AIA Staten Island Chapter – January 1, 2026

Fellow Chapter Members,

I am humbled and honored to be a part of something that started over 80 years ago by five Staten Island architects. The opportunity to join them as well as many architects after to be your leader as Chapter President. I would like to thank each one of you for entrusting me and the confidence you have instilled in me to carry out such an endeavor as this. I will, to the best of my abilities, strive in every way possible to move this Chapter upward and onward and always put the Chapter’s best interest first.

Big shoes to fill doesn’t even begin to describe the task which is laid out before me. When I joined the Executive Committee, we were under the leadership of Giuseppe Bonomo whose determination, commitment and willingness to get things done was an inspiration to us all. Following his term, we saw Stanley Krebushevski take the lead to not only continue the path of his predecessor, but to do it with such vigor and countless hours of dedication to see it through. I hope and pray that I can continue to carry this torch forward without flaw.

During my tenure, in addition to our core services for advocacy, communication and outreach, education, financial operations and governance, I want to put special focus on the last of these services: membership. During the last several years, I have seen our membership slowly dwindling downward. I would like to get our inactive members to re-join and our active members to show more involvement in the Chapter. Whether it be attending our General Membership Meetings, joining and running our committees or attending our many events that we plan throughout the year. Being a member of the AIA yields many benefits that we can all use to excel in our profession. Such as continuing education, workshops and webinars, networking and fellowship, documents and publications and keeping up with Government policies which affect the industry with its many changes and challenges. I would also like to gain more exposure of our Chapter through communication and advertising. It is important for the community to know we are out there and are a solid voice of the architectural realm.

I am excited to work along with our incoming Executive Committee: Vice President Dominick Casale, Secretary Peter Rampulla, Treasurer Nell Taranto, Immediate Past President Stanley Krebushevski and AIA NY State Director Olga Salnikova to take on these tasks with precision, optimism and great success.

We have a lot to do as a Chapter, and with proper direction, participation and cooperation of our Executive Committee as well as our subcommittees, we can accomplish these goals. With every effort we must preserve the vitality of the Chapter for years to come.

Sincerely,
Thomas J. Soviero, AIA
President, AIA Staten Island Chapter