With great sadness we
report that Alexander C. Bonutti, AIA, executive vice president of Anshen
+ Allen Architects, passed away at his home in Oakland February 5 after
a brief illness. He was 53.
Rarely does a person affect so many people in so many ways as did Alex.
He was a community builder—not only did he literally build physical
communities; more importantly, he built communities of people through
his sensitive treatment of them and his deep need to help his fellow
citizens: family, colleagues, and neighbors.
Alex received his master of architecture and urban design degree from
Columbia University in 1978 and Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from
the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1974. Before his work at Anshen
+ Allen, he held leadership positions at HOK and KMD in addition to running
his own practice. Alex’s notable innovations influenced mental
health and long-term care facility design and urban design in particular,
and health-care architecture in general. He developed a model for mental
health facility design based on his sensitivity to residents’ daily
cycles of live/work activities. He also pioneered a model for long-term-care-unit
design that organized groups of family/neighborhood/community clusters.
In addition to his busy practice, Alex served as 1990 president of AIA
San Francisco. During his tenure, he helped guide the initiative to remove
the Embarcadero Freeway following the Loma Prieta earthquake. He was
also chair of the Urban Design Committee and involved in revising zoning
in the South of Market and the Embarcadero Corridor Study (which received
a national AIA Urban Design Award). During his tenure at the AIA, he
helped create the Architectural Foundation of San Francisco, whose mission
is to introduce primary and secondary school students to architecture.
Alex led his colleagues to the highest standards of practice. More than
anything else, he valued people and endeavored to mentor, educate, and
challenge everyone he worked with. In turn, everyone he touched feels
honored to continue—in his memory—the myriad lessons he taught.
Copyright 2005 The American Institute of Architects.
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