AAF School Design Institutes

Drew Becher

Drew Becher has more than 12 years of experience in planning and government leadership. He currently serves as the deputy director of the Neighborhood Planning and Development/Urban Design Division for the District of Columbia’s Office of Planning. In 2004, before moving to Washington, D.C., he served the City of Chicago as an assistant to the mayor, as manager of finance and administration for Chicago Public Schools, and as chief of staff for the Chicago Park District.

Becher has played a key role in numerous government initiatives and has been recognized by cities across the country. In Washington, D.C., he initiated CapitalSpace, a comprehensive plan for the District’s parks and open spaces, and is assisting in the development of a D.C. Department of Environment. In Chicago, he created the “Welfare to Work” landscaping program.

As manager for Chicago Public Schools, he initiated a $2 billion capital improvement program. The program included many innovative ideas, such as campus parks and co-location initiatives, so that schools will act as “mini community centers” for Chicago neighborhoods.

Becher also created the award-winning “Get in the Loop” campaign aimed at motivating homegrown Chicago businesses to expand into other neighborhoods. He originated Chicago’s Landscape Ordinance. Becher has done graduate work at DePaul University and has a bachelor’s degree in urban design and planning from the University of Cincinnati.

Thomas H. Blurock, FAIA

Thomas H. Blurock, FAIA, has built a practice dedicated to the creation of better urban schools. During his firm’s 20-year history, nearly 200 school projects have been completed, most for inner city school districts with constrained budgets, poor socioeconomic conditions, grave security issues, and highly politicized decision making. Building on Blurock’s expertise in public finance, educational programming, urban economics, and school security, his firm has been able to expand its services beyond those of a standard architectural practice to offer an integrated approach to educational architecture. Blurock is also a leader of the Committee on Architecture for Education, a national AIA knowledge community.

As part of his urban school practice, Blurock has become an authority on school security, advocating and elaborating passive solutions. He was a featured speaker at an important national convention on school security (“Learning from Columbine,” Denver 1999), and he has been widely interviewed, including an appearance on NBC’s Nightly News as a spokesman for AIA on this critical topic. He wrote the article “School Security: Designing Safe Learning Environments” in the new compendium Building Security by Barbara Nadel, FAIA. Blurock earned his master’s degree in architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and a bachelor of science degree in environmental design from the University of Washington.

Patricia Bosch, LEED AP

With more than 21 years of experience in the field of architecture, Pat Bosch serves as design director for the Miami office of the internationally renowned firm of Perkins + Will. During her career, she has been involved in planning and the design of learning environments, civic and public buildings, corporate headquarters, mixed-use facilities, libraries, and research buildings, as well as higher education facilities across the nation and throughout the world. As an educator she has participated in the exploration of emerging building typologies and their evolution, given modern urban needs and challenges.

Known for her collaborative skills, Bosch was appointed co-chair of the firm’s excellence in design initiative and routinely brings diverse constituencies together to generate ideas and find common ground. Her awardwinning work includes such project successes as the Miami Beach Multiuse City Hall Annex, the Caribbean Technology Center, the University of Florida Research Building (IDRB Research Lab), the Miami Dade School of Aviation, the University of Miami School of Communication, and the expansion and renovation of the historic Victor Hotel in South Beach. Bosch also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami and Florida International University.

Peter Brown

As a registered architect and leader of Perkins & Will’s K–12 education practice, Peter Brown heads a researchbased team of strategic planners focused on maximizing educational opportunities through informed facility decisions. He has more than 15 years of planning and design expertise, and his nationally and internationally recognized schools reflect a unique local, national, and global perspective. He provides creative, long-term strategies that apply immediate solutions to successfully connect facilities and learning.

His leadership has resulted in acclaimed public and private school projects worldwide, including the awardwinning Fearn Elementary School in Illinois, Hector Garcia Middle School in Dallas, and the International School in Beijing.

Brown frequently speaks at national and regional venues, and his work is regularly published in the architectural and educational media. He is also an active volunteer with the Council of Education Facility Planners International, has served as an educator with the Illinois Institute of Technology, and continues to mentor young professionals.

Steve Crane, FAIA, REFP

Steve Crane, FAIA, REFP, has provided professional architectural design and planning services for nearly three decades. Crane holds a master of architecture degree from the University of Utah, where as an assistant adjunct professor he has taught design and architectural professional practice for 11 years. He is a member and past chairman of the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education and is a member of the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International (CEFPI). Crane is a past president, president elect, and secretary of the Salt Lake Chapter of the AIA.

A partner at VCBO Architecture, Crane leads the firm’s work on educational architecture, which has garnered numerous national, regional, and local awards, including the prestigious James D. MacConnell Award. He has written articles for numerous national magazines. He was asked by the White House to represent the AIA on CNN Live and has been quoted in Newsweek magazine. Project experience includes the design of more than 11 million square feet of educational facilities. Recent projects include Nibley Park Elementary School (Salt Lake City, Utah); Star Valley High School (Afton, Wyoming); Timberline Middle School (Alpine, Utah); Foothills High School (Yuma, Arizona); and the AIA Honor Award– winning new Salt Lake City Public Library. Crane has shaped the lives of many people in his nearly 30 years of architectural practice.

Matthew Dalbey, Ph.D., AICP

Matthew Dalbey is a senior policy analyst with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Development, Community, and Environment Division. The division collaborates with a network of environmental, land-use, transportation, design, and community-based organizations to highlight the environmental benefits of best practices and innovations in smart-growth development. Dalbey speaks, writes about, and provides technical assistance on rural development issues. Currently he is preparing a document that outlines the rural version of smart-growth development strategies. He also works on strengthening partnerships with universities, particularly in curricula, technical assistance to communities, and college and university development practices.

