Welcome to our 2024 Board Members and Officers
AIA Seattle is a member-led organization that depends on volunteer leadership and initiative. We are deeply grateful for the enormous energy and effort our board members and other volunteer leaders devote to our organization.
AIA Seattle is pleased to announce our incoming slate of accomplished design leaders who were elected to fill seats on our Board of Directors beginning September 1, 2024. These new directors will provide the strategic leadership required to advance our mission to unleash the design thinker in everyone to illuminate Seattle’s challenges and ignite action.
Matt Hutchins AIA, CPHD – (President) 2024 – 2025
Matt is a founding Principal of CAST Architecture with a focus on creative infill housing as the nexus of low-carbon living, urban vitality, and social policy. Matt serves as a Director of Public Policy on the AIA Seattle Board of Directors and as the Strategic Councilor for AIA Washington Council. He has co-chaired AIA Seattle’s Housing Task Force and organized many public programs on urban design, housing, and accessory dwelling units. He was named AIA Seattle’s Volunteer of the Year in 2020. Matt is a Seattle Planning Commissioner and Co-Chair of the Housing and Neighborhoods Committee. In 2017, he co-founded MOAR (More Options for Accessory Residences), a grassroots organization that helped pass Seattle’s landmark ADU reform. Seattle Magazine named Matt one of the 35 Most Influential People in 2019.
Note: Matt is our current President-Elect, rising to the position of President.
Melissa Falcetti AIA – (President-Elect) 2024 – 2025
Melissa grew up in a logging town of just 250 people in the Cascade Mountains. When she was young, her uncle taught her to use power tools, sparking a lifelong interest in the building industry. She went on to earn two BA degrees from Scripps College and a Master of Architecture degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Melissa is now a licensed Architect in Washington, an AIA member, a Certified Construction Specifier, and has passed the CSI’s CDT exam. She has worked in a variety of roles and companies from a small construction defects/owner’s representative firm to one of the largest design firms in the world.
Note: Melissa is our current Director of Membership.
Erik Heironimus AIA – (Director) 2024 – 2025
Erik Heironimus is an experienced Senior Designer and Licensed Architect in the state of Washington with a strong background in urban architecture and mixed-use developments. He has an invested interest in the future of Seattle and a passion for how thoughtful design can positively impact the spaces we craft and the lives of the people that inhabit them. Working on projects regionally and globally, Erik has developed a diverse portfolio and skillset with a recognized ability to deliver innovative projects, regardless of project type or scale.
Tyler Schaffer AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, ENV SP – (Director) 2024 – 2025
Tyler Schaffer is a principal at LMN Architects. He currently participates within the AIA at several levels. Locally, he is chair of the AIA Seattle Urban Design Forum and is on the Seattle Design Festival Planning Team. He participates in the Comprehensive Plan Workgroup and Transit Oriented Development Workgroup. At the state level, he is on the AIA WA Livability and Affordability Committee and attends the annual Capital Connections event in Olympia. At the national level, Tyler is part of the AIA Construction Contract Administration Knowledge Community Leadership Group. He is eager to further support the members of AIA Seattle!
Scott Melbourne PLA, ASLA – (Affiliate Director) 2024 – 2025
Scott Melbourne is dedicated to designing inspired landscapes that bring communities together while strengthening ties between individuals and their environment. During the past two decades he has contributed toward a range of park, university, urban mixed-use, and hospitality projects for public and private clients alike. His award-winning teaching has explored the potential for design to inform decision-making in developing regions of Southeast Asia. After a decade overseas, Scott returned to the Pacific Northwest to co-found MxM Landscape Architecture in 2021. He is the author of Refining Nature: The Landscape Architecture of Peter Walker, published by Birkhäuser.
Kirsten Dahlquist AIA, LEED AP – (Director) 2024 – 2025
Kirsten is an Architect and Associate at Rice Fergus Miller. Her work varies among food banks, health and wellness facilities, and community gathering centers, many of which are for tribal nations. Throughout her 16 year career Kirsten’s work has focused on imagining solutions for the systemic social challenges of the 21st century through community engaged design, collaboration and place-keeping. Locally, Kirsten serves as chair of the Bremerton Design Review Board and is a Kitsap County Council for Human Rights councilmember. She holds a B. Arch from Florida A&M University and a M. Arch from the University of South Florida.
Shweta Sinha AIA – (Director) 2024 – 2025
An architect, who first came to the US for graduate studies, Shweta brings influences from Indian culture, spaces, and architecture. She has worked In Los Angeles and Princeton on a wide range of projects from museums to community schools and was founding principal of an architecture firm in Bangalore, India. Her most recent experience in the PNW, is in housing projects that provide affordable, innovative living in urban neighborhoods. Shweta is an active member of the AIA Racial Justice Working Group, where she works towards creating a more equitable architectural practice and ultimately, a rich and diverse built environment.
