The 2017 Jury of Fellows from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) elevated 178 AIA members to its prestigious College of Fellows, an honor awarded to members who have made significant contributions to the profession.
The 2017 Fellows will be honored at an investiture ceremony at the AIA Conference on Architecture in Orlando, Florida
The Fellowship program was developed to elevate those architects who have made a significant contribution to architecture and society and who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession. Election to fellowship not only recognizes the achievements of architects as individuals, but also their significant contribution to architecture and society on a national level.
2017 Fellows
Out of a total AIA membership of over 90,000, approximately 3 percent are distinguished with the honor of fellowship and honorary fellowship. The elevation to fellowship is conferred on architects with at least 10 years of membership in the AIA in one or more of the following nomination categories:
1. Promoted the aesthetic, scientific, and practical efficiency of the profession
2. Advanced the science and art of planning and building by advancing the standards of architectural education, training or practice
3. Coordinated the building industry and the profession of architecture through leadership in the AIA and other related professional organizations
4. Advanced the living standards of people through an improved environment
5. Made the profession of ever-increasing service to society
Included in the list below are the newly elevated members from Tennessee, their component affiliation and category for which they were elevated.
Reb Haizlip, FAIA – AIA Memphis
Reb Haizlip harnesses the power of play to create extraordinary learning environments, informed by curiosity and motivated by discovery, to advance children’s museums as change agents for education design, childhood development and community growth
CAREER: SHAPING THE EVOLUTION OF CHILDREN’S MUSEUMS
In a ti me of unprecedented change for children, when unrestricted play,
creative opportunity and exposure to the natural world are more vital than
ever, Reb has devoted a career to creati ng extraordinary places empowering children to be imaginative thinkers. His work on more than 40 Children’s Museum and play-inspired projects over 25 years has been immersed in the study of Early Childhood Development and has signifi cantly influenced the evolution of design for society’s youngest members.
INNOVATION: CREATING NEW LEARNING PLATFORMS
Advancement in early childhood educati on during the last 25 years has been fertile ground for Reb’s career-long fascinati on with fusing architecture and exhibit design to develop new and innovative models of informal education.
From the earliest children’s museums to modern discovery centers, Reb has worked hand in hand with educators to explore and refine novel methods to integrate social, emotional, physical and intellectual learning paths into complex play environments. He has elevated play as a programmatic platform for thoughtful architecture while producing a portfolio of expressive buildings and dramatic exhibit environments recognized as influential models of informal education, which are broadly published and toured by architects and educators.
IMPACT: TRANSFORMING DESIGN FOR INFORMAL EDUCATION
Reb has led his practice to the forefront of a design movement that acts on research from the laboratory of children’s museums demonstrating that people of all ages are most receptive to learning through play. He has become one of the nations leading design professionals championing the Ah-ha! discovery and crowning achievement of children’s museums, the realization that play is the universal language of learning. Reb tirelessly promotes this idea, and through a signature planning process expands the outreach and educati onal radius of traditional venues to achieve greater impact with more diverse audiences-families playing together. By example, the prominent Sloan Museum in Flint, Michigan, a traditional hands-off history/science center has just commissioned Reb to completely redesign its facilities and exhibits with an emphasis on play for kids and adults alike.
ADVOCACY: ADVANCING DESIGN FOR CHILDREN AND COMMUNITIES
As children’s museums became the fastest growing cultural institution in the last 25 years, Reb has been a national leader advancing their role in community development, and in elevating the optimistic architecture of early childhood.
From makeshift storefronts to prized cultural organizations, children’s museums have become sought after catalysts for community development. Reb has advocated nationally and internationally to professional, civic, political and economic organizations and led dozens of planning and design efforts to leverage the placemaking capacities of children’s museums. 21 AIA design awards as well as civic and industry recogniti on validate the quality of these projects over Reb’s career, reflecti ng a consistent body of exemplary work and commitment to the significance of design in the well being of children and communities.
