The American Institute of Architects (AIA) laid off 16 percent of its workforce in early September—impacting some 28 staffers—from its national headquarters in Washington, D.C., the organization has confirmed.

The layoffs come after a turbulent few months for CEO/EVP Lakisha Woods, who was accused of misconduct by AIA members; a subsequent investigation by external law firm Miller and Chevalier cleared her of any wrongdoing, according to a statement from the AIA in August. But controversies surrounding the AIA seem unlikely to subside any time soon. While the results of the probe have been summarized for AIA staff and members, some belonging to the College of Fellows, a prestigious recognition comprising “top-of-the-field” AIA members who have been elected to fellowships by a jury of their peers, have been calling for the AIA to release the entire investigation.

“I would have been very surprised if the independent investigation had found evidence of illegal activity,” wrote a member of the AIA College of Fellows on the group’s message board. “However, there is a huge difference between illegal activity and unethical, unprofessional behavior.” Without releasing the entire investigation, “there will always be the suspicion of a cover-up,” wrote another member.

The AIA’s budget woes and layoffs are rooted in the sale—many say a misguided one—of the AIA’s contract documents business several years ago to True Wind Capital, before Woods’s tenure, which left the organization with a significant nest egg that was used to cover expenses. In 2023, the AIA board and Woods demanded that this practice stop, because this nest egg was to serve as collateral for the $64 million renovation of the AIA’s headquarters building, according to a letter by former AIA President Emily Grandstaff-Rice. Without access to this fund, and the loss of contract documents revenue, the AIA had a $13.5 million budget gap.  

Woods was clear with staff about the need for more revenue as far back as March, but at the same time, AIA hosted a retreat for staff at the Royalton Bravaro in Punta Cana, a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic. At Punta Cana in early March, Woods told staff, “I don’t want $10,000 ideas. I want million-dollar ideas,” according to someone who attended the retreat.

This all-staff retreat was in some ways the start of Woods’ troubles. The expense raised the hackles of a group of former AIA presidents, who wrote a letter in April expressing concerns about finances and management, potential misspending, and more, including rapid executive turnover. They asked for an independent audit of the alleged deficit, and regarding the Caribbean resort, pleaded: “Please explain the decision to incur such expenditures during a stated period of financial difficulty.”

But while Woods had been transparent about the $13.5 million shortfall, she had also underscored the AIA’s financial stability. On an all-staff call in early May, Woods justified the trip to Punta Cana by saying that the AIA is in a financially strong position and had over-performed its budget for the last several years. But that didn’t seem to calm staff. They voiced worries anonymously via the AIA’s human resources director, who read testimonials out loud, “about keeping their jobs, given how many people have been let go, and given the seemingly constant reorganizations. Are there metrics or benchmarks that we can individually meet to make us feel more secure in keeping our jobs?” Woods re-iterated that the AIA was not in a hiring freeze and that “to me, the staff is everything.” Staff that heard her say her responsibility is “strategizing to protect people’s jobs,” were likely shocked by the layoffs a few months later.

Punta Cana was not the last luxurious retreat the AIA hosted. The week after the layoffs, from September 11–13, the AIA’s board and senior leadership decamped to the Salamander Resort and Spa in Middleburg, Virginia, for a board meeting, according to an AIA staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their job. Rooms at the resort cost between $600 and $1,100 a night. Woods, who began at the AIA in January of 2022, earned $586,112 in 2022, according to publicly available tax forms. In 2022, the AIA spent $28,868,971 on all employee salaries, 11.6 percent of which went to the top 10 most well compensated employees among a staff of approximately 175. The top echelons of AIA leadership (the senior vice president and chief levels) were not affected by the layoffs.

The Punta Cana trip also brought the AIA into conflict with their general counsel, Terry Ona, whom the AIA fired in the spring. According to publicly available court documents he subsequently filed suit against his former employer for $2 million in June, alleging workplace racial, gender, and age discrimination (Ona is an Asian man, Woods is the first Black person hired as AIA EVP/CEO); wrongful termination; and defamation. The early part of the investigation by Miller and Chevalier substantiated several claims made by Ona in his lawsuit, namely that Woods pocketed Marriott Bonvoy points for the Dominican Republic trip, and planned much of the event herself, even traveling there before the retreat to check out the facility, according to a June 4 letter from the AIA Board to staff.  

Court documents filed by the AIA claim that Ona was fired for “extensive snooping on several high-level co-workers’ email accounts” and for deleting files from an AIA laptop, copying this data to his personal laptop, and not turning this personal laptop over to the AIA. A preliminary status hearing is set for September 27, though the trial may not take place until well into next year.  

Editor's note: Zach Mortice was an employee at AIA National from 2007–2014.