Before joining the EPA in 2004, Dalbey spent five years on the faculty at Jackson State University in Mississippi in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. At Jackson State, he taught courses in growth management, regional planning, and planning history and conducted applied research in community participation, urban design, and university-community collaboration. While there, he was appointed to the Jackson Metro Parkway Commission. As a commission member, he led a subcommittee that wrote a programming and predesign plan for the road’s public right of way. Portions of the plan have already been implemented.

Dalbey is the author of one book and several articles on planning. He is also a practicing planner and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary (bachelor’s degree), the University of Virginia (master’s degree in city planning), and Columbia University (doctoral degree).

Tim Dufault, AIA

Tim Dufault is a principal with Cuningham Group and has been responsible for the design, management, and construction of more than $700 million worth of new and remodeled educational facilities. As the managing principal of Cuningham Group’s Education Studio—35 people dedicated to creating effective learning environments for people of all ages—Dufault is responsible for bringing the resources necessary to each project to ensure success.

Dufault is responsible for coordinating all the educational design work for the firm’s two offices. He is a 1986 graduate of North Dakota State University with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. He is a member of the Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) and the Society of College and University Planners, as well as an active member of the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education.

Dufault continues to serve as a guest lecturer at major education conferences around the country, including the American Association of School Administrators, the AIA CAE, the National School Boards Association, and CEFPI.

Dufault believes that understanding and integrating the needs and beliefs of educators into the built environment is key to the success of any school. He has effectively used this approach to develop projects at both the elementary and the secondary levels.

Deane M. Evans, FAIA

Deane Evans currently directs the Center for Architecture and Building Science Research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He has more than 25 years of experience—in both the private and public sectors—in architectural design, construction technology, and building performance. His current area of concentration is high-performance, sustainable buildings, particularly housing and schools. Evans wrote the High Performance School Buildings Resource and Strategy Guide, a set of guidelines for school superintendents and other key decision makers that describes what high performance schools are; why they are valuable to students, teachers, and parents; and how they can be cost-effectively procured. He is also the host of a four-part, online multimedia lecture series based on the guide.

Evans was the curriculum content coordinator for a 25-module, online training course for architects on designing high-performance schools. He also established the New Jersey High Performance Schools Information Center in cooperation with the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation, and he recently launched the Daylighting in Schools Online Training Program, developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Rebuild America program. Evans is a fellow of the AIA and currently serves as the vice chair of the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council. He has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree in architecture from Columbia.

Edward A. Feiner, FAIA

Edward A. Feiner joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill on February 1, 2005, as director of the Washington, D.C., office.

Previously, Feiner served as chief architect of the U.S. General Services Administration. He was appointed to that position in 1996. As chief architect he was the senior advisor to the administrator of the General Services Administration and the commissioner of the Public Buildings Service regarding federal architecture, design, and construction policy and innovation. He provided national leadership for the design and construction activities of the agency, which included the development of federal courthouses, office buildings, national laboratories, border stations, computer centers, and special-use projects. The General Services Administration has an inventory of more than 350 million square feet. The design and construction budget under Feiner’s purview had a work-in-progress value of more than $10.5 billion, executed by 11 regional offices. During his tenure at the agency, Feiner presided over the largest public works program in the United States since the mid-1930s, with the total redevelopment of the facilities of the U.S. judiciary. The Federal Courthouse Program when completed will include more than 150 new courthouses at a projected cost of more than $15 billion.

At the General Services Administration Feiner reviewed and approved the designs of all major new construction and modernization projects in the agency’s nationwide construction programs. He directed the development of the Public Buildings Service design standards as well as authoring or implementing many of the agency’s design and construction policies and programs. These programs included the GSA Design Excellence Program, the Construction Excellence Program, First Impressions, and the General Services Administration Design Awards Program.

Feiner developed and directed the Office the Chief Architect, which comprises five national centers: the Center for Architecture, Engineering, and Urban Development; the Center for Design Excellence and the Arts; the Center for Historic Buildings; the Center for Construction and Project Management; and the Center for Courthouse Programs. The centers are located in Washington, D.C., and have associated staff in all 11 General Services Administration regional offices. Special emphasis programs managed by the centers include Art-in-Architecture, Accessibility, Historic Preservation, Art Conservation, HVAC Excellence, Seismic Safety Engineering, Fire and Life Safety Engineering, Design for Sustainability, Security Design, and Urban Development.

Before joining the General Services Administration in 1981, Feiner served as program manager of the U.S. Navy’s shore establishment master planning program at the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. Earlier in his career, he worked for Gruen Associates as well as M. Paul Friedberg and Associates.

Feiner is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture by the AIA in 1996. He lectures at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and has spoken at many schools of architecture and design. He earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture at the Cooper Union and his master’s degree in architecture at the Catholic University of America. He is a licensed architect in Virginia and certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. Feiner was elected to the AAF Board of Regents in 2006.

Janet Fiero, Ph.D.

Janet Fiero is senior associate with AmericaSpeaks, in Washington, D.C. AmericaSpeaks is a nonprofit organization that engages citizens in the public decisions that most significantly affect them by creating innovative deliberation methods that involve both citizens and decision makers. Through deliberation and dialogue, AmericaSpeaks helps individuals collectively come to judgment about the best course of action on a given public issue.

Fiero’s current assignment is Voices & Choices, an unprecedented civic initiative that will involve tens of thousands of citizens and leaders across northeast Ohio in creating a shared action agenda to revitalize the region’s economy. Voices & Choices is designed to challenge the citizens of northeast Ohio to think differently about the regional economy and to act in ways that set a new direction for the future. Citizens and leaders will be engaged in making tough choices about the economy, creating a prioritized regional agenda, and acting in concert to advance that agenda.

