Announcing 2017 Chicago Fellows

02.10.2017

Congratulations to the 13 Chicago architects to receive the 2017 FAIA distinction.

AIA Fellows are recognized with the AIA’s highest membership honor for their exceptional work and contributions to architecture and society. The prestige of FAIA after your name is unparalleled and the judging is rigorous.

Architects who have made significant contributions to the profession and society and who exemplify architectural excellence can become an AIA Fellow. Approximately 3 percent of the AIA’s 88,000+ members have this distinction.

Categories:

• Category One: Promoted the aesthetic, scientific, and practical efficiency of the profession.
• Category Two: Advanced the science and art of planning and building by advancing the standards of architectural education, training and practice.
• Category Three: Coordinated the building industry and the profession of architecture through leadership in the AIA or other related professional organizations.
• Category Four: Advanced the living standards of people through an improved environment.
• Category Five: Made the profession of ever-increasing service to society.
   

Gary Ainge, FAIA, Principal, HBRA
Category Two: Education, Research, Literature, or Practice

Gary Ainge came to HBRA Architects in 1984 from the Chicago firm of Tigerman Fugman McCurry. After serving in a diversity of roles at HBRA, Gary was elevated to Associate, then Principal, and in 1994 was appointed Administrative Principal and charged with managing the daily operations of the firm, a role he continues to fulfill to this day. Throughout his 32 year history with HBRA, Gary has directed many nationally recognized projects of varied scales with programmatic, budgetary and logistical challenges as Principal-in-Charge. With sensitivity toward existing conditions, both man-made and natural, Gary has been able to guide the design team, client, user groups and consultants toward solutions that are contextually appropriate, visually appealing, cost-effective and technically innovative.
 
Gary mentors and shares his knowledge and expertise in architectural design, practice and management with peers, professionals, students, institutions and organizations. He has served as a guest lecturer for the Professional Practice course at the University of Notre Dame for fifth year undergraduate students, providing real world examples of firm management strategies, thereby helping to cultivate well-rounded future practitioners. Additionally, Gary has lectured extensively on the design of summer camps, most recently at the University of Maryland. His experience with camps began in 1986 when he managed the design and construction administration process of the Hole In The Wall Gang Camp for children with life-threatening illnesses, founded by Paul Newman. Gary has been associated with the HITWGC for over 30 years, donating his time and talent for a multitude of subsequent projects. His expertise has been provided globally to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp Fund by advising the organization on the design, safety and functionality of existing and future camp facilities throughout the world. Over the years, Gary has offered presentations on the development of the original HITWGC to groups for camp sponsored events and fundraising.
 
In addition to his daily firm management responsibilities at HBRA, Gary provides in-depth project management on significant, award-winning institutional and university projects requiring a keen understanding of institutional culture, procedures, and how those communities wish to convey their identities through architecture.
 
Gary is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Midwest Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art (ICAA), which is part of the leading national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the appreciation of the classical tradition in architecture and the allied arts. He is also the Committee Chair of and responsible for establishing the Acanthus Awards; an awards program developed to recognize excellence and distinction in classical and traditional architecture, now in its fourth year. Gary is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Architectural Research Foundation, where he serves this not-for-profit institution to provide guidance and direction for architectural research specific to Chicago, its history and future.

Jeff Bone, FAIA, Principal at Landon Bone Baker Architects
Category Two: Education, Research, Literature, or Practice

Good design should be available to all. That’s the belief of Jeff Bone and Landon Bone Baker Architects. An innovative leader and hands-on champion of affordable housing, Jeff nurtures the firm’s grassroots approach to help nonprofit clients translate their vision. He regularly engages community members to co-create inventive, inviting, and sustainable spaces that stabilize lives, revitalize neighborhoods, and regenerate cities.
 
Throughout his career, Jeff has helped shaped best practices, codes, and policy in many capacities, including volunteering with Affordable Housing Building Code Group of the Business and Professional People for the Public Interest; advocating to preserve SROs and establish best practices in design/construction; and volunteering with Tiny House Working Group to champion new, economical housing options.
 
For a synergistic effect on LBBA projects, Jeff partners with unique nonprofits, including Archi-treasures, on whose board he has served for years. The organization connects people to the places they live through collaborative art-making, and as a result, increases the social sustainability of both the buildings and neighborhoods.
 
