Honorary Affiliate

Honorary Affiliate membership is bestowed on persons who are not otherwise eligible for AIA membership. The list includes artists, writers, politicians and a variety of other people who have made significant contributions to architecture.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS MICHIGAN ELECTS

NANCY FINEGOOD AND ANDREW FREEMIRE AS HONORARY MEMBERS

DETROIT, April 25, 2005 – The American Institute of Architects Michigan (AIA Michigan) will recognize Nancy Finegood, executive director of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network and Andrew Freemire, in-house artist in residence at the Battle Creek Public Schools Fine Arts Academy as AIA Michigan Honorary Affiliate Members at the 2005 AIA Michigan Honor Awards and Recognition Program, being held Friday, April 29 at the Royal Park Place Hotel in Rochester Hills, MI.

Honorary Affiliate Membership in AIA Michigan is presented in recognition of an individual of esteemed character who has rendered a distinguished service to the profession of architecture or to the arts and sciences allied with the architecture profession.

As executive director of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network, Finegood guides the organization in the use of advocacy, outreach and education to help preserve Michigan’s historic resources. Previously, she was executive director of the St. Croix Landmarks Society in the U.S. Virgin Islands, running three historic museums and the preservation society.  Finegood also uses her personal love of historic preservation to create experiences for others that educate and create an appreciation for preservation.

In his role as in house artist in residence, Freemire serves as a mentor, advisor, consultant and educator to student artists.  He guides students in creating works of art, exhibits, performances and presentations.   To best demonstrate the level of work within all facets of the Academy, he conducted an Annual Report Performance Exhibit, which won accolades from parents, students, administrators and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.

Each year, AIA Michigan members sponsor the Honor Awards Program to bring public attention to examples of good design and to recognize the people who make significant contributions to the built environment.

AIA Michigan is a component of the American Institute of Architects. Its members sponsor the Honor Awards Program to bring to public attention examples of good design and to recognize the people who make significant contributions to the built environment.

PRESERVATIONISTS BECOME HONORARY ARCHITECTS

Detroit - May 12, 2004 - Continuing a tradition that goes back to the founding of the American Institute of Architects Michigan, three preservationists, Jeanne Graham, Ralph Graham and Pamela O’Connor will be made Honorary Affiliate Members of AIA. This distinction is reserved for people who are not otherwise eligible for membership but who have given distinguished service to the profession of architecture or to related allied arts and sciences. The awards were presented at Cranbrook Academy of Art on May 14.

Ralph and Jeanne Graham are patrons of architecture and have lived in three architect-designed homes. They are activists in the environmental and preservation movements. Six years ago, wishing to honor the memory of a friend, they contacted the Michigan Architectural Foundation with an offer to establish a grant in his name. The David Evans Memorial Grant for Historic Preservation is the result. It is jointly funded by the Clannad and Michigan Architectural Foundations.

Honorary Affiliate Members Jeanne Graham is a retired registered nurse and worked with elderly and hospice patients. She currently works with Cranbrook House and Garden Auxiliary helping to preserve the gardens and as part of its Wildflower Rescue program. She is a 1957 graduate of Kingswood School Cranbrook and a 1961 graduate of Connecticut College. She presently serves as the president of Clannad Foundation, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Ralph Graham is a retired film producer and retailer and operated Orthogonality in Birmingham for 18 years. Since his retirement he has been active as the gardener in charge of the Oriental Garden at Cranbrook. He presently serves as board member of the Michigan Land Use Institute in Beulah, Traverse City and Lansing. He is also assisting with the funding and marketing of the Beaver Island Community Center and is on the planning committee of the Greater Corktown Development Council working to establish an interpretive museum in Detroit. Both buildings are significant adaptive re-use projects. He is a 1955 graduate of the University of Michigan School of Design.

Pamela O'Connor has worked as a local historic preservation advocate for well over a decade, and now serves on the Executive Committee for the Michigan Historic Preservation Network. She was MHPN's 2003 Conference Chair, and now serves on its Public Policy committee.

She operates her own preservation-based consulting, research and writing firm, Preservation Practices in Kalamazoo. She has published a number of articles on historic preservation, and recently completed a seven-year project, coauthoring Kalamazoo: Lost and Found with Lynn Houghton for the City of Kalamazoo's Historic Preservation Commission.

