AIA AWARD GOES TO LANSING ARCHITECT

April 20, 2007 - Detroit - The Michigan Chapter of the American Institute of Architects President’s Award will be presented to Irvin Poke, AIA. He will receive his plaque at the Annual Celebration of Excellence in Architecture in Plymouth at the Inn at St. John on April 20. The AIA President’s Award is set aside for architects in non-traditional practice; government, industry or academia, who have made exceptional contributions to the profession. This year marks the 150^th Anniversary of The American Institute of Architects. The Inn will play host to over 200 architects for this celebration

Irvin Poke, AIA, is chief of Plan Review, Michigan Bureau of Construction Codes. He is responsible for review and approval of all construction documents for project within the state jurisdiction. The division also approves and monitors manufacturers and third-party inspection agencies involved in Michigan’s Pre-manufactured Units Program. He is a licensed architects in Michigan and a training instructor for state and local code officials.

He is a member of the Commission set in place to review the International Family of Codes for the State of Michigan to complete a State Building Code.

U of M ARCHITECT EARNS AWARD FROM AIA MICHIGAN

Detroit - May 19, 2006 -The American Institute of Architects Michigan chose U of M professor James Chaffers, PhD, AIA to be the recipient of its President’s Award. The award was announced at the annual Celebration of Architecture at the Rackham Building in Ann Arbor. Dr. Chaffers is President/ Design Principal, J Chaffers - Architect and an international practitioner and Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan. The President’s Award is made for significant contributions to architecture by those who practice in the education or corporate field.

A magna cum laude graduate of Southern University, Dr. Chaffers completed advanced studies in Architecture at the University of Michigan. Post-doctoral studies were completed at Terman Engineering Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.

Dr. Chaffers' professional and academic work focuses on design links between spatial quality and human spirituality. The practical applications of his professional/ pedagogical focus is most evident in design consultations for cultural memorials, 'indigenous art' museums, and collaborative design projects within intensely-urban environments.

In recognition of his scholarship, distinguished teaching, and professional consultations, he was recently honored as "Educator of the Year" of Michigan Colleges and Universities. More recently, Dr. Chaffers was asked to serve as Senior Design Juror for the design of a "living memorial" in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Guided by competition criteria he co-developed, the winning entry for the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial emerged from over 900 competitive briefs submitted by the international design community. Honoring a legacy of four decades, the M L King National Memorial will be built on the Monumental Mall in Washington, DC. "Ground-breaking" is scheduled for June of 2008.

In his academic roles, Dr. Chaffers has served as Director of the University of Michigan Ph.D. Program in Architecture, Director of the Villa Corsi-Salviati Design Studio in Florence, Italy, and Director of the Taubman College West African Studio in Accra and Kumasi, Ghana. He is the founder of two inner city design centers, a 'First Prize' winner in the Student/Professor category of several international design competitions and the author of Spacespirit, a forthcoming text focused on issues of design quality, human communality, and ecological sustainability for a new millennium.

American Institute of Architects Michigan Honors
 Daniel Pitera
with President’S Award

DETROIT, April 25, 2005 – The American Institute of Architects Michigan (AIA Michigan) will honor architect Daniel Pitera, AIA, with the AIA Michigan President’s Award 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.

The AIA Michigan President’s Award is presented in recognition of outstanding contributions to the advancement of the built environment by an influential architect in the education or corporate fields.

Pitera is director of the Detroit Collaborative Design Center at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture, and is the 2004-2005 Harvard Loeb Fellow at Harvard University. Under Pitera’s direction, the Detroit Collaborative Design Center won the 2002 Grand Award in the first annual national NCARB (National Council of Architectural Registration Boards) Prize and was included in ArchiLab 2001 and 2004. He also was the recipient of the 2002 Dedalo Minosse International Prize, was the Hyde Chair of Excellence at the University of Nebraska, and was president of the Center for Critical Architecture/Art + Architectural Exhibition Space in San Francisco.

His teaching experience includes the University of California at Berkely, the University of Kansas and the California College of Arts, where he was director of professional programs. Additionally, he has lectured extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

Pitera received his Masters of Architecture from Georgia Tech.

Detroit - May 13, 2004 - David M. Chasco, AIA, Interim Dean of the School of Architecture at Lawrence Institute of Technology in Southfield will receive the President’s Award from the American Institute of Architects Michigan on May 14 at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills. The award recognizes the significant contributions of architects who practice in the corporate or education fields.

