AIA Vermont is pleased to announce that Alberto (Beto) Silva, Assoc. AIA, and Oluwapelumi (Pelumi) Adefarakan AIAS, are two new board members who will serve for the 2024 term. Both were approved by a vote of the membership at the 2023 AIAVT Annual Meeting on December 7th at Hula in Burlington.

Beto Silva is a bilingual Project Designer at Freeman French Freeman.  He graduated from Pratt Institute (‘15) and remained in NYC to work as an architectural designer in both large scale and smaller firms on projects of urban as well as residential scales.  Beto then lived and worked in the smaller scale city of Valencia, Spain from 2018-2020.  This sparked an interest in sustainable approaches towards design with particular attention to maintaining the rich history and culture of communities while adding something new to the urban envelope.  Beto is excited to bring his interest in sustainable practices.

Beto is originally from Venezuela and after having lived in many diverse places has become passionate about the evolution of languages and sharing of cultural practices.  He discovered Vermont through his wife who is from Norwich, VT and quickly fell in love with the supportive and vibrant communities throughout the state.  In his free time, Beto loves to be outdoors and discover the many gems within Vermont.  Soccer has been a lifelong passion and Beto sees the sport as a space where those from all different backgrounds can come together to discover their commonalities.

Pelumi Adefarakan is a senior studying for his bachelor’s degree in architectural studies at Norwich University Senior Military College in Northfield, Vermont. He serves as the Vice President of the University’s AIA student chapter and President of the African Student Union. Originally from Nigeria, Oluwapelumi has a unique perspecve in his design approach informed by his experiences living, volunteering, and studying in different countries. Only last summer, he was part of a team that expanded an orphanage home in Tanzania and part of another project weeks aer that built an affordable shipping container house in Waitsfield, Vermont. His primary goal in becoming an architect is to pioneer affordable, sustainable, and eco-friendly housing in Lagos, Nigeria, Africa’s most populated city. Fueled by this passion, he connues to acvely pursue numerous research opportunies that allow him to conduct analysis even in disciplines outside his field of study, such as polical science, economics, studies in war and peace, construcon management, and entrepreneurship. This wealth of informaon allows him to develop holistic and thorough academic papers. Through his research and community engagement, Oluwapelumi seeks to create designs that are responsive to the needs and aspiraons of the people they serve. Pelumi will serve as a student (ex officio) member of the Board.

The board of directors is excited to have the perspective of these two new members going into the new year.