Fiero has worked on a variety of other projects on other issues including Washington, D.C.’s Citizen Summits; the Colorado Fiscal Policy Forum; the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission Summit; and the Tough Choices in Healthcare Town Meeting for the governor’s office in Maine.

Jennifer Hurley, AICP

Hurley Franks & Associates is a planning and urban design firm based in Philadelphia. Jennifer Hurley specializes in group facilitation and mediation for projects and issues related to the built environment.

Her planning career encompasses work across the country involving urban revitalization, dispute resolution and community visioning, strategic planning, neighborhood planning, transportation, and land development. Highlights include facilitating neighborhood redevelopment workshops in the aftermath of 9/11 as a public involvement consultant to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, assisting a new residential Special Services District in developing neighborhood improvement programs and community outreach efforts, and three years working as a planner for the City of Philadelphia Planning Commission.

Hurley has been active in the New Urbanism movement for 10 years. She wrote one of the first articles chronicling the implementation of New Urbanism zoning codes and has been introducing new urbanists to public involvement techniques from the field of large group collaboration. She is currently a board member for the Association for the New Urbanism in Pennsylvania, which is the local chapter of the Congress for New Urbanism; co-chair of the congress’s Planners Task Force; and a member of the Host Committee for Congress for New Urbanism XV, to be held in Philadelphia in May 2007.

Her professional education includes a master’s degree in regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Bryn Mawr College, and a fellowship with the Knight Program in Community Building with the School of Architecture at the University of Miami. Hurley is originally from Temple, Texas.

Robert Ivy

In 1996, Robert Ivy took on the full-time editorial leadership of Architectural Record, the world’s most widely read architectural journal. During his tenure, the 114- year-old magazine has grown in scope and prestige, winning readers and annual awards. In 2003 alone, Architectural Record received magazine publishing’s highest honor, the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, as well as three Jesse Neal Awards for business writing, McGraw-Hill’s Corporate Achievement Award, and the platinum Ozzie.

Ivy is a frequent speaker and awards jury chair. He has delivered hundreds of keynote speeches, appeared on national television, and conducted interviews with leading figures in the architectural world, including the Aga Khan, American Institute of Architect gold medalists, and Pritzker Prize winners. He has also moderated panels at U.S. and international events. Examples include the World Trade Center Conference at the Library of Congress, the National Building Museum, and New York’s Rockefeller Center, as well as the American Institute of Architects’ national conference; events at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, Chicago’s Art Institute, and the 92nd St. “Y”; and California’s Monterey Design Conference. In 2002 and 2004, Ivy served as the commissioner of the United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale for Architecture, with Architectural Record as curator of the 2004 event.

As editorial director of McGraw-Hill’s construction publications, Ivy oversees the editorial quality of 15 publications, in print and in digital form. His tenure has included Architectural Record’s entrance into China.

Ivy came to McGraw-Hill from a dual career: previously he had been a principal in a successful architectural practice and a critic for national publications. His book on the late architect Fay Jones remains the standard reference on the subject, cited by the Art Library of North America for “highest standards of scholarship, design, and production.” Before becoming an architect, Ivy served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy. He has been a member of the boards of the American Institute of Architects, the AAF, and the Center for Southern Culture, and he was a civic activist in his hometown in Mississippi.

A fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Ivy holds a master’s degree in architecture from Tulane University, where he serves on the advisory board, and a bachelor’s degree (cum laude) in English from the University of the South (Tennessee). He is a member of CICA, the International Circle of Architecture Critics.

James E. LaPosta, Jr., AIA

Jim LaPosta is chief executive officer and director of design of JCJ Architecture, a 180-person architectural, planning, interiors, and graphic design studio. He serves as design principal for many of the firm’s pre-K–12 and college and university commissions, with a focus on themed learning environments, urban school district capital planning, environments for the visual and performing arts, and early childhood education. JCJ was recently featured in Architectural Record as one of the largest architect-led design firms in the publication’s annual ranking.

Whether they juxtapose contemporary new architecture with renovated existing space, create bold new construction, or sensitively rework a community landmark, buildings designed by LaPosta are characterized by their conscious optimism, ability to delight, disciplined siting, environmental responsiveness, and clarity of educational purpose. JCJ’s Education Facilities Design Group has received more than 45 major awards for design excellence over the past eight years. LaPosta has been an adviser for the Boston Architectural Center, the University of Massachusetts School of Fine Arts, and Yale University’s School of Architecture, as well as a popular design award juror and symposia participant. He holds a bachelor of science in civil engineering and a master of architecture, both from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and has been a practicing architect since 1986.

Trung Le, AIA

Trung Le, AIA, is the design director for OWP/P’s education group. Dedicated to designing innovative educational spaces that encourage student inquiry and imagination, Le believes there is a direct connection between the idea of experience and the idea of place. It is in the focus on this experience of learning where architecture can make the most impact on the life of a child in a school environment. Le creates spaces that promote casual interaction and dialogue, where the exchange of knowledge and ideas offers students a sense of what it means to be a part of a democratic community.

This design philosophy has yielded awards from the AIA Chicago and AIA Illinois in Le’s 16 years at OWP/P. His projects have also been published in Architectural Record, Contract Design, and Edutopia. A member of the Council of Educational Facilities Planners, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the AIA, Le has also actively participated in the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education and the Design Committee. He earned a bachelor of architecture and a master of architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Kerry Leonard, AIA

Kerry Leonard, principal and senior educational planner at OWP/P, has been nationally recognized for his leadership in education architecture. With more than 28 years of experience, he is an expert in working with clients to create inspiring places for children to learn. Working locally and nationally, Leonard has led school districts through the decision-making, planning, programming, and referendum phases of projects. He has been involved in all aspects of work related to educational facilities, including strategic and master planning, programming, renovations, additions, and new construction of schools.