Following graduation from the University of Illinois with his Masters Degree in Architecture, Chasco joined the international award winning design firm, Gunnar Birkerts & Associates. While with Birkerts his work included conceptual and schematic design and design management for major projects including an embassy in Venezuela and projects in Florence and Milan. Closer to home, he was involved in the construction of the U of M Flint Library; Holtzman & Silverman Office building, a law school in Iowa and a library in Utah. He has also been the design consultant in charge of projects at Ferris State, the renovation of the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament and the Rosza Center for the Performing Arts at Michigan Technological University for which he received a recent Detroit AIA Chapter Award.

Chasco was appointed Chair of the Department of Architecture in 1998 and became Interim Dean of the College in 2002. He has been instrumental in the development of the Integrated Design Studios, the Detroit Urban Studio and the creation of the Paris Study Abroad Program. He also influenced the University, as Owner's Representative in securing Charles Gwathmy of New York with Neumann/Smith Associates of Southfield to design the University Technology Learning Center for Architecture. During the past few years, he has presented papers at over fifteen National and International conferences.

He received the New York Architectural League's Young Architect Award and has been selected as a design juror for both chapter and State AIA Honor Awards in Illinois and Oklahoma. He has been design jury critic at the University of Illinois, University of Michigan, Oklahoma State, Auburn, Mississippi State and others. In 1992, Chasco received the University of Illinois School of Architecture coveted Francis J. Plym Traveling Fellowship for mid-career professional development.

He lives with his family in Huntington Woods.

Detroit - April 30, 2003 - Stephen Vogel, FAIA, Dean of Architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture will receive the President's Award from the American Institute of Architects Michigan on May 2 at Cranbrook Academy of Art. The award recognizes architects who have made a significant contribution to the profession and work in the corporate or educational field.
 

Vogel was educated at the University of Detroit, became a professor there and was named Dean in 1993. He took the school's mission, "to be engaged in the urban community and to educate future architects committed to building sustainable communities" as his own. To that end he co-founded the Detroit Collaborative Design Center, a university-based center providing professional design services to non-profit civic and community organizations, and the International Center for Urban Ecology which advocates community participation in the re-ordering of post-industrial cities.

He has over thirty years of experience in architecture and urban design and has successfully combined an academic and professional career with civic involvement that has earned him the highest professional and community approbation. He has lectured extensively locally, nationally and internationally on urban design, housing, education and the use of historic tax credits and other gap financing techniques for urban redevelopment in distressed communities.

He is also a partner in the Harmonie Development Corporation, which develops small and medium sized urban, historic and adaptive re-use projects and is the developer of the Harmonie Park Redevelopment Project in downtown Detroit. This project has received a national AIA Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design and a national Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects, Schervish Vogel Consulting Architects has additionally received over fifty design awards from local, state and national organizations for the excellence of its work.

As President of AIA Detroit and AIA Michigan and as a member of the National AIA Membership Futures Task Force. He demonstrated his steadfast commitment to the profession. He has significantly redirected AIA Michigan's government affairs efforts into a powerful force in the state legislature.

2002

Detroit — May 2, 2002 — The American Institute of Architects Michigan picked John Sheoris, FAIA of Grosse Pointe for its President’s Award. The award was created to honor architects who work in corporate or education settings. Sheoris is Professor Emeritus of Architecture, College of Architecture and Design for Lawrence Technological University.

He is a graduate of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and holds Bachelor and Master of Architecture degrees from Yale University. In 1953, he was awarded the Magnus T. Hopper Fellowship in Hospital Design for travel and study in Europe.

Born in New York City, he came to Detroit in 1959 as director of design for Harley, Ellington and Day. He joined Smith, Hinchman & Grylls Associates and by 1973 was a corporate vice president and director of the health facilities division.

While in corporate practice he participated in design juries at the University of Detroit, University of Michigan and Lawrence Institute of Technology. He served on advisory boards and executive committees at Texas A&M and the Yale Arts Association. He was a seminar lecturer for the Graduate School of Architecture and Planning at Columbia University.

In 1982 he received the Cooper Union Citation, the highest honor given to its alumni for distinguished service in their chosen field. This event was the motivating instance that changed the future course of his career in academia.

He joined the faculty at Lawrence Technological University, and over many years has provided invaluable leadership and service not only to students but also to his colleagues in the College of Architecture and Design. He chaired the faculty council, was a charter member and chairman of the University Graduate Council and was coordinator of the professional degree design thesis program.

John is a Fellow in the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. He has served numerous professional organizations including the National AIA Committee on Design. He is active with the Detroit Chapter and serves on the Design Retreat Committee for AIA Michigan. In addition, community participation is an important part of his life. He is a member of the Rotary Club of the Grosse Pointes, the Assumption Church long range planning committee, and had 23 years of service on the Grosse Pointe Park Plan Commission.

