AIA named 10 recipients of the 2008 Young Architects Award
Young Architects are defined as professionals who have been licensed 10 years or fewer regardless of their age. This award honors inpiduals who have shown exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession early in their careers.
The recipients of the 2008 AIA’s Young Architects Award are in detail:
Victoria Beach, AIA
In 1999, Beach became the first and only architect ever admitted into Fellowship at the Center for Ethics and the Professions. Beach published a 30-page exposé on the treatment of interns as well as having established her own nonprofit organization, Design Foundations, to restore the dignity and productivity of the internship experience through community service. She was also chosen as an example of ethical practice in the upcoming AIA 150th anniversary book: Celebrating the Past, Designing the Future.
David Gamble, AIA, LEED-AP
David Gamble holds a BArch from Kent State University and a MArch in urban design. Gamble has done extensive work abroad as well as having served as a full-time assistant professor at Syracuse University, where he taught design and drawing from 1997 to 2001. Now a senior associate at Chan Krieger Sieniewicz in Cambridge, Mass, Gamble has led urban design projects throughout the United States. He is currently a part-time design instructor at Northeastern University’s School of Architecture in Boston.
Emily A. Grandstaff-Rice, AIA
Emily Grandstaff-Rice, an architect with Cambridge Seven Associates Inc., has shown exceptional leadership in her commitment to design and construction through projects such as the Boston Children’s Museum and Liberty Hotel. Her commitment to education is demonstrated through her volunteer work with children and activities with the AIA Young Architects Forum (YAF). She also teaches at the Boston Architectural College.
Kelly Hayes-McAlonie, AIA, MRAIC, LEED-AP
Kelly Hayes McAlonie an associate vice president with Cannon Design, has dedicated her career to design for education and improving learning environments. Upon graduation from the Technical University of Nova Scotia (now Dalhousie University), Hayes-McAlonie joined Leathers & Associates where she planned and designed more than 100 learning gardens for clients throughout the United States and abroad and co-authored a multidisciplinary architecture curriculum for grade-school children. One of her projects, the Montante Cultural Center, received an AIA Honor Award for Interior Architecture.
Grace H. Kim, AIA
Grace Kim is a co-founding principal of Schemata Workshop, an architectural collaborative in Seattle where she authored the book The Survival Guide to Architectural Internship and Career Development. During her early career, she was an active participant in AIA Chicago’s Young Architects Committee and has since been involved nationally on issues related to internship and mentorship. In 2006, Kim was appointed as a member-at-large on the inaugural national Board Community Committee, through which she spearheaded an initiative called “Welcome to the Profession”—a program to welcome graduates into the architecture profession.
Samuel Lasky, AIA
Samuel Lasky is a Senior Associate at William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc., in Boston, MA where his work over the past ten years has focused on complex institutional projects and their relationship to the public realm. Recent projects highlighting his leadership include the new United States Courthouse in Cedar Rapids, IA (currently in the CD phase), the high-rise W Hotel and Residences in Boston’s Theater District (under construction) and the College of Computer and Information Science and Residence Hall at Northeastern University which was awarded the Boston Society of Architect’s Harleston Parker Medal for “the most beautiful building in Boston.” Lasky has taught during several semesters at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Graduate School of Design.
Michael J. Meehan, AIA
Michael Meehan, the 2007 chair of the Young Architects Forum (YAF) Advisory Committee, has focused on validating and redefining the mission of the committee. In practice, he is the professional development manager at BWBR Architects in Saint Paul. In 1997, Meehan became co-chair of the AIA Minnesota Intern Development Program Committee. In 2006 Meehan served as co-chair of the YAF and also began his rotation as a member of the AIA/AGC Joint Committee. He recently worked with the Hazelden Foundation as project architect and project manager on their new Women’s Recovery Center in Center City, Minn. Architecturally, Meehan’s projects reflect his passion for buildings and clients that contribute to society and the built environment.
David Montalba, AIA
David Montalba’s work, often executed in tandem with local builders and artisans, has garnered numerous design awards including several from the AIA Los Angeles. Born in Florence, Italy, and raised in both Switzerland and California, Montalba earned his BArch at SciARC and a MArch at UCLA. He then worked for a number of architects in the LA area, including Frank Gehry and Pugh + Scarpa, before creating Montalba Architects Inc. in 2004. Montalba has been actively involved in local, regional, and international architecture communities as a member of the boards of AIA Los Angeles, Swiss Institute for Architects, Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects and AIA Europe and also as a board member of the Architecture & Design Museum Los Angeles. He currently serves as treasurer of the LA/AIA and serves as a past as co-chair and advisor to the LA/AIA Academic Outreach Committee.
Robert Pasersky, AIA
In February 2006, after closely following news reports of how 10 churches in rural Alabama were destroyed by arson, Robert Pasersky, a native of Atlanta, felt an ineffable need to volunteer his services, pro bono, to help the victims get their places of worship rebuilt. Pasersky earned his BArch from Tulane University where he received the F.W. Lawrence Memorial Medal for design excellence upon graduation. He earned his MArch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Pasersky joined Payette in 1999 and was named an associate of the firm in 2002. Pasersky also has taught advanced studio and has served as a thesis advisor at Boston Architectural College since 1998. In 2000, Pasersky earned a certificate of achievement from the Boston Society of Architects Young Designers Professional Development Institute.
Tim Schroeder, AIA
Graduating cum laude from Iowa State University in 1994, Tim Schoeder received the Kocimski Award, the highest award available to graduating architecture students. Schroeder, in 2000 at age 30, became a vice president of Neumann Monson Architects and has led many of the firm's design and sustainability endeavors. An outstanding designer, his work has been honored by the AIA and other organizations and environmental groups at the local, state, and regional level. He created Iowa’s first green roof project, the first LEED-certified school, the first LEED-certified public building and was the recipient of AIA Iowa’s first Sustainability Award. Schroeder also served on the Iowa Architectural Foundation Board and the editorial board for the award-winning Iowa Architect magazine, for which he recently became editor-in-chief. He also serves as a guest lecturer for his alma mater and leads building tours on behalf of the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Architects Council. His recent community-oriented service activities include the Hickory Hill Park prairie restoration, the City of Coralville’s Iowa River Landing wetland restoration and planting, and the Iowa City tornado clean-up.