In 2000, O'Connor and her husband Terry founded The O'Connor Fund for Historic Preservation in the City of Kalamazoo. This fund was created to provide permanent endowment funding to the City's Historic Preservation Commission. To date, the fund has accumulated almost $75,000 in contributions.
She is a cum laude graduate of Kalamazoo College, where she also received the George Eaton Errington Prize in Art History, and the Senior Service & Leadership Award.

AIA Michigan is a component of the American Institute of Architects. Its members sponsor the Honor Awards Program to bring to public attention examples of good design and to recognize the people who make significant contributions to the built environment.

Detroit - April 30, 2003 - Naming persons and institutions outside the profession as Honorary Affiliate Members is one of the oldest traditions of the American Institute of Architects Michigan. The first dates to 1897. The roster of honorary affiliates is impressive. Governors, leaders from the media, artists with international reputations, mayors, industry leaders, writers and many others have accepted the offer to become Honorary Affiliate Members. What they all share is a desire to improve the built environment. Two awards will be presented at the annual awards ceremony on May 2, 2003 at Kingswood School on the campus of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills.

Kimberly Fricke began her insurance career 1978. Since 1985 she has specialized in working closely with professional firms to design insurance and risk management programs to meet their unique needs.

She is a founding principal and helped establish Professional Concepts Insurance Agency, Inc. Through her leadership and management, they now serve a clientele of over 1000 Michigan based professional firms. She is a leader in her industry.

Kim is a member of the ACEC MI Risk Management Committee and the AIA Michigan MidSummer Conference Committee.

She gives numerous speeches and seminars for various professional associations and has taught risk management on an ad hoc basis at major universities in Michigan. She is quoted in industry publications, written articles, made recommendations on specific industry issues and offered general business advice.

Kim is a Livingston County resident. She shares her 10 acre horse farm in Pinckney with her horses and dogs.

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The second Honorary Affiliate Membership goes not to an individual as is customary but to the entire community of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM).

To the Sisters, sustainability is "a moral mandate for the 21st century." In 1994 when faced with the need to renovate their own Mother House, they worked with Philadelphia architect Susan Maxman, FAIA, known for her expertise in sustainable design and the Christman Company with their construction management skills in historic preservation. The renovation was successfully completed this January. Their vision extends beyond the 376,000 square foot Mother house facility and will include the 280 acre largely undeveloped campus.

IHM is dedicated to sustaining the function, character and beauty of the historic buildings and property through environmentally responsive sustainable design and stewardship. This will be the largest project in the state of Michigan (possibly the nation) that integrates sustainable design elements within all aspects of the grounds and buildings.

The IHM congregation envisions that the campus will be expressive of, the best knowledge and experience in areas such as spirituality, theology, ecology, social justice, public policy, advocacy, organic agriculture, sustainable methods of energy generation and uses of land, holistic health care for the aging, and inter-generational living. Educators at heart, they are making it a demonstration project so that community members can learn not only what is done but why.

The IHM congregation has "chosen to walk lightly on the Earth, mindful of the impact of today's decisions on future generations." For their leadership in promoting sustainable design they can now call themselves Honorary Affiliate Members of AIA.

AIA Michigan is a component of the American Institute of Architects. Its members sponsor the Honor Awards Program to bring to public attention examples of good design and to recognize the people who make significant contributions to the built environment.

2002

Detroit — May 2, 2002 — The American Institute of Architects Michigan have added two dedicated supporters to their ranks. Robert Washer and Patricia Martinico were made Honorary Affiliate Members during a ceremony at Cranbrook Academy of Art on May 3. This honor goes to people who are not otherwise eligible for membership but have made significant contributions to architecture.

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ROBERT WASHER is Executive Vice President for Storen & Lewis, a construction management company in Detroit. He is a familiar face in the construction industry, working with Turner Construction and Perini Building Company. He has been involved with a number of landmark buildings in the area, including the Music Hall Renovation.

Bob is very active in the football program at Farmington High School. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Farmington Square Homeowners Association and a member of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Farmington. He was volunteer of the Year for the Special Olympics program. He earned his degree in civil engineering.

In addition to his other community activities, he has found time to support the cause of good architecture. He has been a backbone of the Michigan Architectural Foundation Golf Outing that raises funds that the Foundation uses for scholarships, historic preservation and chapter outreach.

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PATRICIA MARTINICO began her career as administrative assistant to Dean Bruno Leon and the faculty of The University of Detroit School of Architecture when it was established in 1964. Since then, the school has consistently produced architects who have grown to become leaders in the profession and in their communities. There is no doubt Pat Martinico has had a positive influence on these architects during her 30 year tenure at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture.

