President’s Message

Rostrum 2012

AIA Newark and Suburban Architects A Section of AIA New Jersey

AIA New Jersey is a Chapter and Region of the American Institute of Architects

JANUARY 2012

Issue 1

The Rostrum

The official newsletter of

the Newark & Suburban

Section of AIA-NJ

Published monthly

Submit events, case

studies, photos, comments,

or other content for

consideration to:

rostrum.ns.aia@gmail.com

President’s Message 1

Upcoming Events 1

Mentorship NOW 2

Regional Director’s Report

3

Toys for Tots Success 4

Inside this issue:

January Events

The evening of January 21,

2012, the AIA Newark & Suburban Past Presidents

banquet will be held at the Manor in West Orange, NJ.

Sponsorship information is available. If you haven’t

received your invitation in the mail, you can register: http://www.aians.org/event/2012-past-presidents-banquet

Citizen Architect Taskforce meeting to be held at the

Publick House in Chester, NJ at 6 PM on Tuesday, 10

January 2012. Interested? For more information contact Judy Donnelly, AIA

or Ken Fox, AIA.

me to meet a dynamic group

of professionals committed

to serving its members as

well as to the advancement

o f the a r ch i te c tu ra l

profession. It is the goal of

the Newark and Suburban

Architects Officers and

Trustees to encourage

awareness of the profession

through education and

fellowship. So I encourage

the membership to attend

our general meetings,

educational opportunities,

and special events planned

throughout the year.

I am excited about the New

Year and welcome the

opportunity to meet more of

you – our members. Please

take the time to visit with

me at one of our general

meetings. I welcome the

opportunity to learn your

thoughts and ideas about

Newark and Suburban.

Finally, I want to thank my

predecessor, Yogesh Mistry,

AIA, who did a magnificent

job in 2011. I will welcome

his support, insight, and

guidance in 2012.

Kevin

McCormick,

AIA, LEED®AP,

AIANS

President,

2012.

Happy New Year! I am

honored to be the President

of Newark and Suburban

Architects for 2012. I hope

it is a prosperous year for

our organization and all of

our members. I look

forward to the events we

have planned for the

upcoming year and hope to

see a lot of new faces.

I was born, raised and have

lived my whole life in New

Jersey. I am a graduate

from the School of

Architecture at NJIT and

practiced architecture for

nearly ten years. For eight

years now I have worked

wi th Skanska – an

international construction

management firm with its

US headquarters based in

Parsippany. I am married,

have two young children and

now live in Millington.

As a member of the Newark

and Suburban Board, I have

had the opportunity to serve

as Trustee, Secretary, First

Vice-President and President

-Elect. Over the past few

years I have been involved

in the planning of our annual

G o l f O u t i n g a n d

CANstruction competition. I

have found participating on

the Board to be a rewarding

experience. It has enabled

CoAD Alumni Pay it Forward through Mentorship NOW

minority of the associate membership, as people deal

creatively with the recession by inventing their own jobs.

For those on a traditional

career path, the seminars will provide a refreshing

point of view by informing attendees on topics not

usually emphasized in current practice.

If you are interested

becoming involved or donating your time (or

money), please contact e ither Cla ir Wholean

clairmarie@gmail.com, or J o h n C w i k l a a t

jacaianj@verizon.net

CoAD Alumni involved in Mentorship NOW:

Priya Shah Assoc. AIA, LEED AP BD+C, NJIT B. Arch. 2007

Jason Peist, Assoc. AIA, NJIT B. Arch. Fall 2008

Donna Miller, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP BD&C, NJIT B. Arch. 2009

Jennifer Mortensen Carson, Assoc. AIA, NJIT M. Arch. 2011

Ian Siegel, Past President of AIAS at NJIT, Current Student in B. Arch. (Expected 2012)

Mentorship NOW Planning Team volunteers:

Clair Wholean, AIA, NCARB, LEED GA, AIA-NJ Regional Associate Director 2011-2012

John Cwikla, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, First V.P. NS, &

Emerging Professionals Chair

Jerome Leslie Eben, AIA, AIANJ Regional Director

Nicole DeCandia, Assoc. AIA, IDP Coordinator, NJ

John Kanengieter, Assoc. AIA, EIT, LEED AP

Peter Kozielski, AIA

Jason Lutz, Assoc. AIA

Lauren Thomson, Assoc. AIA

and i n t e r e s t s . Th i s information offers clearer

insight when assembling groups with similar interests,

a n d w i t h i n s i m i l a r

geographic areas of the state.

Mentoring groups will have four professional levels

i n c l u d i n g e m e r g i n g

professionals, mid-level l i c e n s e d , m i d - l e v e l

unlicensed, and seasoned professionals. Fellows will

be involved, ideally with the ideal goal of one per group.

Mentoring through cross-generational communication

will facilitate bridging the

gap between different experience levels. Groups

will be assembled based on information provided in

applications.

As a supplement to the small mentoring groups, the

commi t tee w i l l p lan b imonth ly educat ional

seminars where all are i n v i t e d , f e a t u r i n g

presentations given by professionals in other fields.

Mentorship NOW can join

existing CoAD programs, l e c t u r e s e r i e s , a nd

mentorship programs to increase the quality and

quantity of these resources. One goa l o f the se

interdisciplinary seminars is to foster interest in

alternative career paths for

architects, a growing

NJIT College of Architecture and Design (CoAD) Alumni

and current architecture students are developing a

mentorship program along

with education programs that appeal to emerging

professionals and current students. Mentorship is an

essential feature of the d e v e l o p m e n t o f a n

architect’s career. The form of mentorship has changed

considerably over time, from

its beginnings as an apprenticeship, to the

current environment, with nearly limitless possible

mentoring relationships.

