Dan Hart, FAIA, inaugurated AIA 2022 President

WASHINGTON – Dec. 13, 2021 – The American Institute of Architects (AIA) inaugurated Dan Hart, FAIA, as its 98th president on Friday, Dec. 10.

“I’m spectacularly optimistic,” said Hart. “As I consider this moment in AIA’s deep history and the complexity that all of us together represent, I see beauty on the other side. I believe we are at a pivotal moment. As we move from aspiration to agency on our core dual strategies of addressing climate and justice through the built environment … we stand together and are prepared to take action.”

Hart has held a number of AIA leadership positions. He was the moderator of the AIA Strategic Council in 2016 and served on the AIA National Board of Directors. While on the board, he chaired the AIA Board Knowledge Committee and AIA Public Outreach Committee as well as co-chaired the AIA COVID-19 Business Task Force. He also served as president of the Texas Society of Architects in 2011.

After more than three decades as a practicing architect and engineer, Hart is a principal and executive vice president of architecture at Parkhill—a 450-person architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Texas—and serves on the firm’s board of directors. He has experience designing religious and educational buildings and has master-planned a variety of campuses.

Hart was also adjunct instructor for four years for senior-level architecture students at Texas Tech University, where he was the distinguished alumnus of the College of Architecture in 2017 and was the founding president of the college’s Design Leadership Alliance. Additionally, he was a trustee on the board of Schreiner University.

Hart earned a Bachelor of Architecture/Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering from Texas Tech University. In 2014, he was elevated to AIA fellowship.

AIA elects its presidents on an annual basis. Hart will serve as the Institute’s president until Dec. 9, 2022. Complete details of AIA’s leadership are available online.

AIA Announces 2022 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award

For more than a decade, RIDING THE VORTEX (VORTEX), a collaboration of African-American women representing the entire spectrum of practice, had endeavored to increase the number of people of color licensed to practice architecture in the U.S. Following its 2007 launch at the AIA Conference on Architecture in San Antonio, VORTEX has directly responded to Whitney M. Young Jr.’s observations on the disheartening history of American architecture. Even today, through the first quarter of the 21st century, entry, success, and progress in the profession remain dominated by white men, something VORTEX works tirelessly to change.

AIA Announces AIA Gold Medal 2022

The Gold Medal is the AIA’s highest annual honor, recognizing individuals whose work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture.

Partners in life and design, Angela Brooks, FAIA, and Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, have forged a pioneering brand of architecture that profoundly enriches the human experience and reveals the extraordinary in what is widely considered ordinary. Across three decades, the excellence of their work has been celebrated internationally, recognized for its unparalleled intersection of collaboration, community, research, and reflection. Moreover, their projects demonstrate a keen understanding of beauty, craft, and the raw power of architecture, standing among the very best of the profession.