Dear AIA El Paso Members,
I am excited to share our Chapter’s accomplishments for the month of April. Excom and the Committee Chairs have been doing an excellent job on organizing events and opportunities for our members of the community.
On the first Thursday of the month, Christian Mijares put together the first Emerging Professionals Happy Hour of 2025 and it was a big success! We had over 30 participants who joined at International Bar. Over 25 young professional surveys were filled by the evenings’ participants. That data will be put into a spreadsheet, and analyzed to help guide future events and provide better resources.
Architecture week was celebrated nationally from April 13, through April 19th with the intent to unite and activate educators, community leaders, and architects to inspire and elevate the role of architecture in K-12 classrooms. Karla Murillo lead the AIA El Paso’s efforts by inviting EPISD High School students to an Architecture Firm Crawl; where students toured 8 different architecture and engineering firms and received short presentations from local architects. Another effort geared towards younger children, was the Architecture & Construction Book Drive. Around 20 children’s books related to our industry where purchased and donated to the Downtown El Paso Public Library.
The Chapter also provided a financial donation towards the ACE Mentor Program of Paso del Norte to support a student team from El Dorado High School to attend the 2025 CIRT National Design and Construction Competition in Washington DC. This will be a valuable experience for them and we are honored to have them represent El Paso.
In March the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) opened its doors and we were able to provide an Architecture Tour led by Exigo’s design team. We learned the about the design intent, the process and challenges that went about to make this beautiful facility an award winning project.
On April 15th many of our members joined us at City Hall to appear before city council in support of the Downtown Deck Plaza. We have extended our support in any area where our professional expertise may be helpful. We offer our volunteered time and effort to attend community meetings, answering technical questions, and offering deeper insight into the processes behind capital projects. We believe that involving our community, both supporters and detractors, can help make the Deck Plaza uniquely El Pasoan. A special thanks to Bruno Vasquez for leading this effort and Patricia Rosales & Enrique Escobedo for sticking until the end!
This month don’t miss the Roundtable Discussion at the Blue Flame Center for Civic Empowerment. AIA El Paso and the City will join forces with El Paso Stakeholders and other local planning experts to explore the City’s Downtown Zoning Reform Efforts with initiatives aimed at revitalizing our urban core and guide future growth. The audience will have an opportunity to ask questionS and begin a conversation.
With that I leave you and I look forward to seeing all of you in our upcoming events. Thanks to all our members and especially our 2025 Board for your dedication and enthusiasm.
Sincerely,
Lorena Holguin, AIA, LEED AP
AIA El Paso Chapter | 2025 President