AIA West Jersey serves architects within Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Salem counties. For over 100 years AIA New Jersey has been serving New Jersey architects and the public. Its mission is to “serve the public’s needs and build awareness of architects and the profession through education and advocacy”. In 1896, the Society of New Jersey Architects was formed. A few years later in 1900 this society was disbanded when a chapter was granted to New Jersey by The American Institute of Architects (AIA). For many years during the beginning conducted business side by side, the New Jersey Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and The New Jersey Society of Architects. The society and chapter merged in July, 1965, and the name was officially changed to the New Jersey Society of Architects of the American Institute of Architects. Today AIA New Jersey continues to be a local chapter and region of the national AIA. In 2000 the AIA-NJ chapter celebrated its 100th anniversary. The chapter is divided into six local sections: the Architects League of Northern NJ, Central, Jersey Shore, Newark & Suburban, South Jersey and West Jersey. The AIA West Jersey section, formed in 1925, was created to help connect AIA with its local individual architects and the communities in which they are established in a number of ways. AIA West Jersey offers its members a variety of support through AIA recognized programs, continuing education seminars, community outreach, and advocacy, so that the member firms of AIA West Jersey can best serve the communities they exist. The AIA, headquartered in Washington DC, is now a worldwide organization with chapters and regions in Europe, Asia and Australia. Members of AIA-NJ along with the other 70,000 licensed architects and associated professionals in 2006 celebrated AIA’s 150th anniversary.
