Dear Colleagues,

For the College of Fellows this is a most exciting time of the year. The Fellows Jury met the last week of January and has announced a bumper crop of new Fellows for 2008 - 116 to be invested at the Boston Convention. We can all remember waiting expectantly for that letter to arrive (which was delivered electronically this year) and the fear and trepidation of opening it. The list of new Fellows is attached, so please take time to congratulate these accomplished architects. Congratulations to the jury as well for having successfully completed this process in its new format.

The Investiture for this class will be held at Old South Church in Boston. The last investiture in Boston in 1993 was held at Trinity Cathedral designed by H.H. Richardson which is surely one of the most revered architectural icons in the country. Old South Church is located across the plaza and street from Trinity and I would suggest that the importance of this church in American history makes it singularly qualified for this honor at a convention focused on “We the People”.

The current building dates from 1875 and was designed by Boston architects, Cummings and Sears. Built in what’s described as the Ruskinian Italian Gothic style, the exterior stone is Roxbury puddingstone while the interior is rich with Italian cherry woodwork. However, the congregation dates back to 1669. Benjamin Franklin was baptized at the congregation’s Cedar Meeting House in 1706. Samuel Adams, Revolutionary patriot and brewer, gave the signal to start the Boston Tea Party from the Old South Meeting House. Other members of the congregation included Samuel Sewall, judge and diarist; William Dawes, Paul Revere’s fellow rider in 1775; Phyllis Wheatly, America’s first published black poet; and Elizabeth Vergoose, said to be the Mother Goose of nursery rhymes. For the athletes in the group, the current building marks the finish line of the Boston Marathon. To quote poet John Greenleaf Whittier:

“So long as Boston shall be Boston,
And her bay tides rise and fall,
Shall freedom stand in the Old South Church,
And plead for the rights of all.”

2008 has already been a busy year for the College. In an effort to jump start some of the College’s initiatives for this year I met with Fellows in New York and Boston as well as our YAF Liaison in Boston and with Bob Ivy, FAIA, Editor of Architectural Record. Bursar Ed Kodet, FAIA, represented the College at Grassroots and Accent on Architecture and, while in Washington, met with the AIA’s Leadership, with the YAF Executive Committee, and with Stephen Kieran, FAIA, who has agreed to serve as chair of the 2009 Latrobe Prize Jury. Kieran and Timberlake were the recipients of the first Latrobe Prize in 2001.

In March, the Executive Committee convened in Columbus, Ohio, for its spring meeting in conjunction with AIA Ohio's Annual Grassroots meeting. AIA Ohio co-hosted a reception for Ohio Fellows in the rotunda of the Ohio Statehouse and Fellows from throughout the state were invited. Over 50 people attended the reception giving us an opportunity to talk about COF goals, Convention events, the Latrobe and our ongoing programs.

While all of these meetings were focused on the College’s specific initiatives -Fellowship, Mentoring and Research - what they also had in common was an underlying commitment to collaboration. I think as architects we tend to take collaboration for granted and the uniqueness of this became much more apparent to me last week as I listened to a team building consultant explaining the importance of collaboration to a group of primary and secondary school teachers and principals. In today’s complex and interdependent world, collaboration has become essential even among teachers and staff in an elementary school if they are to be successful in educating our children. What an asset for our profession that we are already trained to approach problem solving in a collaborative manner, while many other professions are not.

We see that collaboration at AIA, as the Board, the leadership and staff, the Knowledge communities, the College, the Young Architects Forum, the Emerging Professionals and the AIAS all work together to achieve the same goals. Each group approaching the challenges and opportunities with their own unique perspective but joined by the commitment to those shared goals.

Similarly, the planning for a national convention takes the combined and collaborative efforts of dozens if not hundreds of individuals. For the College of Fellows at this year’s convention in Boston that sense of collaboration has taken on new meaning. We have taken steps to actively engage local architects and Fellows in the planning of the events. Pamela Hawkes, FAIA, Ann Beha, FAIA and Bruce Bockstael, FAIA, COF Regional Representatives, have generously shared their time and expertise with us in planning and will be on hand as the convention unfolds. Emily Grandstaff-Rice, AIA, a member of the YAF Executive Committee, has worked tirelessly to help us organize a special event involving the Boston Society of Architects’ Learning by Design program; and Jane Weinzapfel, FAIA, (Weinzapfel Leers Associates Architects) has taken charge of organizing the COF Party with the Fellows to be held at the Boston Architectural College. The BAC faculty includes many principals of Boston firms. The staff and the students at BAC share our enthusiasm for what we know will be an outstanding event in their newly renovated studio space at 955 Boylston Street.