Leonard is currently chair of the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education and has been serving on the Leadership Group of the CAE for five years. He also serves on the Planning and Construction Committee for Illinois Association of School Business Officials (IASBO), is a member of the Council of Educational Facility Planners International, and is a member of Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA). He is a regular presenter on current trends and issues in school design, and most recently, has spoken at the National School Boards Association annual convention, the AIA annual convention, and the IASBO Annual Convention. Projects on which Leonard has worked have been recognized for their creativity and positive impact on learning with the American Association of School Administrators Shirley Cooper Award; the CEFPI Great Lakes Midwest Region Shaw Award; Learning by Design; IASB, IASA, and IASBO; and the AIA CAE.

Philip S. Lewis, AIA, LEED AP

With more than 20 years of experience at HMFH, Philip (“Pip”) Lewis has been involved in many new construction and renovation projects, as well as master planning and feasibility studies for a variety of public and independent clients. As a project manager, he maintains close client relationships and oversees the HMFH project team, design, schedule, and budgets. HMFH, with Lewis as project manager, designed three new schools for Brockton, Massachusetts. Two new pre-K–6 elementary schools will house 850 students each, and a new 40- classroom junior high school has a gymnasium and 900- seat auditorium. The East Fairhaven Elementary School replaces an aging building with a new, energy-efficient pre-K–5 school. Lewis’s recently completed preschool for Wellesley, Massachusetts, modified standard modular building systems to provide an attractive and inviting early learning environment in a fast-track timeframe.

Prior work includes management of the award-winning Media and Technology Charter High School, an adaptive reuse project that converted a historic auto dealership into an innovative media- and technology-driven high school. In 2005, Lewis completed the Neighborhood House Charter School, another adaptive reuse project that transformed a former nursing home into a K–8 school and community center. His West Somerville Neighborhood School was the winner of the AASA/AIA 1997 Shirley Cooper Award.

Roger Lewis, FAIA

Roger K. Lewis, FAIA, is a practicing architect and planner, educator, and author based in Washington, D.C. A professor of architecture at the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, he is also an award-winning journalist. “Shaping the City,” his illustrated column on architecture and urban design, has appeared weekly and biweekly in the Washington Post since 1984.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Lewis studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1964. In 1967, after two years in Tunisia as a Peace Corps volunteer architect designing and building a variety of projects, he earned a master’s degree in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Beginning his career in architectural education in 1968, he helped start the University of Maryland’s new architecture school and also established his architecture and planning practice.

Elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 1986, Lewis was recognized for “his commitment to architecture and architectural education” and for his “exemplary writing, practice, and teaching.” He has designed private residences, multiunit housing developments, recreational facilities, arts institutions, community centers, commercial buildings, and public schools in the United States and abroad. His urban design and planning work has included designs for new communities as well as creation of urban and architectural design guidelines for such communities. Built projects have received American Institute of Architects and other design awards, including a 1988 Federal Design Achievement award—the highest award conferred by the National Endowment for the Arts in its quadrennial Presidential Awards Program—for design of a housing project for the elderly. In addition to undertaking projects for institutional and corporate clients in the private sector, he is a planning and design consultant to numerous federal, state, county, and municipal governmental agencies, both regionally and nationally. His clients have included the U.S. General Services Administration, cities and counties in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

Lewis wrote Architect? A Candid Guide to the Profession, published in 1985 by the MIT Press and used as an introductory text at architecture schools throughout North America. The book has been translated and published in Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Mexico. The MIT Press published a revised edition in 1998. In 1987, the AIA Press published Shaping the City, a collection of selected essays and cartoons from Lewis’s Washington Post column. He was a co-author of the widely disseminated Growth Management Handbook, published in 1989. For several years, the American Association of Museums published his critiques of new museum architecture in its bimonthly journal Museum News. His Washington Post essays on architecture, planning, urban design, historic preservation, housing, and public policy affecting the built environment appear regularly in national journals, periodicals, anthologies, and encyclopedias. His Shaping the City© cartoons have been featured in several one-man exhibitions, including an exhibition in 1998 and 1999 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

Charles Linn, FAIA

Charles Linn practiced architecture from 1978 until 1986, when he entered the publishing industry, launching Architectural Lighting for Aster Publishing in Eugene, Oregon. He later produced the magazine Laboratory Planning and Design for the company. He joined Architectural Record in 1990 as the editor of its Record Lighting publication and became managing senior editor in 1993. He has written and edited hundreds of articles for Architectural Record on every aspect of building design, architectural technology, and firm management, and he supervises the production of its monthly news section. In 2002 and 2003, Linn led the development of special issues on building and infrastructure security, which were published in cooperation with Engineering News Record. He launched Architectural Record Review in 2003.

Linn has been instrumental in the editorial development of Architectural Record’s Innovation Conference for the past four years, and was instrumental in the launch of McGraw-Hill Construction’s new GreenSource magazine and website. He is currently leading the editorial development of Record’s Schools for the 21st Century publication, and its new Practice Matters website, which will launch in December. He graduated with a bachelor’s of architecture degree from Kansas State University in 1978 and was named a Distinguished Alumni Fellow in 1993. He was elected to the AIA College of Fellows in 2002. He has been a member of teams that have won four McGraw-Hill Corporate Achievement Awards for Editorial Excellence and is a member of the architectural honorary society, Tau Sigma Delta. He is licensed to practice architecture in Colorado, Kansas, and New York.

Christian Long

Christian Long is president and chief executive officer of DesignShare, an organization dedicated to supporting innovative school design teams around the Untied States and the world. With the support of leading thinkers, experts, and practitioners, DesignShare’s long-range goal is to empower all project stakeholders in becoming truly equal partners by changing the very language of school design.