In conferring this award, AIA Michigan recognizes her quiet diligent efforts towards improving the profession of architecture by naming her as an Honorary Affiliate Member.

She earned her master's degree in economics from U of D Mercy in 1995 and resides in West Bloomfield.
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AIA Michigan has over 2,000 members and is housed in the historic Beaubien House in downtown Detroit. The Michigan Honor Awards program is almost 40 years old and was organized to highlight well-designed buildings and to honor the people who create them.

2001

Detroit — April 20, 2001 — There are many ways to make a contribution to the art and science of architecture. The American Institute of Architects - Michigan made that clear when they choose two people, Mary Ann Drew and David Greshem, one from education and one from commerce to become Honorary Affiliate Members of the organization. The each received an engraved plaque at a ceremony at Cranbrook Academy of Arts on May 4^th. Mary Ann Drew spends her days at the University of Michigan helping architectural students and keeping track of its alumni. David Greshman oversees design for Steelcase, one of America’s premier office furniture companies.

Mary Anne Drew is Assistant to the Dean at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. She joined the university fifteen years ago as a staff member in the office of alumni relations and development in the school of business. In addition to her responsibilities for student placement, development and alumni relations, she assists the dean in administrative matters. She has also served as secretary to the facility and was a member of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee.

She graduated from the College of St. Elizabeth in New Jersey with a degree in Latin. She has spent most of her career in higher education, working at George Washington University, the University of Pennsylvania and Syracuse University.

Mary Ann has been married for thirty-two years to Carl Drew and they reside in Ann Arbor.

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David Gresham is vice president of design for Steelcase, Inc., Michigan’s largest designer and manufacturer of products used to create high performance work environments, including office furniture, work stations and related services. The company is headquartered in Grand Rapids. His job is to insure design continuity of all North America products and for design direction for seating, systems, storage and architectural products. His previous role at Steelcase was as director of product design.

He has designed products for a number of prestigious companies including Kodak, Hitachi, Xerox, AT&T, Digital, Mitsubishi, NCR, Thermos, Harman International and Iomega. He was principal and co-founder of Design Logic, a Chicago based product development/advance research firm. The work produced at Design Logic is widely regarded in the design community as reshaping the ideas of design. The influence of this work is still evident in design direction today. Throughout his career, David has been recognized by numerous design organizations for expanding the boundaries of traditional product design. Many of the products he has designed are in the permanent collections of museums and have been featured in international design publications. He has lectured extensively on design in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Gresham has bachelor of science in industrial design from Georgia Institute of Technology and his master of fine arts in design from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills. He is a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America and the American Center for Design.

2000

BUILDER RON STALEY IS HONORARY AFFILIATE MEMBER

Detroit, Michigan -- March 7, 2000 -- Ronald Staley was picked to be an Honorary Affiliate Member of the American Institute of Architects - Michigan because he is a master builder and a powerful force for historic preservation on the state and national scene.

Staley has twenty years in the construction business, the last sixteen with the Christman Company in Lansing. In 1992, he developed a historic preservation program for the company that has led to national prominence. He is a member of the prestigious Association for Preservation Technology International and spoke at its annual conference in Alberta, Canada.

He has directed the restoration of several Michigan landmarks including the Capitol Building that won an National AIA Award, the Governor's House on Mackinac Island, Henry Ford Estate and Cranbook Kingswood School roofs, the Frauenthal Theater in Muskegon, a number of campus buildings throughout the state and the Kirk-In-The-Hills Tower. Another of his projects, the Michigan Stove, will also receive an Honor Award for Design from AIA Michigan this year.

He has given freely of his time and treasure to promote an historic preservation ethic. He is an officer and served on the executive committee of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network, the largest nonprofit organization in the state focused on the protection of our architectural legacy. He is a workshop leader and participant in Eastern Michigan University's Trade School at the Fayette Historic State Park. In April his profile appeared in Traditional Building Magazine, a source book for preservationist nationwide.

Ron and his family live in Brighton and he has just earned a pilots license after taking lessons at the Livingston County Air Port.

STEVE WAGNER IS HONORARY AFFILIATE MEMBER

Detroit, Michigan -- March 16, 2000 -- Stephen Wagner, CAE, Executive Director of the American Consulting Engineers Council/Michigan, is now an Honorary Affiliate Member of the American Institute of Architects - Michigan.