Jeff’s work has been honored with numerous awards, including multiple AIA Chicago Distinguished Building Awards and four prestigious First-Place Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Architectural Excellence in Community Design.

Sheila F. Cahnman, FAIA, President, JumpGarden Consulting, LLC
Category Two: Education, Research, Literature, or Practice

Sheila Cahnman champions healthcare innovation worldwide through prolific advocacy and significant architectural design, influencing a new generation by rethinking how the healthcare environment can shape patient experience, clinical outcomes and operational efficiency.
 
Sheila’s 35 years of healthcare facility experience includes work at all the academic medical centers in Chicago as well as major projects nationally for such clients as The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, University of Missouri Health Center and Harris Health in Houston. Sheila has spoken at over 30 conferences and written 25 articles on healthcare facility planning issues. Sheila is on the Editorial Board of Healthcare Design Magazine and a reviewer for the Health Environments Research & Design (HERD), Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) and American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA) journals. She is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Illinois, Urbana – Champaign and has a teaching affiliation at four other universities. She is a former president of Chicago Women in Architecture.

Rada Doytcheva, FAIA, Principal & Head of Design, RADA Architects
Category Two: Education, Research, Literature, or Practice
(AIA Continental Europe)

Rada Doytcheva is a Principal and Head of Design at RADA Architects, leading a practice of wide impact with socially responsible projects, successfully blending innovative ideas and commitment to rational, people-oriented designs.  

In her work for institutions and public buildings users, she has brought new ideas reimagining working, living and learning spaces. Most of Rada’s accomplishments are in the neediest neighborhoods of Chicago – designing for Chicago Public Schools, City Colleges of Chicago, for urban higher ed campuses - UIC, NEIU, CSU, for public agencies - Cook County, Chicago Department of Aviation and others. 
Rada comes to her practice with a passion for what is right, socially responsible and sustainable. Projects like the adaptive reuse of Dodge School in Garfield Park and the Clybourn Point development on the edge of former Cabrini Green – helped rebuild broken communities, revitalized forgotten buildings and drew people together.  

As a bridge for international exchange, Rada has been active in the International Committee of the AIA as its Chair, later on as an AIA Europe Board Member. She continues to lead conferences, presentations and student competitions. Being a strong advocate for female and minority architects empowerment, she has helped raise this awareness at numerous local and state public agencies.  

Matthew Dumich, FAIA, Senior Architect & Project Manager, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Category Three: Led the Institute, Led a Related Organization

Matthew Dumich, FAIA advances mentorship, connectivity and outreach, empowering architect leaders. His groundbreaking initiatives bridge generations to promote and equip architects with tools and platforms for personal and collective success.
 
Matt leads a national conversation on design leadership, mentorship and firm culture. He is a frequently sought after guest lecturer and architecture advocate, speaking at universities, high schools, AIAS FORUM, AIA National Conventions and ARCHITECT Live. Matt is a consistent local, regional and national leader, currently serving as AIA Chicago President. He is co-founder of BRIDGE, a leadership program pairing emerging architects with FAIA mentors to discuss career advancement and the future of the profession. BRIDGE is informing the next generation, while establishing lasting, multigenerational relationships. In 2011, Matt led an Institute membership committee to establish a comprehensive marketing and communications plan resulting in the highly successful “I AM AIA” advertising campaign.
 
In practice, Matt promotes a culture of mentorship and licensure, enriching professional advancement opportunities and empowering teams to be successful. As a Senior Architect and Project Manager at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), he fosters leadership across the team and shares expertise with clients and team members on the design and delivery of complex, high-performance projects domestically and abroad.

David Eckmann, FAIA, Managing Principal, Magnusson Klemencic Associates 
Category Two: Education, Research, Literature, or Practice

Dave is the Managing Principal of Magnusson Klemencic Associates’ (MKA) Chicago office, and a Senior Principal for the firm. He offers 30 years of industry experience. Both an architect and structural engineer, Dave practices and promotes the bold integration of these disciplines, profoundly impacting the profession through world-class projects, industry leadership, and the sharing of knowledge.  Some of Dave’s local project experience include Aqua, Chicago O’Hare International Terminal, University of Chicago Ratner Athletics Center, and City Hyde Park, which feature structure as architecture.
 

