The American Institute of Architects will elevate four Virginia members to its College of Fellows — an honor awarded to members who have made contributions of national significance to the profession. From a membership of more than 80,000, there are fewer than 2,700 Fellows. The purpose of the College of Fellows is to stimulate a sharing of interests among Fellows, to promote the purposes of the Institute, to advance the profession of architecture, and to be of ever-increasing service to society.
From the Virginia Society’s membership, the new Fellows include Peyton Boyd, FAIA, Richard L. Ford, Jr., FAIA, Kim Tanzer, FAIA, and M. Kirk Train, FAIA.
Deeply involved in the AIA since 1979, Peyton Boyd has served as a board member, officer and a president of both AIA Blue Ridge and the Virginia Society AIA. He was Guest Curator for Livable Communities for Virginia, an exhibition celebrating the AIA’s sesquicentennial which opened to the public in 2007. In addition to serving on the Board of the Virginia Center for Architecture since 2002, he has volunteered extensively throughout the state. In 2010 he was awarded the Society’s prestigious Noland Medal. He is founder and principal of Peyton Boyd Architect, PC, in Abingdon.
For more than 40 years, Dick Ford has been a focused leader serving the profession, the Institute and the community. Early in his career he lead in the formation of a new AIA chapter, served as a leader for the Society, led in the formation of the Region of the Virginias, and served as an Institute director. He also has served on a number of boards and community advisory committees, including 10 years as the Chairman of Virginia’s Art and Architecture Review Board. He has also served on more than a dozen non-profit and civic boards, including the Virginia Center for Architecture. He is a principal emeritus with Richmond-based firm Commonwealth Architects.
Kim Tanzer is the Dean and Edward E. Elson Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia. Prior to beginning her tenure at the University of Virginia in July 2009 she served as a professor of architecture at the University of Florida for more than two decades. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Duke University and her Master of Architecture from North Carolina State University. Much of her teaching and research has focused on the relationship between the human body and large shared spaces such as the city and the landscape, with an emphasis on creating sustainable environments. In her writing, teaching, and architectural and urban design she has worked to forge connections between the phenomenal experience of space and more abstract understandings of the environment.
After graduating from the School of Architecture at Yale University, Kirk Train interned with I. M. Pei & Partners, New York. Later, he joined the staff of Cooper Robertson & Partners and in 1990, he founded Charlottesville firm Train & Partners Architects. He has held a variety of leadership positions in both the state and his local chapter, and on the Board of the Virginia Center for Architecture. He has also served on numerous other non-profit boards as well as on the Charlottesville and Albemarle County ARB. As a key member of the steering committee, he helped shape the Emerging Leaders in Architecture program with the potential to impact a whole generation of young leaders in the profession. In 2004 he was presented with the Society’s Award for Distinguished Achievement.
The new Fellows, who are entitled to use the designation “FAIA” following their names, will be invested in the College of Fellows at the 2011 AIA National Convention and Design Expo on May 13.