to me. This year we will bring back “Hill Day” to engage our state legislators in Trenton, New Jersey. It is crucial that our legislators “see us” and that we continue the dialogue on the state and local levels.

We will continue to encourage our members to engage their mayors with a more personal format of the “Mayors Exchange” planned for this year. Those of you who have engaged our elected officials, thank you, and those who have not, we have work to do.

New Jersey has three accredited schools of architecture. I have worked with the faculty and students at Kean University and the success of that program produces future architects. 

I have been involved with Union College of Union County on the Architectural Advisory Committee working with Susana Sequeira, AIA, to ensure our members and our professional degree programs connect with the NJ community colleges that have programs in architectural design. Students in these programs are the future and important to the growth of AIA New Jersey.

My goal in my Presidency is to keep AIA New Jersey moving forward. Without our sections, there is no state chapter. I promise to continue to strengthen the relationship with our sections and make AIA New Jersey the chapter the entire country looks up to.

Sincerely,

Andrew E. Thompson AIA, NOMAC, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB

President, AIA New Jersey Chapter

By AIANJ | Posted in AIA-NJ News, NJ Architect Newsletter | Tagged: Andrew Thompson AIA | Comments (0)