Martin Felsen, FAIA, Founder, UrbanLab
Category One: Design, Urban Design, or Preservation

Plying the boundaries between practice and education, Martin Felsen blends design and data to produce uniquely progressive, site-specific built works and research, resulting in a new aesthetic for environmentally resilient architecture, infrastructure, landscapes, and public space.
 
Martin Felsen founded UrbanLab as an alternative practice aiming to synthesize diverse methodologies, technical innovation, and hybrid vocabularies drawn equally from architecture and its complex urban and natural contexts. Martin’s projects seek beauty in the unexpected at all scales, from his 2016 exhibition for the Chicago Architecture Foundation—“50 Designers, 50 Ideas, 50 Wards”—to a competition-winning urban district in Changde, China, designed to house 700,000 people in 5 square miles. UrbanLab’s work possesses an element of conceptual and graphic rigor and inquiry that has become the hallmark its design work, encouraging greater public and professional engagement and deeper and more productive collaborations with partners and clients.
 
Martin’s work integrates empirical research and analogical design. Martin has worked with geographers and computer scientists on National Science Foundation grants exploring the nature of human and natural systems through the analysis of their patterns of urban growth and movement. All UrbanLab’s work is strengthened by this confluence of art and science. Martin’s designs routinely incorporate and formalize hydrology, ecosystems, biodiversity, public health, energy, and transportation, among other factors, which led to UrbanLab’s reconceptualization of the Chicago tradition of “no small plans”—the “Eco-Boulevard”—which earned Martin and his team the 2009 AIA College of Fellows Latrobe Prize.
 
Beyond professional practice, Martin regularly contributes to the architectural discourse through his academic commitments and teaching, as well as writings and participation in conferences, guest lectures, design juries, large-scale urban consultation, and symposia. For both his professional and academic work, Martin has received numerous honors and awards. His projects have been widely published and exhibited in national and international venues, including the Venice Biennale.

Randolph Guillot, FAIA, Design Director at Gensler
Category One: Design, Urban Design, or Preservation

Randy Guillot, FAIA has designed a compelling body of work of intensely programmatic and contextually driven architecture. His work creates new models for healing, learning and working by truly understanding the multidisciplinary nature of these activities resulting in sculptural, exuberant, site-specific buildings. They are celebrated not just for their critical design success, but also for how they have changed access to healthy, dignified, optimistic and engaging environments for all.

He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with degrees in Fine Art and Architecture in 1990. He is a Design Director in the Chicago office of Gensler and has been a design leader for studios in Los Angeles and Chicago for Gensler, CannonDesign, OWP/P, Perkins + Will, and Ellerbe Becket. Randy has been recognized with over 40 local, national and international design awards to date, published extensively and has designed buildings on five continents.

He acts as a studio critic and lecturer and has expanded the profession’s commitment to partnerships with universities through enabling unique ‘in- residence’ studio programs for students. Randy, his wife and four children make their home in Oak Park, IL.

Charles Hasbrouck, FAIA, Director at bKL Architecture
Category Two: Education, Research, Literature, or Practice

Charles R. Hasbrouck FAIA has been consistently successful in implementing complex, challenging and influential projects around the world. He is currently a Director at bKL Architecture, where he oversees the Architect of Record’s Services for the 95 story Wanda Vista Tower, designed by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, which will be Chicago’s third tallest building when complete.

Prior to joining bKL Architecture, he was a Director at Skidmore Owings & Merrill and a founding Principal of Gonzalez Hasbrouck. During his career, he managed projects that range from sensitive renovations and creative adaptive reuses, to large scale mixed use buildings and master plans for sustainable new cities. He has led projects in the United States, Oman, Kuwait, India, Russia and beyond.
 
As his career evolves, he spends more time mentoring young managers and sharing his experience through civic engagement. He currently sits on the Boards of Directors of the Cliff Dwellers, the Glessner House Museum and the Friends of Downtown. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and earned a Master of Architecture degree from Yale University.         