U OF M DEAN NAMED BY ARCHITECTS FOR PRESIDENT’S AWARD

Detroit — April 20, 2001 — The American Institute of Architects - Michigan selected Douglas Kelbaugh, FAIA, Dean of the Taubman School of Architecture and Planning for its President's Award. This award, geared to architects who work in the corporate or education field, is granted for outstanding contributions to the profession. AIA President Andy Vazzano, AIA will made the presentation on May 4th at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills.

Kelbaugh came to the University of Michigan from the University of Washington in 1998 just in time to accept the largest gift ever given to a school of architecture, $30 million from art patron and shopping center baron A. Alfred Taubman. The money is being used to develop an urban design program, for scholarships and to expand the staff.

The Dean has chaired several national and international conferences on energy and design, spoken to hundreds of professional and community groups, appeared on numerous local and national radio and television programs and served on a score of regional and national design juries.

He co-authored The Pedestrian Pocket Book with Peter Calthorpe, his associate in professional practice. This best seller helped to jump-start the New Urbanism movement. He also wrote Common Place: Toward Neighborhood and Regional Design. His new book, Repairing the American Metropolis: Beyond Common Place, will be published this year.

He received his BA degree Magna Cum Laude and master of architecture degree from Princeton University. Between degrees, he founded a community design center in Trenton, New Jersey and later worked for five years in local government there as a planner and architect. He went into private practice with Kelbaugh and Lee, a firm that won 15 regional and national design awards. His designs have been published in over 100 books and magazines and featured in many exhibitions in the USA and abroad. He lives in downtown Ann Arbor.

PRESIDENT’S AWARD GOES TO DEAN NEVILLE CLOUTEN

Detroit, Michigan -- April 5, 2000 -- Neville Clouten, FRAIA, dean of the college of architecture and design at Lawrence Technological University is the 2000 President’s Award recipient. This award recognizes exceptional contributions to the profession for architects who practice in a corporate or university setting.

Dr. Clouten began his career in New South Wales, Australia and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. His first architecture degree came from the University of Sydney. He went on to Ohio State for his master’s degree and then to Edinburgh University in Scotland for his Ph.D. He came to Michigan to chair the Department of Architecture at Andrews University in Berrien Springs. He has been Dean at Lawrence since 1990.

The College of Architecture and Design enrolls 600 undergraduate students in architecture and 120 students in the interior design and architectural illustration. Approximately 70 students are enrolled in graduate degrees. The College employs 22 full time faculty, 70 adjunct faculty and 10 staff.

A unique part of his work is as Curator of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Affleck House in Bloomfield Hills. He has made this outstanding example of Wright’s Usonian style house a venue for Master Classes and reflective practice studios. It is also accessible to the community as an historic building.

He is an advocate for collaborative design for schools, community buildings, campuses and neighborhoods. Collaborative Urban Design studies in southeastern Michigan include Royal Oak, Pontiac, Monroe, Novi, and Detroit where a design studio is now located in the New Center Area.

In 1998 he led a delegation from Lawrence Technological University to the United Nations in New York and coordinated the exhibition of student projects on the Ssese Islands, Lake Victoria, Uganda. Since 1989 he has been consultant to the Ssese Islands Development Project.

ARCHITECTS HONOR DEAN METCALF

Detroit, Michigan — May 6, 1999— Robert Metcalf, a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows, earned the President’s Award from AIA Michigan for his lifetime of dedication to training young architects. The President’s Award is aimed at architects who distinguish themselves in the education or corporate arena.

Dean Emeritus Metcalf was the Emil Lorch Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning for the University of Michigan until he retired in 1991 after 35 years as a faculty member. In 1974, the College of Architecture and Design was partitioned. He became the first dean of the new College of Architecture and Urban Planning. During his years as administrator, the College initiated the nation’s first professional doctoral program in architecture, made the school a preeminent center for research, and nearly doubled the enrollment to 457 students.

In addition to his academic career, he carried on a distinguished architectural practice. He completed 114 projects and earned several state and national awards many of which were published in professional journals. Of the 80 custom homes he designed, 66 were built in Ann Arbor adding to the ambiance of one of Michigan’s most livable cities.

Professor Metcalf’s contributions at the state and national level include important offices and committee assignments in the American Institute of Architects-Michigan, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the National Architectural Accreditation Board. He was president of the Huron Valley Chapter of AIA and chaired the Michigan State Board of Registration for Architects.

The was presented at the Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects-Michigan in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on April 30, 1999. Over six hundred Michigan and Ontario architects come together for the evening to celebrate architecture and the people who produce it on both sides of the border.

Previous Presidents Award Winners