Wagner has been director of the Consulting Engineers Council for thirty years. ACEC is an association for consulting engineers, architectural engineers, surveyors and related scientific companies. There are 120 member firms in Michigan employing 4,000 people. Nationally, some 5,000 companies are represented. Architects and engineers are in regular contact through their directors and elected leaders. He is a strong leader in the Architect - Engineer Legislative Committee.

In addition to a degree in communication arts from Michigan State University, he is a graduate of the U. S Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organization Management. He a member of the Capitol Club, a Lansing based organization made up of business and professional associations.

The Honorary Affiliate List is a who's who of artists, patrons of the arts and civic, cultural and business leaders who have made contributions to architecture and the built environment.

ARTIST DAVID BARR BECOMES HONORARY MEMBER

Detroit, Michigan -- March 16, 2000 -- Noted sculptor David Barr of Novi was inducted as an Honorary Affiliate Member of the American Institute of Architects - Michigan in a ceremony at the Soaring Eagle Resort and Casino in Mt. Pleasant on April 7th. His work is on display all over the world but many of his most interesting works have been a part of large architectural commissions in Michigan.

A sampling of his work with architects includes the "Polaris Ring" at the Michigan Library Museum Archives in Lansing for William Kessler, FAIA; "Revolution I" at the Chrysler World Headquarters in Auburn Hills designed by Ralph Youngren, FAIA for SH&G (now the SmithGroup) and the development of Mt. Elliot Park in Detroit for Schervish, Vogel, Merz.

Barr built his house and studio with his bare hands from plans drawn up by his friend Laurence Booth, a Chicago architect, on a four acre tract in a cornfield in Novi. He also planted trees and dug a pond. This land has become a testing site for his sculpture. The house won a distinguished building award from the Chicago Chapter - AIA. It was published in Global Architecture, House and Garden and Architectural Record.

Originally he enrolled in Wayne State University's engineering school (his father was an engineer at Chrysler). After switching his major to industrial design he ultimately earned his masters of fine arts from Wayne State.

He is founder and artistic director for the Michigan Legacy Art Park in Thompsonville near the Crystal Mountain Resort. It is an outdoor laboratory for the state's artists, poets and naturalists. It is a walking trail where people come to reflect on nature, poetry and roadside sculpture.

The Honors Program began in 1897 when the first honorary member, sculptor Julius Melchers was chosen. He had cut the statuary for the now destroyed Detroit City Hall.

1999

PRESERVATIONIST NAMED HONORARY MEMBER

Detroit, Michigan — May 6, 1999 — Since 1887, Michigan architects have singled out special people by making them Honorary Affiliate Members of the American Institute of Architects- Michigan. "I believe that architectural preservation in our state would be a lot poorer without the commitment of Janet Kreger," said Edward Francis, FAIA in his nomination. An engraved plaque was presented to her at the joint AIA Michigan/Ontario Association of Architects convention in Windsor on April 30th. This distinction is reserved for those who are not otherwise eligible for membership.

Janet Kreger was in Lansing for 12 years as a Historic Preservation Coordinator for the Bureau of History. In that capacity she had more than 34,000 properties inventoried, wrote or edited 3,250 nominations for the National Register of Historic Places and worked with 25 communities to establish protective ordinances and local historic districts.

She left the Bureau in 1988 to work at the University of Michigan as Senior Major Gifts Officer for the College of Literature, Science and Arts. She helped U of M raise over one billion dollars and then moved to East Lansing in 1997 to become the Director of Major and Planned Gifts for Michigan State University to assist with planning its turn-of-the-century billion dollar campaign.

Janet did not forget her preservation roots. She is chairman of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network, a group she helped to establish in 1979 and to which she donates all her teaching and speaking fees; publishes on a wide variety of history-related topics and serves as past president of the Saarinen Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. The Preservation Network was largely responsible for the passage of legislation that provides a 25% investment tax credit for the costs of rehabilitating a designated historic property in Michigan. This incentive puts preservation on a level playing field with new construction.

Ms. Kreger graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan (1972) with a Bachelor of Arts in American History and then earned a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from Columbia in 1976. She is now at work on her Ph.D. in American Studies at Michigan State University. Her dissertation is focused on the cultural and political importance of industrial designer Albert Kahn as expressed through his 23 buildings at the University of Michigan.