Richard Master, FAIA, Senior Manager, USG Sustainability
Category Two: Education, Research, Literature, or Practice

Richard C. (Rik) Master, FAIA, LEED AP is a Research Architect with over 40 years building science experience and currently Sr. Manager, Sustainability - USG Corporation.  Responsibilities include sustainable guidance, technical support, environmental research, and documentation. While at USG, Rik spent 18 years in Corporate Sustainability/Building Science and 17 years at the USG Research Center in the development of building systems, including the Structocore Security System, Learning Demountable Wall System, and the Light Steel Framing Manual (details, specifications and installation instructions). Rik is known in the construction industry as the Plaster Expert and is often called on for plaster consulting by both architects and contractors world-wide. Rik developed and wrote USG ACTION an interactive technical information retrieval software package for the construction professional which evolved into the current technical website.  Active in several professional organizations and committees including AIA Professional Interest Areas and former Chair of AIA’s Specifications and Building Technology, AIA Educational Advisory Committee, AIA Initiative for Architectural Research Advisory Council, Founder & Former Chair of the Building Envelope Council of Chicago, the 2008 President of the AIA – Chicago, former member of the HPD Collabritive MAP, USGBC’s EQ Technical Advisory Group (TAG 2010-2014), CSI’s Technical Committee (2010-2013), and AIA Illinois Board member (2010 – 2016), and 2016 (current) President of AIA Illinois. Currently Rik service the AIA National Strategic Councilor from Illinois.

Prior to joining USG, Rik owned an Architectural/Construction firm specializing in Energy Efficient Design/High-Performance Buildings. Designed and built several single family energy-efficient homes and his own ‘Passive Design’ home in 1979, which is 70% off-the-grid. He started his career working as a carpenter (Union 13 -Chicago) during High School and College.

Edward Peck, FAIA, Design Principal, Forum Studio
Category Two: Education, Research, Literature, or Practice

Edward is a principal at Forum Studio where he works at the intersection of art and science synchronizing architecture and engineering in the development of innovative and high-performance solutions for the built environment.

Edward’s experience spans a broad spectrum of project typologies including higher education, corporate, healthcare, residential and sports and entertainment venues. A recognized leader in emerging architectural technologies, he has become a leading advocate for high-performance architecture, an educator of informed collaboration and a pioneer of innovative materials. 

Junjian "J.J." Tang, FAIA, Federal Program Principal, HDR
Category Two: Education, Research, Literature, or Practice

J.J. is a federal program principal of HDR Architecture Inc. Over the past two decades, his career has focused on the design of federal facilities which are critical to our country’s defense and to U.S. security around the world. These facilities have combined construction value exceeding billions of dollars, across four continents. J.J. is the recipient of the prestigious 2011 Urbahn Medal from the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) awarded annually to an architect for his or her eminent and notable contributions in the field of architecture.
 
In 2011, J.J. found the national Architectural Practice Committee (APC) of SAME in its 92 years history and served as its inaugural chair until 2016. APC has united thousands of architects for the common cause of elevating federal architecture. To recognize his outstanding leadership and accomplishments, SAME honored him with 2015 President’s Medal and elected him to Academy of Fellows of SAME in 2016.

Before joining HDR, J.J. worked at M+W Zander, Solomon Cordwell & Buenz Associates, Murphy/Jahn, and Nagle & Hartry Associates in Chicago. He earned M.Arch from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1993, Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Huazhong University of Science &Technology (HUST, China) in 1989. J.J. was selected as HUST’s distinguished alumnus in 2012.

Steven Turckes, FAIA, Practice Leader, Principal, Perkins+Will
Category Two: Education, Research, Literature, or Practice

 An enthusiastic advocate for advancing education through design, Steven Turckes, FAIA, has led the development of innovative K through 12 schools by educating communities, sharing his expertise, and transforming architecture for education. Steve firmly believes in the power of education and educational environments to change lives. For over thirty years, principally with Perkins+Will, he has shaped educational facilities in the Midwest, across the Nation, and all over the World. Steve’s body of work reflects his focus on connecting the knowledge and experience of educators with the energy and enthusiasm of students and communities to support innovative educational missions and spaces. His process is infused with the principles of observation, collaboration and knowledge sharing, and he has led teams creating future-ready environments that stand the test of time.

Interested in Fellowship?

It's never too early in your career to think about becoming a Fellow!

Licensed architects who have distinguished themselves in the categories of design, practice, education or service in the community, and who have at least 10 years of cumulative AIA membership are eligible applicants for Fellowship.

AIA Chicago proves several informational events throughout the year to help guide and prepare members for the nomination and application process, including: 

Summer (June/July) - Demystifying Fellowship Seminar
Fall (mid-September) – Fellowship Mentoring Session

Click here to view Fellowship information, including important event dates!

Questions? Ready to sign up? Contact Steve Riforgiato at sriforgiato@aiachicago.org, or at 312-376-2740.