Before joining DesignShare, Long served as director of research and planning for learning environments at Huckabee, a Texas-based architecture firm specializing in K–12 schools. He spent more than a decade as an educator, coach, summer program director, and experiential education leader in both the United States and Japan.

Long has also designed and directed a comprehensive program of architecture, design, and planning for urban high school students in Washington, D.C., and has participated in the Klingenstein Fellowship for emerging school leaders at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Long holds a bachelor’s degree in English, a certificate of secondary education from Indiana University (Bloomington), and a master’s degree in education, with a concentration in school design, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. During graduate school, he participated in the design of the Codman Academy Charter School in Boston.

Judy Marks, Hon. AIA

Judy Marks is associate director of the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF), a project of the U.S. Department of Education since 1997, providing information resources to people who plan, finance, design, build, and maintain Pre-K–16 school buildings.

Marks provides continuously updated content for the NCEF website, currently viewed by more than 113,000 visitors a month. She promotes the NCEF through presentations at conferences and workshops across the country and participation in numerous committees and advisory boards related to school facilities. She is a member of the board of directors of the National School Plant Management Association and an active participant in the Building Education Success Together (BEST) initiative, a collaborative group working to improve urban school facilities.

Marks has served on several design awards juries and selection panels, including the National School Boards Association Learning by Design Awards Program, the Schools as Centers of Community: A National Search for Excellence program, and CEFPI’s School Building Week student design competition. Recently she participated in the planning committees for the 2005 AIA Committee on Architecture for Education conferences and for the AAF’s National Summit on School Design. She is the author of EFL: A History of the Educational Facilities Laboratory and contributed to the Planning Guide for Maintaining School Facilities, published by the Association of School Business Officials.

From 1984 to 1997, Marks was the director of the AIA Library and Archives in Washington, D.C., as well as director of the AIA College of Fellows and director of the Young Architects Forum. She was awarded honorary membership in the AIA in 1997, in recognition of outstanding contributions to the architectural profession.

Lorne McConachie, AIA

Lorne McConachie is an architect focused on the design of engaging and spirited public places. During the past 20 plus years, he has developed extensive expertise in the programming and design of educational facilities. McConachie has been a registered architect for 23 years and a principal of Bassetti Architects since 1991. A gifted facilitator with an interactive planning approach, McConachie writes, “Bassetti Architects and the work we do is a living system. Living systems respond to problems, or disorder, with renewed life. They don’t need to be tinkered with; they need to be fed! I believe it is my responsibility to build an environment within our firm and within our projects, created by a shared vision, empowering each of us to state, clarify, discuss, and model the messages we care about.”

At the forefront of educational design reform, McConachie’s designs have won acclaim for their innovation, their positive influence on learning, and their civic and design excellence. These projects range from embedding a small high school into Seattle Center, the city’s cultural hub, to reconstructing historic schools for 21st-century learners.

His groundbreaking Edmonds-Woodway High School design captured the 1999 McConnell Award—the top national award made by the Council of Educational Facility Planners International. The design reinforces a philosophy of learning through exploration. The school’s program areas are laid out as an informal, yet coherent assemblage of elements gathered into a village. In 2004, McConachie’s Todd Beamer High School was a McConnell finalist for its visionary attitude toward flexibility and adaptability.

McConachie was the longtime chair of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board and currently serves on the Pioneer Square Preservation Board.

George Metzger, AIA

George R. Metzger, as a principal of HMFH Architects, has led HMFH’s practice in the design of school, housing, and community facilities that owe their success to the firm’s ability to combine effective public process and design excellence. In both his capacity as an architect and his role on numerous civic boards, Metzger has worked to maintain a dialogue between designers and the community. An early advocate of sustainable design practices, Metzger has actively incorporated solar design and daylighting into buildings. His significant projects include such award winners as the highly regarded Baldwin School, a K–8 school on a dense urban site in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the MATCH School, an adaptive reuse in Boston; the Media Arts Studio, a joint project for the city community television studio; a major renovation and expansion of the Boston Latin School; and a new performing arts center for Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

In the Massachusetts communities of Carlisle and Hanover, Metzger has been working with school officials to reconcile changing program requirements with growing populations and declining financial support for facilities expansion and improvement. In Cambridge, he is leading a comprehensive energy improvement program and the renovation of the city’s multibuilding high school complex.

Metzger is a co-author with Charles Willie and Michael Alves of A Master Plan on the Location of Programs and the Use of Facilities for Cambridge Public Schools (1997). Metzger is a past president of the Boston Society of Architects, founder of the society’s Public Policy Forum, past chair of the AIA Massachusetts Legislative Affairs Committee, and an active member of the national AIA Committee on Architecture for Education. He is currently on the editorial board of Architecture Boston. He holds a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.Arch from Harvard University.

Michael H. Nicklas, FAIA

Michael H. Nicklas is president and co-founder of Innovative Design Inc. Since it was founded in 1977, the firm has completed more than 4,750 projects—all of them incorporating renewable energy technologies as a significant aspect of their design. Innovative Design is the architect of record on 15 new, high-performance educational facilities and 41 additions and renovations that have incorporated a significant number of green features. The 95 green educational facilities that Innovative Design has been involved with are now saving more than $3.5 million in energy bills and 35 million gallons of water per year.

Innovative Design is a national leader in providing natural daylighting design solutions for a wide range of applications. The firm’s active research program has pioneered design features such as the integration of photovoltaics into building skin design, as well as developed high-temperature, thermal solar systems for roof-integrated industrial and commercial roof assemblies.

