President's Message Fall 2006

As we approach our 150 year anniversary I have some personal reflections on our profession.  I have the utmost respect for all of you who have both enjoyed the fruits of being an architect and endured the ever increasing challenges we face to successfully execute a project today.  I am very impressed with the quality of design that I have seen come out of the offices of Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter Firms and I love to see the vast array of projects and creative solutions that are displayed  at the Design Awards Ceremony during Presidents Night.  All architects are winners, in my opinion, just by the successful completion of any project.  This improves the built environment and upgrades the profession as a whole.  I am grateful to all of you who endure the “slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune” that we all face as architects today.

On that note I would like to make a personal plea and or challenge for all of you.  My belief as I have stated before is that we should try to “make the pie bigger for everyone” instead of trying to get a “bigger piece of the pie”.  Let us all work together for the promotion of the profession and show our communities what architects can do to improve our built environment.  The upcoming 150 Year Celebration is a great opportunity for this to happen throughout our chapter.  I know that the creative power of a room full of architects is unstoppable and I am confident that if we work toward a common goal we can move mountains!  Please bring your thoughts and ideas to our next few chapter meetings so we can begin to plan our implementation of them into next year’s year long celebration.

To all the past Presidents and future Presidents and all the Allied and Associate Members, I am honored to be a part of such an esteemed group and I thank you all for all your efforts to this point.  Now lets work together to show everyone what we can accomplish as a team.

Ron Shaffer, AIA
Chapter President