We are looking forward to ongoing collaboration with all of these individuals as well as with the BSA in finalizing the plans for the Boston Convention. I hope this becomes a model for planning for future conventions and hope our Regional Representatives as well as other Fellows in upcoming convention cities will join in our planning for those conventions.

I look forward to seeing many of you in Boston!

Carole

J. Robert Hillier, FAIA, who began Hillier Architecture as a sole practitioner in Princeton in 1966 and built it into one of the largest and most respected architecture practices in the country, received the Michael Graves Lifetime Achievement Award on January 12. The Graves Award is the most prestigious honor bestowed by AIA New Jersey. Hillier is only the second architect to receive this award presented for “completion of a significant architectural body of work and the influence it has had on the practice of architecture.” Read the full story by Heather Livingston for AIArchitect at: http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek08/0201/0201dp.cfm

J. Windom Kimsey, FAIA, receives the Las Vegas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects Honors with the 2007 AIA Nevada Silver Medal. The Silver Medal is the highest honor that AIA Nevada can bestow upon an individual and is awarded in recognition of the most distinguished service to the profession of architecture. Windom is an active AIA member and has served as president of the organization’s local chapter in 1996, chaired the AIA’s National Committee on Design in 2004 and currently represents Nevada on a steering committee to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Institute. In 2004 Windom was elevated into the AIA's College of Fellows.

Frank Lucas, FAIA, immediate past Chancellor of the College of Fellows, received an honorary doctor of humanities degree during the winter graduation ceremony of Clemson University on December 20, 2007. Frank graduated from Clemson in 1959 and has been an advocate for the university in the years since. A charter member of the presidents club, Frank served three terms as president of the Clemson Advancement foundation for Design and Building. He also served on the university’s board of visitors, the College of Architecture Advisory Council, and the President’s Advisory council, and has shared his expertise with students as a visiting lecturer for ethics, licensing law, and professional practice. He received the Clemson Alumni distinguished Service Award in 1992.

William C. Miller, FAIA, professor of architecture at the College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah received the 2008 AIA Utah Bronze Medal - the highest award for architects in Utah - which recognizes a body of significant architectural design, or a lasting contribution through teaching, service to the community, or service to the profession. Professor Miller worked for well over three decades as an educator and enhanced the role of the profession of architecture and its practice through responsive teaching, recognized scholarship, effective administration, and exemplary service. He served as dean of the College of the College of Architecture + Planning from 1992-2002. A member of the Architects Licensing Board for the State of Utah since 1997, he currently serves in his third year as chair of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Committee on Education. Miller was recently appointed to a four year term on the American Institute of Architects Educator/Practitioner Network Advisory Committee, which focuses on the relationships between education and practice, and the forging of positive, interactive relationships between the profession and the academy.

The AIA and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) jointly announced that Stanley Tigerman, FAIA, has been named the 2008 recipient of the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education. The Topaz Medallion honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions to architecture education for at least 10 years, whose teaching has influenced a broad range of students, and who has helped shape the minds of those who shape our environment. Read the full story by Russell Boniface, AIArchitect Associate Editor at: http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek07/1214/1214n_topaz.cfm

Thomas Vonier, FAIA, RIBA, COF Regional Representative for Europe, is a Boston AIA Convention Theme Presentation speaker on Urban Security in the 21st Century. Tom is founding member of the International Center for Urban Security in Barcelona. His work on urban security set terms of debate on new security measures for city centers, beginning with a series of Articles, “Mean Streets: Going From Protected Enclaves and Urban Control Zones,” which appeared in Urban Land and l’information Immobilière. With offices in Washington, DC, and Paris, Tom supports clients with global interests in project development, security management, and industrial operations. A leading proponent of effective design for security, Tom was appointed an independent architect to lead groundbreaking research on improving the security of U.S. embassies.