SERVING THE PROFESSION AND COMMUNITY
Reb has been leader of his state and local AIA chapters, and of community developments to provide affordable housing for under-served and marginalized children and families. Reb has acti vely served as AIA Memphis chapter member and president (2000), AIA Tennessee board member (2001 and 2015) and has chaired multiple committees. In 2008, Reb led the Memphis Chapter through a strategic planning eff ort to lay the groundwork for a sustainable future and
re-energized Chapter. The chapter has since become one of the most programrich and nationally recognized for member engagement. Beyond his energetic role at Haizlip Studio, Reb served six years as a board member, including three as president, of the Cooper Young Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit developer of affordable housing. His involvement led to the restoration of Memphis’ first African American neighborhood through the block acquisition of derelict properties and construction of ten infill low cost homes.
In conclusion, Reb’s influence on childhood education has been significant and matched by few. He has provided opportunities for children across the country to stretch their imagination in joy and learning.
Tricia Stuth, FAIA
Tricia Stuth informs her teaching through research and practice, and illuminates the unseen links between building and context. With a focus on housing, she demonstrates how architecture can closely connect to and intensify its place.
Tricia’s work grows out of a commitment to the fluid integration of teaching, research and practice. Connecting
these areas of work allows her to model for students a framework for engaging the context of architecture and
society broadly. She structures interdisciplinary courses, community partnerships, and design build education in
order to embed student learning in real world places, experiences, and values. In her own work and in her teaching the physical context is always augmented by the unseen site – the ideas, histories, and cultural practices particular to each place. Of particular interest to her is how these ideas are activated in inventive housing designs and situations that mesh preservation and reuse. Products of Tricia’s teaching, research and practice have been widely recognized and generate transferable lessons for students, fellow researchers, and practitioners.
Motivated by her interest in grounding architecture deeply in its place, Tricia works to mesh preservation and design by seeking to understand the critical overlap of their methods and concerns. As an Affiliated Fellow of the
American Academy in Rome she examined how the ad hoc emergence of Testaccio imparts a vibrant new layer of
inhabitation to what has been a marginal district within the city since ancient times. Grappling directly with the
ambiguous cultural value of utilitarian structures and spaces, this study sought to support the district’s vibrant
present while honoring its long-overlooked past. In her role as recipient of the Virginia Design Medal, she speculated
about the use of an “operative preservation” as a way of working on American college campuses seeking to
position themselves between tradition and innovation. As one of the key faculty investigators in the inaugural year
of the University of Tennessee’s Smart Cities Initiative (SCI), Tricia led a group of students in developing plans for
the adaptive reuse of the Hardwick Woolen Mill in Cleveland, Tennessee. Working with the mill’s owner, the team
examined a variety of opportunities for the complex’s redevelopment. With her installation Point|Counterpoint at
Eastern State Penitentiary National Historic Landmark, she initiated a conversation about the influence of the radial
prison as an historic type.
Inventive housing design has long been a vehicle for Tricia’s teaching, practice and research on the power of place.
The New Norris House called on the history of a National Register community to develop a technologically advanced
home that furthers the design and cultural ambitions of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The New Norris House
was recognized with numerous awards including an AIA COTE Top Ten Green Project Award, an ACSA Design/Build
Award, and a National Design Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Recognized with
an AIA National Housing Design Award, Old Briar interrogated the history of the farm house typology and leveraged
the clients’ close connection to the rural county of their youth to create a home that disappears into its place. The
Ghost Houses, winner of an AIA National Small Project Design Award, looked closely at the ways in which zoning
regulations imbed cultural values. By leveraging past inhabitations, the project both recalls historic settlement
patterns and establishes densities consistent with contemporary ambitions for low-energy communities. As
recipient of the 2016 AIA Housing Design Research Grant, Tricia examined how widely available mass customization
technologies can be used to create spatial interest and site specific response in low cost housing.
Tricia continually seeks to garner transferable lessons from her work and share these widely. Through constant
curricular innovation she seeks to bring the latest ideas from her research, writing, and practice into the classroom.
She has received a national ACSA/AIA Housing Design Education Award, a NCARB Prize Honorable Mention for the
Creative Integration of Teaching and Practice, and an ACSA/AIAS New Faculty Teaching Award in recognition of
these efforts. Tricia lectures widely to both academic and professional audiences. Sharing her work with diverse
readerships, she has published in academic books and journals, professional journals, and popular design
magazines, and exhibited broadly.
In Tricia’s work and teaching, time is present alongside space; history offers cues for the future; and place is a
physical and social construct.