Nicklas has served on the board of directors of the N.C. Solar Energy Association, American Solar Energy Society, or the International Solar Energy Society every year since 1979. While serving as chair of N.C. Solar Energy Association, chair of American Solar Energy Society (twice), and president of the International Solar Energy Society, he has led many of those organizations’ most significant efforts—from the implementation of solar tax credits in the North Carolina legislature to the incorporation of language supportive of energy-efficiency and solar energy inn the United Nations Earth Summit’s Agenda 21. In promoting solar energy, Nicklas has met with the heads of state of eight countries. He has presented lectures and organized conferences around the globe to educate and encourage sustainable energy.

Nicklas holds a B.Arch from North Carolina State University and was made fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2001. Nicklas is also a fellow of the American Solar Energy Society.

Sean O’Donnell, AIA, LEED, AP

Sean O’Donnell’s work focuses on the design of great learning environments. On projects ranging from developing a program, to evaluating an existing building, to designing new campuses, he has worked to ensure that the learning environment is fully supportive of all of the users’ physical, intellectual, social and emotional, organizational, and technological needs. This work is a logical outgrowth of his research into the ability of environments to successfully accommodate diverse and changing user needs over time—research that was published in an award-winning monograph.

O’Donnell is a recognized leader in educational facility planning and design. He founded and serves as the chair of the American Institute of Architects/D.C. Committee on Architecture for Education and has served as a juror for the National School Board Association’s “Learning by Design” awards program (2005 and 2006), the Virginia School Board Association Design Awards (2006 and 2007), and the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International’s National School Building Week (2006). He has participated in forums with educators from across the nation organized by Great Schools by Design and has been interviewed for several articles, including “The 21st Century School,” recently published in Contract Magazine.

Katherine N. Peele, FAIA

Katherine N. Peele is a vice president and managing principal of the Raleigh office for the architectural firm LS3P/Boney. With additional offices in Wilmington and Charlotte, North Carolina, and Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, LS3P/Boney is one of the largest architectural firms in the Carolinas.

As principal architect for more than 100 public school and higher education projects throughout North Carolina and the Southeast, Peele has established her expertise in the design of educational facilities. Peele served as the 2001 national chair of the American Institute of Architects Committee on Architecture for Education and was the 1999 president of the North Carolina Educational Facility Planners. She has also offered her expertise on a national level by assisting the U.S. Department of Education’s efforts to advance school construction throughout the country. Her key participation in national forums, such as School Modernization Day, in conjunction with the White House and as a panelist during a satellite town meeting hosted by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley has helped to enlighten the public on future trends and needs in educational facility design. In 2006, Peele was awarded the Orthogonal Medal from North Carolina State University’s College of Education for her “notable national contributions as an architect and leader in the design and advancement of educational facilities.”

Peele has also been very active with AIA, serving at many levels, including as the North Carolina chapter’s president in 2001. In 2003, Peele was invested in the AIA’s College of Fellows.

Peele graduated summa cum laude in 1988 from North Carolina State University’s College of Design (formerly the School of Design) with both a B.Arch and a B.E.D; she was valedictorian of her graduating class. Peele joined the Boney Architects firm in 1988 and was named managing principal of the Raleigh office in 1992.

John G. Pfluger, AIA, LEED AP

John Pfluger is a principal and design leader for Cuningham Group’s Education Studio. He has also taken the lead role, as its creative director, in setting the firm’s overall design direction, which has a national reputation for design excellence in a number of project types. He has been with the firm for 18 years. Achieving creative, sustainable results through an inclusive, collaborative process that is based on the client’s mission and vision is his personal goal. Pfluger’s reputation as a designer has brought him national recognition in school design, including the Walter Taylor Award (AASA/CEFPI/AIA) and the James D. MacConnell Award (CEFPI) for the WMEP Interdistrict Downtown School (Minneapolis, Minnesota) and the Shirley Cooper Award (AASA/CEFPI/AIA) for Oak Point Intermediate School (Eden Prairie, Minnesota).

In recognition of his talents and expertise as a designer of innovative educational environments, Pfluger has been called on to speak at numerous regional and national conferences, including CEFPI’s Annual International Conference, the KnowledgeWorks Foundation Annual Conference, the California Network of Educational Charters Annual Conference, the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Annual Conference, the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, and the Ohio Builds Conference.

William R. Potapchuk

William Potapchuk is president and founder of the Community Building Institute (CBI). He works to strengthen the capacity of communities to conduct public business inclusively, collaboratively, and effectively, to build healthy, sustainable futures.

Potapchuk has worked with states and communities around the country as well as with a number of federal agencies. He is an experienced trainer and an accomplished public speaker, delivering workshops and speeches for groups ranging from the National League of Cities and International City/County Management Association to state-local negotiation teams in Maryland and the Annual Leadership Symposium of the Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies. He also has served as a facilitator and mediator in a wide range of settings, including successful efforts to merge school systems in Durham, North Carolina; to develop a new zoning ordinance in Loudoun County, Virginia; and to strengthen a partnership among national associations focused on children and family issues.

He has worked on major projects for the Annie E. Casey Foundation; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; the District of Columbia; Montgomery County, Maryland; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Maryland Governor’s Office for Children, Youth, and Families; the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Transit Administration; the Community Building Initiative in Multnomah County, Oregon; and the Healthy Neighborhood Initiative in Hampton, Virginia, among others.

Potapchuk served for almost 10 years as executive director of the Program for Community Problem Solving, a partnership of the National League of Cities, International City/County Management Association, National Civic League, American Chamber of Commerce Executives, and other national organizations. He also served as associate director of the Conflict Clinic, Inc. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in conflict resolution at George Mason University. A native of Cleveland, Potapchuk received his bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Case Western Reserve University and his master’s degree in political science from the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Potapchuk also completed a nine-month postbaccalaureate Public Affairs Fellowship with the Coro Foundation in 1983.