The program, Mentorship NOW, utilizes today’s

technology such as social media and promotes

interpersonal communication t o d e v e l o p c a r e e r

r e l a t i o n s h i p s a n d interactions. Learning

through mentorship has

evolved from a narrow path to a complex range of

possibilities. This organized program streamlines the

current process into a more p r o d u c t i v e f o r m o f

mentorship relevant to young interns/students

today.

The technical component of the Mentorship NOW

program is the online database. This database

allows program participants

to log pertinent information

Rostrum 2012 Issue 1

Page 2

AIA Newark & Suburban

Board Members

Officers

KEVIN McCORMICK, AIA

President

LOUISE ADDONIZIO, AIA

President-Elect

JOHN A. CWIKLA, AIA

First Vice President

LISA SAN FILIPPO, AIA

Secretary

STEPHEN ROONEY, AIA

Treasurer

YOGESH MISTRY, AIA

Past President

Trustees

Trustee 2012

JUDY DONNELLY, AIA

Trustees 2013

CHRISTY DIBARTOLO, AIA

ALEX GOTTHELF,AIA

ELLEN HARMON,

ALLIED MEMBER

NATASHA SUZANSKY, AIA

Trustees 2014

PAUL TIAJOLOFF, AIA

RONALD WESTON, AIA

JASON PEIST, ASSOC. AIA

Honorary Affiliate

DAN BISCHOFF

Section Administrator

JULIE PAGNOTTA

aiaadmin@verizon.net

Rostrum 2012 Issue 1

Page 3

I have just returned from the final 2011 National

Board Meeting. This is the completion of my first of a

three year commitment as

your Regional Director. It has been an eye opening

experience to witness the way OUR institute is

organized and how your leaders focus on the

important issues that face the organization and in turn

on OUR profession as

ARCHITECTS.

The year started with the

appointment of Robert A. Ivy, Jr., FAIA Executive Vice

President/CEO of the

Institute. I am sure many of you know of Robert’s

accompl ishments wi th McGraw-Hill and as Editor of

Architectural Record. We could not have a better

manager than a man who has been an advocate for

the profession for his entire

career, first as a practicing architect and later, in his

role with McGraw-Hill. Robert was a member of the

Board over a decade ago, so he is experienced with the

way the operation works. In this position, he is charged

with the day-to-day running

of the institute, managing the many departments,

which include over 200 employees and a budget of

nearly 60 million dollars.

I am part of the Class of 2013. We call ourselves the

“Original 13” in honor of the original founders of AIA

some 154 years ago. We, of course, come from all over

the country, and are made

up of firm owners, (large and small), corporate

architects, and educators. A good mix, for sure, and we

have made it our mission to increase the public ’s

understanding of what we do for a living and the

architecture we create. Our

first year was about getting familiar with the process and

wo r k i ng on va r i o u s committees.

At this last meeting, I

chaired a Class Dinner where we had a discussion

about entering our middle year of service: what we do

next? I am glad to report that the emphasis of this

energetic group will be on the Emerging Professional

(EP) and the mentoring

process. Our goal is to help increase the participation of

our young people into the organization and service the

needs of the profession that

they will inherit. I have been a proponent of EPs, as

I fondly refer to them, and I hope that the 2012

leadership of the Sections

will see fit to send as many of these young people to

AIA’s best program, the Grassroots Leadersh ip

Conference, held in early March.

At Grassroots, I will have the

opportunity to hold an annual Regional Meeting. I

have asked Phil Simon, AIA’s Director of Communication

to have Ned Cramer, Editor of ARCHITECT (the magazine

of AIA) to be available to us. I have had numerous

requests from members about the approach of the

magazine and its newswire service. Please join me for

this important meeting (time

and meeting room, will be provided via a future E-mail

to attendees) and have your concerns and questions

answered.

Jerome Leslie

Eben, AIA

AIA NJ

Regional Director,

2011-2013

Regional Director’s Report

Fifth Annual ‘Toys for Tots’ Drive a Success

OBJECTIVES:

The objectives of Toys for Tots are to help less

f o r t u n a t e c h i l d r e n throughout the United States

experience the joy of Christmas; to play an active

role in the development of one of our nation’s most

valuable resources – our

children; to unite all m e m b e r s o f l o c a l

communities in a common cause for three months each

year during the annual toy collection and distribution

campaign; and to contribute to better communities in the

future.

John A Cwikla, AIA, LEED AP

BD+C

2011 Treasurer, AIA NS

2012 First Vice-President, AIA NS

U.S.M.C. Reserve

Toys for Tots Program

MISSION:

The mission of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys

for Tots Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during

October, November, and December each year, and

distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy

children in the community in

which the campaign is conducted.

GOAL:

The primary goal of Toys for

Tots is to deliver, through a

new toy at Christmas, a message of hope to less

fortunate youngsters that will assist them in becoming

responsible, productive, patriotic citizens.

AIA Newark & Suburban Architects recently held its

Fifth Annual ‘Toys for Tots’ toy drive at our annual

meeting. Through our e-

mail updates and online registration, we asked all

attending members to bring a new, unwrapped toy in

December.

Once again our members, vendors and sponsors didn’t

disappoint. Throughout the evening, we collected over

40 toys, which filled more than three large Toys for

Tots boxes. It warms one’s heart to see that even in

tough economic times,

people will make a small sacrifice so that someone

less fortunate can enjoy a little bit of holiday cheer. I’m

sure all of the toys were greatly appreciated by the

boys and girls that received them.

AIA Newark & Suburban

Architects would like to thank all our members,

vendors and sponsors for supporting this worthwhile

cause, and look forward to

next years event.

For more information

regarding the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots

Program, please read on

below.

Happy Holidays!

Rostrum 2012 Issue 1

Page 4

AIA Newark & Suburban

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