President’s Message
AIA Ohio’s recent community conference “Reconvene” celebrated our greatest attributes, our members. I have always felt our greatest strength at AIA Ohio is our relationships. AIA Ohio advocates for placemaking based on relationships, providing positive change for our communities. As we know, place and placemaking are critical to the development of our cultures and communities. Each revolves around its people, and are dependent on one another. My place includes family, faith, community, and knowledge based on experience and education. Each of our places is different, but each day we practice, we learn, and we grow.
In addition to my involvement in AIA Ohio, I am a lecturer at Kent State University. The class I teach, Understanding Architecture, is a humanities requirement for the university provided by the College of Architecture. Our discussion on architecture is based on Culture and Community. Many of our discussions are focused on how people live and thrive based on relationships, thoughts, and place. The students’ inquisitive nature allows them to see how architecture affects relationships and cultures.
The past few years, my experience with the AIA Ohio community has been filled with relationship building and understanding the thoughts of my fellow colleagues, friends, and communities. AIA Ohio provided an opportunity for me to meet many people throughout the state. Each provided a different insight on how we promote architecture based on place. It is invigorating to see this occurring on various state and national levels and various focus groups. We are present and making a positive impact on our communities. I am forever grateful for the past few years’ events, the people I met, and the experiences I have had. I look forward to AIA Ohio’s future and the continued passion we all have for the built environment.
John Orsini, AIA
2023 President