Potapchuk is widely published. He has worked with co-authors on Pulling Together: A Planning and Development Consensus Building Manual, Negotiated Approaches to Environmental Decision Making in Communities: An Exploration of Lessons Learned, and Building Community: Exploring the Role of Social Capital and Local Government. He has written numerous articles and edited an issue of the National Civic Review focused on social capital. He has co-authored chapters for the Consensus Building Handbook and the Collaborative Leadership Fieldbook. Most recently he completed Learning from Neighborhoods: The Story of the Hampton Neighborhood Initiative, 1993–2003.

Thomas H. Rogér

Tom Rogér is vice president and project executive for Gilbane Building Company, where he has worked for 23 years. Rogér has more than 36 years of experience in managing construction of large building projects. His current assignment is serving as project director for “Kids First,” which involves a 15-year, $1.5 billion program for the complete reconstruction or renovation of public schools in New Haven, Connecticut. Rogér was the program director in charge of the complex public–private partnership of the $92 million Learning Corridor project in Hartford, which involved Trinity College, Hartford Hospital, the city of Hartford, and the state of Connecticut. Rogér has also managed a number of other complex Gilbane projects at Williams College, Brown University, St. Lawrence University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Rogér is a co-founder, and member of the Board of Directors, of Families of September 11. He is also a board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, and is actively involved with the New York City 9/11 memorial and rebuilding process. As a result of this work, Rogér received the Award of Excellence from Engineering News Record and was named one of the top 25 industry news makers of 2004.

Rogér earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and economics from Brown University and a law degree from the University of San Diego. He is a retired member of the bar of the state of Massachusetts.

Adam Rubin

In his role as director of policy and research at New Visions for Public Schools, Adam Rubin works closely with the New Visions team, the New York City Department of Education, and the School Construction Authority to develop innovative solutions to school facilities challenges.

Over the past year and a half, New Visions has been able to develop the beginnings of a not-forprofit leasing program, a campus master planning strategy that incorporates the development of a new small schools footprint, campuswide solutions such as visual branding, and capital funding solutions by engaging local elected officials. The Department of Policy and Research acts as an internal consulting unit, helping the organization realize research projects and developing tools and resources to deepen practice and provide support for New Century high schools and all New York City schools.

Before joining New Visions in 2003, Rubin worked for more than 10 years in management roles in the nonprofit sector targeting education and economic development. He began his career teaching and collaboratively managing an education reform program for the Oakland, California public schools. He took that experience and founded a nonprofit working on issues of classroom reform and equity in the townships of Cape Town, South Africa, where he served as executive director. Returning to New York, he worked on economic development efforts in Long Island City as director of special projects, incorporating community development and commercial real estate marketing. He also founded and managed a consulting firm doing organizational development and strategy in the nonprofit sector.

Rubin graduated with a bachelor’s degree in government and race relations from Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He also holds a master’s of public administration from Columbia University.

David Salvesen, Ph.D

David Salvesen is the director of the Program on Smart Growth and the New Economy at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on land-use policies, issues, and trends and their effect on the environment and the quality and character of communities. His research has been sponsored by foundations and government agencies, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the Department of Commerce, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Salvesen has taught graduate courses in land-use and environmental policy at UNC. He has more than 12 years of experience as a planning consultant and as a senior policy analyst at the Urban Land Institute. He has written on issues such as smart growth, school facility planning, natural hazard mitigation, and wetlands protection.

Salvesen received his Ph.D. in city and regional planning at UNC–Chapel Hill, a master’s degree in urban and regional planning at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University.

Anne Schopf, AIA

An award-winning architect with more than 19 years of experience, Anne Schopf is widely recognized for her leadership in the field of design. Schopf’s work highlights the inextricable links that bind our lives and our buildings to the environment, enhancing the discourse on sustainable design in the Pacific Northwest and the nation. Her work with educational environments has been nationally recognized with two consecutive Top 10 Green Project Awards from the AIA Committee on the Environment, and three of her projects have been finalists for the CEFPI James D. McConnell Award of Excellence. In addition, her work has received 15 AIA and International Interior Design Association design awards at the local, regional, and national level. Light, air, seasonal change, and the weathering of time play integral roles in her dialogue between built and natural environments.

A partner and director of design with Mahlum Architects, Schopf is also a periodic adjunct faculty member at the University of Washington School of Architecture and a frequent speaker on sustainable design at regional and national conferences. She serves as the director of the built environment on the AIA Seattle Board of Directors. She is also serving as an Advisory Group member for the AIA National Committee on Design and a peer reviewer for the Design Excellence program run by the General Services Administration. Schopf graduated with honors from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with degrees in architecture and civil engineering.

Herb Simmens

Herb Simmens is a Blue Moon Urban Fellow with the Center for Architecture and Building Science Research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey. He is in his second year of a three-year fellowship to work with school districts and communities on ways to create Urban Learning Villages—places where schools are planned, designed, and operated to provide a comprehensive learning environment for school-age children as well as all other community residents.

Simmens was director of the New Jersey Office of State Planning for nine years, where he was responsible for preparing the award-winning New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan—New Jersey’s smart growth strategy. He also initiated the New Jersey Mayors’ Institute of Design.

Simmens has been a town and county manager, as well as director of a nonprofit group whose mission was to advance sustainability on college campuses. He has a bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in public policy and urban planning from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Roy Strickland

Roy Strickland is an architectural and urban designer who specializes in school and community design. As founder and director of the New American School Design Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan, he developed the City of Learning design and planning strategy that has been applied to schools and school systems across the country. The strategy reflects educators’ research findings that healthy neighborhoods support successful learning and makes school design and programming holistic by integrating the planning of schools with that of communities.

