Award for Distinguished Achievement: Tim Colley, AIA

Award for Distinguished Achievement: Tim Colley, AIA, for Leadership in Advocacy and Licensure

AIA Virginia’s Award for Distinguished Achievement recognizes either a singular achievement or the work of a career in design, practice, education, citizen-architect service, service to the profession, or initiatives advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Tim Colley, AIA, is being honored for a career that powerfully embodies the citizen-architect ideal. Tim applies professional knowledge in service of communities, public policy, responsible regulation, and the future of architectural practice.

For nearly three decades, Colley has combined professional practice with sustained civic responsibility. In Blacksburg, he has served on the Planning Commission since 2018 and on the town’s Zoning Ordinance Review Committee for nearly two decades, bringing an architect’s perspective to questions of housing, transportation, sustainability, neighborhood character, and growth. His work has helped the community navigate the complex pressures of a rapidly evolving university town. Former Blacksburg Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith calls him “an exemplar of professional accomplishment, civic devotion and personal generosity.”

Colley’s influence expands from local service to statewide advocacy and national regulation. He has served on the AIA Virginia Board, as Vice President of Government Affairs, as chair and trustee of the AIA Virginia PAC, and in roles advancing disaster assistance, small-firm practice, and legislative engagement. Through Virginia’s APELSCIDLA Board and extensive NCARB service, he has worked on regulatory modernization, alternative pathways to licensure, and architectural competency. His participation in NCARB’s Competency Task Force and Licensure Process Research and Development Task Force places him at the center of national conversations about how future architects demonstrate readiness to practice.

That influence has earned the confidence of peers well beyond Virginia. NCARB CEO Michael Armstrong describes Colley as “an outstanding advocate for evolving our entire licensure protocol,” citing his growing leadership within the national regulatory community. His 2026 NCARB President’s Medal for Distinguished Service further recognizes the significance of that work.

The thread connecting all of it is public responsibility: Colley has consistently demonstrated that an architect’s obligation extends beyond individual commissions to the regulations, policies, institutions, and communities that shape the built environment for everyone.

We will celebrate Tim Colley and the other AIA Virginia 2026 Honorees at Visions for Architecture, November 5, 2026. Buy your ticket when you register for ArchEx at www.aiava.org