On Tuesday, December 10, 2013 more than 160 members, sponsors and guests gathered at the Kala Art Gallery for the AIA East Bay Annual Member Appreciation Party and Annual Business Meeting. During the evening, the following members were elected to the 2014 Board of Directors:
Malvin Whang, AIA, Vice President/President-Elect
Andre Ptaszynski, AIA, AIACC Representative
Susi Marzuola, AIA, Director at-large
Winston Win, AIA, Director at-large
Peter Wolfe, Allied Member, Director at-large
Derrick Porter, Assoc. AIA, Associate Director
Raphael Wade, Student Member, Student Director
In addition to chapter elections, attendees heard briefly from Newell Arnerich, AIA, who is running for the California Assembly. He stressed the importance of having an architect in the Assembly, citing, among other reasons, the need for policy change within the DSA to improve approval times.
2013 Chapter President Andre Ptaszynski, AIA, proudly announced that as of November 30th, AIA East Bay had surpassed AIA Orange County in membership, making it the third-largest chapter in California. Only Los Angeles and San Francisco are larger. This growth is due to the strong leadership and involvement of its members over the past ten years, many of those who were in attendance.
Ptaszynski awarded a presidential citation to Kurt Lavenson, AIA, explaining, "Our chapter's home tours program is only three years old, but it already has quite a public following. Much of that is due to Kurt's leadership. " He quoted the home tours committee which described Kurt:
"An excellent writer, an amazing team leader, always positive, great sense of humor, straight forward, doesn't let anything slide, detail oriented while keeping the big picture in mind, great people skills, energetic and infectiously enthusiastic, opinionated and flexible (great combination) - in short, he's got the attributes of a great architect. It'll be hard for anybody to fill the role he shaped; hopefully he'll keep doing it for a while."
Recent past president Anthony Cataldo, AIA was warmly thanked for his many years of service to the chapter-having served on the Board for more than ten years! Ptaszynski noted that he was grateful to Anthony for mentoring him during his transition to Chapter president, and added, "...he has been a steadfast, thoughtful, sage adviser. While this is his last year on the Board, we'll still get the benefit of his leadership, as he continues on as chair of our repositioning task force."
The Historic Preservation Committee--represented that evening by Betsy Yost, AIA (chair), Charles Bucher, AIA, and Joann Pavlinec, Assoc. AIA--were lauded for their continued energy and work in historic preservation education, outreach and advocacy. In 2014 they'll be releasing a guide booklet of Oakland restaurants that can be found in historic buildings.
Also recognized were the Emerging Professionals Committee (Kanika Brown, Assoc. AIA, Derrick Porter, Assoc. AIA, Cameron Toler, Assoc. AIA and Mylanie Ventanilla, Assoc. AIA). "From their volunteer work with habitat for humanity, to hosting a sold-out resume/portfolio review night, to building a parklet in under a day-they are an active group. And they aren't stopping-join them for pizza and pinball on Monday night to celebrate their plans for the New Year!"
Finally, Joel Carico, AIA, Sanjiv Bhandari, AIA, and Meera Paul, Assoc. AIA were thanked for their work over the years on the Events Committee. Over the past eighteen months this group has evolved into what is now the Design Tours Committee-please join current members Winston Win, AIA, Nathan Hills, AIA and Mike McCutcheon, Allied Member on the second Friday of each month to develop new building tours for the profession and the public.