City of Learning projects planned, in construction, or in operation total $1 billion across the country in cities such as Berkeley, California; Paterson, Union City, and Trenton, New Jersey; and Washington, D.C. These projects have been covered extensively in the New York Times, as well as in Education Week, Teachers, Places, and Planning magazines. In addition, Strickland is editor of “Designing a City of Learning: Paterson, NJ,” winner of the 2002 EDRA/Places Award for outstanding planning projects. He is also author of numerous articles in professional and academic journals concerning school and community design, housing, and urbanism.

Strickland directs the Master of Urban Design program at the University of Michigan, where he is a tenured member of the faculty. He has previously served as associate professor of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as director of the urban design program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia and his master’s degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Elliot Washor, Ed.D.

Dr. Elliot Washor is the co-founder and co-director of The Big Picture Company in Providence, Rhode Island. He is also the co-founder of The Met Center in Providence.

Washor has been involved in school reform for more than 30 years as a teacher, principal, administrator, video producer, and writer. He has taught and is interested in all levels of school, from kindergarten through college, in urban and rural settings, across all disciplines. His work has spanned across school design, pedagogy, learning environments, and education reform. He supports others doing similar work throughout the world. Washor’s interests lie in the field of how schools can connect with communities to understand tacit and disciplinary learning both in and outside of school.

At Thayer High School in Winchester, New Hampshire, his professional development programs won an Innovations in State and Local Government Award from the Ford Foundation and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has been selected as the educator to watch in Rhode Island and has recently been selected as one of the Dirty Dozen—The Twelve Most Daring Educators by the George Lucas Education Foundation.

Washor’s dissertation on innovative pedagogy and new facilities won the Merit Award from DesignShare, the international forum for innovative schools.

John M. Weekes, AIA

John Weekes is founding principal of the Portland, Oregon, firm of Dull Olson Weekes Architects, Inc. (DOWA). Before forming DOWA, he was with Skidmore Owings & Merrill. DOWA has received national recognition in educational planning and architecture and numerous local, national, and international design awards. Weekes studied at the University of Copenhagen and graduated from Washington State University, where he received the AIA’s Gold Medal for Educational Excellence. He is currently a member of the AIA’s Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) and has been a featured lecturer at the University of Oregon’s College of Education and at Lewis and Clark College’s Graduate School of Education.

A planner and designer for the AIA/CAE Honor Award– winning Alpha High School, Weekes was principal designer for the recently completed Canby Applied Technology Center, a project that received national honors from CEFPI, AASA, and the National School Boards Association. His other projects have been honored by AIA/Portland, the International Interior Design Association, the National School Boards Association, the American Association of School Administrators, the Council of Educational Facility Planners International, and the Governor of Oregon’s Livability Program. Weekes is currently completing the New Columbia Community Campus, the largest revitalization project in Oregon history. The Community Campus is a public-private partnership that includes a K–6 school and family resource center (Rosa Parks), a Boys & Girl’s Club, and a community center in New Columbia.

Sarah Woodhead, AIA, NCARB

As director of the Arlington Public Schools’ Design and Construction Program, Sarah Woodhead brings 20 years of experience in the creation of civic architecture and the management of school facilities to her work in school system planning, design, and construction. Her career has taken her through many perspectives on school planning and management through her work in the private sector, nonprofit sector, and in state and local government.

In the private sector, Woodhead designed schools and civic buildings in primarily urban environments for one of the nation’s leading school design firms. She served as an architect for the Maryland Public Schools Construction Program. There she developed Maryland’s Science Facilities Design Guidelines as well as guidelines for sustainable design. She worked with urban, suburban, and rural school systems to master plan, design, build, and renovate schools across the state. In the nonprofit sector, Woodhead worked to develop public-private partnerships for urban systems, including the successful construction of the first new school in the District of Columbia in more than 20 years. She eventually joined the D.C. Public School system, becoming chief of facilities, and oversaw the modernization of 17 schools, including many historic structures. She developed and implemented school board policy regarding school planning and design. The D.C. program won a prestigious vision award from Committee of 100 on the Capital City.

Currently, Woodhead directs the design and construction program for the public school system of Arlington, Virginia. Her office supports the biennial capital plan development, manages a successful design program with an exemplary public engagement process, and oversees major construction projects for the county schools. Arlington’s school construction program is responsible for the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design–certified building in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Some of the interesting projects currently in Woodhead’s office are the construction of a 350,000-square-foot Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design–certified high school and the design of a combined school and public library facility.

Woodhead has a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Utah. She is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the institute’s Committee on Architecture for Education, and its Committee on the Environment. She has written extensively about school planning and school design, most recently in the National School Board Association’s Learning by Design publication (March 2006). Special areas of interest and expertise include school planning, design excellence, accessible design, classroom acoustics, sustainable design, and community engagement.

Amy Yurko, AIA

Amy Yurko, AIA is an architect, writer, speaker, jurist, and educator. Over her 20-year career, she has been involved in the planning, management, and design of learning environments across the nation and throughout the world—from needs assessments, educational specifications, and facility programming to generating and developing conceptual facility designs and coordinating project development with both clients and architectural firms. Through her consulting firm, BrainSpaces, Yurko is dedicated to facilitating connections between education and architecture by promoting brain-based considerations in the planning and design of learning environments.

Yurko is currently chair of the curriculum design subcommittee for National American Institute of Architects Continuing Education, charged with redefining the learning framework for architects across the country. She has served the AIA on both state and national levels and is known for her straightforward style, no-nonsense approach, and keen talent for bringing people and ideas together in new ways to promote dynamic collaborations that produce compelling results. Through her teaching positions at Harvard University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Southern California Schools of Architecture, Yurko has developed an understanding of the challenges in education today and how they can be addressed through thoughtful and innovative architecture.

Back to top