AIA Seattle Parti
Come celebrate our AIA Seattle member community!
Each year, AIA Seattle celebrates leadership and achievement in design and the built environment through its member awards program, which recognizes individual leadership and achievement in design and the built environment at the local and national levels. Honorees are nominated by their peers and selected by the Fellows & Honors Committee each year to acknowledge excellence and strengthen ties between architects and the many professions that partner with them to make a difference through design. This program also celebrates newly-licensed architects.
Learn more about our individual awards!
AIA Seattle Parti | Tuesday, January 23 @ The Forum at Town Hall Seattle
- 6 pm— Door Open and Reception 21+
- Come before the formal program for beer, wine, music, and some light snacks. Be sure to plan to grab an early dinner, or make a late reservation for a meal after the event!
- 7 pm— Program Begins
- Complimentary live streaming of the spoken program will be available via the AIA Seattle YouTube Channel.
- 8:30 pm— Celebration Concludes
TICKETS
All tickets must be purchased online in advance.
- $25* General Admission
- $10* Student – with valid Student ID
This event has sold out!
*Plus taxes and credit card processing fees
Capitol Connections: As a gesture of gratitude to Capitol Connections participants and their advocacy efforts, we are excited extend a complimentary ticket to this event. The promo code will be shared via email to Capitol Connections registrants from our partners at AIA Washington Council. This program will also be livestreamed for anyone joining from Olympia!
VENUE + ACCESSIBILITY
The year’s Parti celebration will be held at the newly renovated landmark historic building, Town Hall Seattle. Please enter using the Forum entrance located off Seneca St.
- Read more about Town Hall Location, Directions, Parking.
- Town Hall Seattle also partners with LAZ at the 6th Avenue/Hilton Hotel Garage to provide discounted parking ($5.75) for Town Hall Seattle patrons. This garage is a short 3-minute walk from Town Hall (.2 miles), provides ADA-accessible parking, and the convenience of prepayment online. Learn how to reserve your spot here.
- Town Hall’s renovations prioritized accessibility. For more information, visit Town Hall Accessibility. If you would like to discuss physical or cognitive accessibility needs for this program, please e-mail Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement, Anthony Collins.
COVID/SAFETY: AIA Seattle recommends masking as a demonstration of community care. We also ask that anyone experiencing symptoms of illness stay home in order to help protect our community. Thank you for your continued support!
HONOREES
AIA SEATTLE GOLD MEDAL
Susan Jones FAIA | Susan Jones, FAIA is an architect with over 30 years of experience and is founder of the award-winning architectural Seattle firm, atelierjones, which focuses primarily on designing and building lower-carbon, mass timber buildings. With eight completed mass timber projects, atelierjones is a national leader. atelierjones, a solely woman-owned and woman-led architectural firm, designs tall and mid-rise, multi-family mass timber housing, as well as mass timber institutional buildings and single-family homes. In 2023, atelierjones completed the new workforce housing tall mass timber 126-unit project, Heartwood in Seattle, the first Type IV-C building in the US.
Susan regularly partakes in local, national and international leadership-level collaborations to create change at scale and ensure rigor on multiple levels, from forest health to LCA studies, to fire testing, including a multi-year pro-bono commitment, representing AIA National to write and pass new national 2021/2024 ICC Tall Wood Building Codes. A third-generation native of the Pacific Northwest, Susan grew up in Bellingham, Washington, and has raised her family in Seattle. Susan earned her B.A from Stanford in Philosophy, and her M.Arch from the Harvard GSD. She is licensed in multiple states, has been a visiting design critic at numerous universities, and is Affiliate Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington. She was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2010. Using hyper-local forest management practices, Susan has spent the last five years managing her own family-owned 140-acre forest in the San Juan islands in Washington State.
2023 AIA COLLEGE OF FELLOWS
Bill LaPatra FAIA, LEED AP | Bill LaPatra FAIA, LEED AP is a design partner at Mithun with 40 years of experience leading higher education, civic, commercial, and corporate workplace projects. His diverse body of work includes the mixed-use Weyerhaeuser Headquarters in Seattle’s Pioneer Square; the Princeton University Meadows Graduate Student Housing, which is among the largest Passive House projects in the country; and the award-winning and LEED Platinum certified UC Irvine Mesa Court Towers living-learning community.
In particular, Bill is known for advancing the design for student life facilities nationally through holistic support for students’ academic and social development, deep green building performance and championship of design excellence within alternative delivery models (including design-build and P3 partnerships). He is a regular conference presenter, joining with housing professionals, contractors, engineers and developers to share lessons learned and exemplary models for design-forward collaboration within alternative delivery.
AIA SEATTLE COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Emilia Cabeza de Baca AIA | Emilia is an Associate Architect at Third Place Design Co-operative. As co-chair of Women in Design Seattle, she works to expand programming and continuing education for queer/trans AEC workers and designers of color. She has mentored Seattle female/non-binary youth and students at UW’s College of Built Environments; volunteers design services to a Latine-serving mutual aid group in Fremont; and advocates at national, regional, and county levels for wellbeing and safety related issues. They enjoy collaboration and endeavor to be supportive to design colleagues and students, particularly through transitions, and passionate about collaborative space-making with populations being served by design.
