Douglas L Steidl, FAIA, will be the 2004 first vice president/president-elect and will serve in 2005 as AIA president. AIA delegates elected Steidl during a runoff election during the Institute’s national convention in San Diego on May 10. Steidl’s term as first vice president begins in December 2003.

Steidl is a founding principal of Braun & Steidl, Akron and Columbus, Ohio, a general practice firm and recipient of the AIA Ohio’s Gold Medal Firm Award. Registered in 21 states, Steidl and his firm provide architectural planning and interior design services for university, medical, religious, and commercial projects, for which they have won several design awards.

Currently serving as AIA national treasurer, he was a vice president in 2001 and a Board member from 1998–2000, at which time he proposed that the Institute’s budget be tied to AIM objectives. He has also been a member of the Finance and Audit and Component Business Development committees and served on the PIA Council and the PIA Executive Committee. Steidl has also been active at the state level, serving as the state convention chair, director, treasurer, president-elect, and president. Locally, he was president of AIA Akron and chair of its Government Affairs Committee. He initiated the AIA Akron mentorship program and “Architecture is . . . ,” which has introduced architecture to more than 13,000 students.

“It is now time to reach out beyond ourselves and utilize our profession’s ideals, insights, values, and know-how to contribute to a better society,” Steidl said in his candidate statement. “Together, we must make our contribution as trustees for the environment, enhancers of neighborhoods, sources of inspiration, conservators of resources, and shapers of public policies . . . ‘Sustainable design,’ ‘smart growth,’ and ‘livable communities’ should all be terms that the public immediately associates with the AIA. Only when we provide value to society will we find ourselves valued.”

Steidl earned his BArch from Carnegie Mellon University and served three and a half years as a Civil Engineer Corps officer with the U.S. Navy. Steidl and his wife Susan, a CPA at Braun & Steidl, serve as church elders and give their time to many other community organizations. They have two daughters and one son-in-law.

Boney, Stewart, Watkins, Named VPs

Paul Davis Boney, FAIA; RK Stewart, FAIA; and David H. Watkins, FAIA, were elected to serve as AIA vice presidents in 2004.

Paul Davis Boney, FAIA, is CEO of Boney Architects, a 50-person, three-office firm in Wilmington, N.C., which was founded by his grandfather in 1922 and named 2002 AIA North Carolina Firm of the Year. He currently serves as director for the South Atlantic region and was 2003 AIA national convention chair. He chaired the AIA Architecture for Education Committee and the Government Affairs Committee on the national level. Boney, a graduate of North Carolina University School of Design, also is active on the local level and was elected secretary, treasurer, vice president, and president of AIA North Carolina, as well as president of the local Wilmington Chapter. His abiding interests in planning, educational facilities design, and politics show in his service on the AIA North Carolina Long-Range Planning Committee, the AIA South Regional Conference Committee, and the AIA North Carolina Political Action Committee. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Wilmington with their two daughters.

RK Stewart, FAIA, senior director from the California region, is a principal with Gensler’s San Francisco office. A graduate of the universities of Kansas and Michigan, he taught at the Mississippi State University and Louisiana State University schools of architecture and has practiced in a small firm in Wyoming as well as for SOM in Chicago. He has served AIA California as president and vice president of education and practice. He was president of AIA San Francisco, as well as a member of the chapter’s board of directors. Stewart also serves on the California Architects Board, devoting his time to its Professional Qualifications Committee, Task Analysis Task Force, and Post-Licensure Task Force. He currently is chair of the Competency Intern Development Program Task Force and is participating in NCARB’s Reciprocity Impediments Task Force. Stewart; his wife, Barbara Lyons Stewart, AIA; and their two children call San Anselmo home.

David H. Watkins, FAIA, is a founding principal of Watkins Hamilton Ross Architects Inc., named IDP Firm of the Year in 1996. He has guided the growth of his firm to a current staff of 130, with projects in 27 states and 9 countries. As director for the Texas region, he has served on the Secretary’s Advisory Committee, the Topaz Medallion jury, the AIA/ASID/IIDA Task Force, and the Contract Documents Task Force. On the local level, he was elected president of both the Texas Society of Architects and AIA Houston. A University of Texas grad, Watkins has chaired the University of Texas School of Architecture Advisory Council, has served on the board of the Rice Design Alliance, and currently is a member of the Rice University School of Architecture Dean’s Circle. Watkins and his wife Marilyn make their home in Houston with their two sons.

Gatsch Named Treasurer

James A. Gatsch, FAIA, who ran unopposed, has been elected treasurer of the AIA. His two-year term will run from 2004–2005. Gatsch, principal of Ford Farewell Mills and Gatsch, Princeton, N.J., has served as 2002 national vice president and as New Jersey’s regional director, and currently is co-chair of the Livable Communities Committee. A member of the national Finance Committee for four years, Gatsch is known as a leader in protecting AIA finances and maintaining fiscal accountability at the national and local levels. He has served as president, treasurer, and secretary of AIA New Jersey, as well and president and secretary of AIA Central New Jersey. Gatsch also donates his time as the treasurer and chair of the finance committee of the Chapin School and has coached volleyball, soccer, and baseball. A Virginia Tech graduate, Gatsch, and his wife Mary, live in Princeton with their son.

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