One of the keynote speakers at this year’s AIA South Dakota Annual Convention was the incoming national president of the AIA, Illya Azaroff, FAIA. It was a rare pleasure to have such an outstanding member of our profession attend our state convention.
Ten years ago, I was appointed to the AIA Strategic Council for a three-year term. That is where I met Illya. I represented the Midwest, and he represented New York. Imagine my surprise to learn this guy was not a slick New Yorker but a native of Nebraska. He comes from a Czech and Ukrainian family and grew up in the Nebraska communities of Fremont, York, and Lincoln. He graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a Bachelor of Arts in geography and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies in 1991 and 1992, respectively. He finished his education by earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he’s made his home.
Over three years of meetings, I got to know Illya, his wife, Kristi, and their two growing boys. Through the magic of Facebook, we have kept in touch, and I have been more and more impressed by his commitment not only to advancing the profession but also to saving the planet.
Illya has his own firm and is a professor at the New York City College of Technology. His teaching doesn’t stop there. He has spoken over 250 times at conferences and keynotes. With more than 30 years of experience, Illya circles the globe spreading his message in the fields of disaster mitigation, resilient planning, and regenerative design.
In his keynote address and on his webpage, Illya calls architects to “Be the Change!” He says: “Now more than ever, architects must be change agents, audaciously shaping the future of our post-pandemic cities, acting on the climate crisis, and reimagining or environments to create, sustain, and build resilient capacity. We can, and we must, harness the power of AIA’s 100,000 members to actively shape policy. Our capacity to tackle today’s complex challenges must be linked to a strategic allocation of AIA resources, member support and action focused on powerful solutions.”
The Strategic Council was only one stop on Illya’s service to the AIA. He was a 2014 recipient of the 2014 Young Architects Award. He has been the President of AIA New York, serves on the AIA National Board of Directors, and has been elevated as a Fellow of the AIA. In December, he will be inaugurated as national President of the AIA.
AIA South Dakota was honored to host such an architectural rock star. I am lucky to call him a colleague and friend.