AIA SEATTLE YOUNG ARCHITECT AWARD
Neha Goel AIA, LEED AP (BD+C) | Neha Goel, AIA, LEED AP (BD+C) is an associate at Weber Thompson and a core member of the firm’s internal sustainability task force. As a first-generation immigrant architect, she is invested in growing the next generation of architects. Neha was selected as the Licensing Advisor for Western Washington in 2023 by AIA Washington Council and AIA Align Mentorship program in 2022. In 2021, she earned her NCARB Certification & became part of the 2.5% Asian female architect cohort in the US.
Neha’s research work has been showcased in local, national, and international publications. She has connected practice and education through professional mentorship and as a firm liaison to the UW Integrated design Lab. She is the Project Architect and oversees Construction Administration for 35 Stone, a mixed-use mass timber commercial office project in Fremont targeting Living Building Petal certification as part of Seattle Living Building Pilot Program, currently under construction.
AIA SEATTLE VOLUNTEER AWARD
Sheri Newbold AIA | Sheri Newbold is a residential architect who has been practicing through her architecture firm, live-work-play, since 2001. As a longstanding proponent of adding more housing and housing variety in Seattle, she started volunteering in the Housing Task Force at AIA Seattle about seven years ago. The experience of collaborating with other volunteers and AIA Seattle staff to advocate for changes to the D/ADU land use code through the Housing Task Force was empowering, and she is grateful for the opportunity to contribute in this capacity. This experience eventually led to co-leading the Comprehensive Plan Work Group and later joining the Public Policy Board. Sheri expressed, “I feel energized by volunteering to do advocacy and the privilege of forming meaningful connections with fellow volunteers and AIA Seattle staff.”
HONORARY AIA SEATTLE MEMBERSHIP
Karen Kiest | For 35 years Karen Kiest has been providing urban design, transit, park and community planning services to a wide variety of public and private clients on projects throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Asia. Ms. Kiest received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University. She worked with Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT) in San Francisco and directed the Seattle office of Murase Associates before opening her own practice in 2002.
Karen Kiest recently served as Vice President of CLARB and served a decade on the Washington State Licensing Board for Landscape Architects. She previously served as chair of the Seattle Design Commission and served on the Seattle Landmark Preservation Board. She enjoys the opportunity to work with the architectural community in Seattle and has served on the Strategic Advisory Board and the Editorial Board for AIA Seattle.
Richard L. Best | Richard Best has been director of Capital Projects and Planning since 2014 and provides oversight and direction for Seattle Public School’s multi-million-dollar capital levies and the projects they fund. He emphasizes creating schools that are contextually appropriate and respectful of their surrounding neighborhood and that incorporate energy reduction through passive systems and strategies — while remaining laser-focused on the district’s work to position all students for academic success.
Under Richard’s leadership, the district has completed more than 30 new or modernized schools including: construction of Hazel Wolf K-8 School, nominated for the A4LE James McConnell award; renovation of two landmarked schools, Lincoln High and Magnolia Elementary; and replacement of Rainier Beach High School, which is currently under construction. Prior to Seattle Public Schools, Richard served in similar roles at the Central Kitsap and Bainbridge Island school districts. He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from Western Washington University.
ALLIED ORGANIZATION AWARD
National Organization of Minority Architects, UW Chapter (NOMAS UW) | NOMAS UW is the UW Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students and a registered student organization at UW. NOMAS UW seeks to provide mentorship and info about the field of architecture, including programming on important issues within architecture. With increased exposure & accessible information within architecture, representation and the profession of architecture can be improved. NOMAS UW is a strong supportive community that participates in events such as the NOMAS Student Design Competition at the National conference, and the Seattle Design Festival – building portfolios, skills, and teamwork through these programs, while representing the University of Washington.
American Institute of Architects, Students – UW Chapter (AIAS-UW) | The AIAS-UW is an independent, non-profit and student-run organization that seeks to advance leadership, design, and service amongst architecture students. This grassroots association is a cooperative between thousands of students (of all ages and academic degrees) committed to helping each other. Here at the University of Washington, our AIAS Chapter is known for hosting a peer mentorship program encapsulating 160+ student volunteers, skills workshops, building tours, and the annual CBE Beaux Arts Ball, which garnered 200+ attendees in 2023.
This year, we are proud to announce that UW AIAS is hosting the 2024 West Quad Conference, titled Bloom: Emerging Solutions for Urban Sustainability, in Seattle from April 4-7, 2024. This conference will welcome architecture students largely from the West Coast but also other regions of the United States where they will experience Seattle’s commitment to sustainability, visionary attitude, and, of course, award-winning architectural accomplishments. The 2024 West Quad Conference will host keynote speeches, firm tours, building tours, workshops, panels, and a career fair related to the three programming cornerstones: Innovation and Efficiency, Environmental Responsiveness, and Sustainable Urban Growth.
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FELLOWS AND HONORS COMMITTEE
Ruth Baleiko FAIA – Co-chair
Sam Miller FAIA – Co-chair
Christopher Meek FAIA
Erica Loynd FAIA
Janet Donelson FAIA
Margaret Montgomery FAIA
Mary Johnston FAIA
Ron Van der Veen FAIA
QUESTIONS?
- Questions about the honorees or attending the live event? Contact AIA Seattle Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement, Anthony Collins.
- Sponsorship Questions? Contact AIA Seattle Executive Director, Melissa K. Neher.
THANK YOU TO OUR AIA SEATTLE PARTI SPONSORS
Andersen Construction Company of Washington | Dowbuilt | Kolbe Gallery Seattle | Schuchart
