by Ida Antoniolli Clair, AIA, LEED®AP BD+C, CASp
State Architect | Incoming 2022 Chapter President
In the midst of the holiday season, while we shop for family and friends, we know that the size of the package does not always reveal the value of the gift. This too is true for the spaces we inhabit, as the size of the space does not reflect the expanse of its influence. Keeping this in mind, when presented with an opportunity, and after much discussion, the AIA Central Valley Board has made the decision to relocate our Chapter office to 1400 S Street.
I understand that many of you may be doing a double-take on the address. Aren’t we already at 1400 S Street? This is true, and thus explains the opportunity with which we have been presented, which began with a year-long reflection on who we are as an organization and culminated with the AIACV Board’s decision to relocate to a smaller suite in the same building where we are presently located.
In 2020, the pandemic presented to us an involuntary experiment on how to deliver member support services, quality programming in alignment with our Strategic Plan, and community engagement in a virtual format. Going dark was not option, so our team: a resourceful Executive Director, our dedicated committee chairs and a strategically-minded AIACV Board, successfully persevered in maintaining effective and quality programming—including delivery of our annual signature community outreach event, Experience Architecture, in a virtual format. In 2021, amid continued uncertainty with the pandemic, our architect and allied members, along with our loyal Sustaining Partners, again supported AIACV with their membership dollars and the team delivered once again. We planned optimistically for physical engagement and became adept at pivoting to a virtual format at a moment’s notice. We’ve become increasingly nimble and have come to appreciate what flexibility can do for our membership. We’ve also come to the realization that our hefty monthly lease hinders our ability for continued nimbleness and may not be the best use of funds during these ever-changing times.
The Board is charged with responsible stewardship of member resources. It is through the trials and successes of the pandemic that we realized we can do more with the resources given to us. In the past two years few members have visited the Chapter office, and even prior to the pandemic, the spaces that had been in continuous effective use were the staff offices; the gallery space was mostly used for committee meetings, while the support spaces have been used as storage. While we had anticipated that 2022 would bring continued discussion on whether to extend our lease, we were presented with an opportunity to be released from our lease a year early. One of our member firms was looking for space on the R Street corridor, and coincidentally, a smaller space became available in our building. The Board seized this opportunity to remain on the R Street corridor, downsize, and preserve our presence at the same physical address. Additionally, the decision to relocate was made with great respect to the foresight and commitment key members made over 10 years ago in securing our present space, and we are pleased that a member firm will have an architectural space rich with AIACV history. With an anticipated savings of approximately $60,000 per year, we will be able to secure AIACV’s future and establish a plan for our wish list: additional staff for increased programming, the ability to explore the potential establishment of an Architectural Foundation, and perhaps even investing in ourselves by saving to purchase a Chapter Office that can be imagined into a regional design center.
Building upon our experience of providing programs in both virtual format and in-person, the Board intends to launch a new initiative in 2022, currently named “AIA Meets Here.” Whether in-person or virtual, we seek to demonstrate that the identity of AIACV resides in its members. Our plan is to bring AIACV in-person programming to our member firms and to signature spaces created by our members in the AIA Central Valley. This gives us an opportunity to expand our outreach and greater facilitate member and community engagement to better serve our membership as a whole; including those members who live and work outside of the Sacramento metropolitan area.
The AIACV Board recognizes that this is a monumental decision and want to ensure members that this thoughtful decision was not made in haste. We have established a virtual meeting on Thursday, January 6th to answer member questions related to both our relocation and the AIA Meets Here approach. To attend, please register here.
As your incoming President of our Chapter, I look forward to the opportunities that will result from this transition. Together, with the phenomenal members of the 2022 AIACV Board, and the support of past AIACV leadership, we will continue to evolve, grow and forge a new future for AIA Central Valley.