2022 AIA Dallas President Greeting

I write to you to offer my hopes for this our chapter’s 75th anniversary year. I imagine many of us begin this year looking back at what we’ve accomplished and forward to what is to come.

Our Chapter is entering a third year of re-defining how we engage our membership and the public and I’m most excited by our resiliency. We benefitted greatly from the dedicated work of our staff and committees, enabling us to continue our mission as shapers of the built environment. They continually integrated new methods to serve our membership and realize our objectives. We will continue to do so with more in-person gathering, fully mindful of developments during this health crisis. A primary aim for this year will be to add new operational capabilities to support the Chapter’s advocacy and member engagement efforts.

We will chart a way forward, expanding on a history of progress far longer that the last 24 months. We begin the year with our ongoing Strategic Planning process, looking to craft the tactics that will guide the Chapter for the next five years. These initiatives will be shaped by the core values emerging from the first phase of the planning process: be transparent and accountable / be bold and innovative / be equitable and inclusive / be accessible. The forward thinking in these values is fitting for a discipline that thrives on innovation.

Our work is the manifestation of ideas and dreams that can uplift, but also demand much of our communities and environment to realize. We must work harder to balance that equation. We will broaden outreach to help our professional ranks more effectively reflect the full spectrum of talent available. We will also expand our education and knowledge communities to encourage our peers to address the plateau in performance on our 2030 Challenge among other critical issues.

Through it all, these are the values of the optimist in us that still longs to build, to create and impact our community and to fulfill our mission to transform the world around us. We are blessed with a robust economic outlook giving us the tools to address our challenges. They may feel insurmountable for a populace with more awareness of our differences, but we are endowed with more ways than ever to create community and highlight our shared prospects.

That future is now. That future is in need of the gifts we as designers, builders and dreamers have to offer. So, with anticipation and resolve I say to you all:

Onward,

Ben Crawford, AIA
2022 AIA Dallas President