Both Robert Greenstreet, Intl. Assoc. AIA, and John D. Anderson, FAIA, have won prestigious AIA award. The Board of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) named Robert Greenstreet as 2013 recipient of the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education. In addition, the AIA Board of Directors elected John D. Anderson as the 2013 recipient of the Edward C. Kemper Award in recognition of his many leadership roles within the AIA at the state and national levels. More information on their awards after the break.
The AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion honors an individual who has been intensely involved in architecture education for more than a decade and whose teaching has influenced a broad range of students. In his more than 35-year career, Greenstreet has taught at five schools of architecture in the United Kingdom and the United States. He has spent the last 20 years as dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), making him one of the longest-serving architecture deans in North America.
At UWM he developed and taught several new courses, including those focused on advanced presentation techniques, building technology, and law and practice for architects. He has also led numerous design studios and study-abroad programs. Greenstreet has spearheaded interdisciplinary and professional program development between architecture students and those studying such diverse subjects as film, art history, engineering, business, and law. Reaching out beyond academia, Greenstreet played a fundamental role in the development of a new public high school in Milwaukee, the School for Urban Planning + Architecture, which enrolled its first class in 2007.
Known for his leadership roles, Anderson played a critical role in the Institute’s response to the 9/11 attacks, working closely with the local New York chapter to determine how architects could best help a shattered and traumatized city and nation. His firm, Anderson Mason Dale Architects, has received more than 100 design awards from the AIA and other groups, and was honored as Firm of the Year by the Western Mountain Region in 1986 and by AIA Colorado in 2000.
Named in honor of the AIA’s first executive director, the award recognizes individuals who contribute significantly to the profession of architecture through service to the Institute. Anderson will be honored at the 2013 AIA National Convention in Denver. Ascending to the presidency of AIA Colorado in 1971, Anderson quickly seized on what was then known as the “energy crisis,” recognizing the role that architects could play in increasing the energy efficiency of the built environment. During this period, his firm designed what was then the world’s largest solar-heated building at the Westminster, Colo., campus of Front Range Community College. He served on the AIA’s Energy Committee from 1974 to 1983, becoming its chair in 1982. He played a critical part in that committee’s evolution into COTE, the AIA’s highly successful Committee on the Environment.
