2019 Associates Award Recipient
The AIA Associates Award is given to individual Associate AIA members to recognize outstanding leaders and creative thinkers for significant contributions to their communities and the architecture profession.
Civic-minded and dependable, David Flecha, Assoc. AIA, is an emerging leader and the founder of AIA Brooklyn’s influential Brooklyn Emerging Professionals. Always willing to devote his available time and resources to advancing innovative ideas, he is unwavering in his support of the architectural community and the elements of it most relevant to his fellow associates.
As an architect in training, Flecha seeks opportunities to improve collaboration and raise the profile of architects in the built environment. He is currently a job captain for New York City’s LB Architects where he oversees construction drawings and administration for commercial projects in the city.
Flecha has established himself as an unparalleled advocate for developing initiatives to assist associates at all levels of the AIA. He has been an active member of AIA Brooklyn and AIA New York, where he was a founding member and program developer for the chapter’s Future Now Summit in 2012 and 2014. The daylong events exploring the connections between design, real estate, finance, and business fostered a dialogue among 120 participants about the future of architecture.
As a member of AIA New York’s Emerging New York Architects committee, he participated in several iterations of the City of Dreams Pavilion competition, held jointly with the nonprofit FIGMENT and the Structural Engineers Association of New York. The competition tasks participants with creating a sustainable design using salvaged construction materials and working with environmentally conscious groups.
“Since college, David has always taken on leadership roles in hopes to engage others to become leaders themselves and promote change,” James L. Yankopoulos, Assoc. AIA, chair of the National Associates Committee, says of Flecha. “David’s tenacity is unmatched. He is someone people always seem eager to work with continuously due to his contagious passion. He is not only a leader to get behind, but also a leader who inspires everyone around him to rise to a challenge.”
Flecha has represented New York’s emerging professionals on the National Associates Committee. In 2015, when the ArchiCUP challenge was launched to introduce members to ArchiPAC, Flecha stepped in to guide the EP WolfPAC team in its fundraising efforts. In 2018 EP WolfPAC won the ArchiCUP for most donors, at 104, and funds raised, at $12,455.67.
“David is an inspiring person who is willing to do more than just the bare minimum in order to teach and help those around him,” says Nicole Gangidino, Assoc. AIA, Brooklyn Emerging Professionals committee co-chair. “After just a year of observing all the hard work and passion that he puts into each event and interaction, it has inspired me to do the same.”
