Delegates to the AIA National Convention elected RK Stewart, FAIA, to serve as the 2006 AIA first vice president/president-elect and 2007 Institute president. Stewart’s vision for the AIA includes achieving “higher levels of influence,” particularly in the areas of knowledge and emerging professionals. He also would like to see the “profession leading the industry to new ways of constructing the built environment—a profession that creates new delivery models to design and build projects more efficiently [and delivers] projects that are more sustainable, more economical, and of higher quality.” Lastly, Stewart would like to move the profession toward playing a greater role in serving society by becoming more engaged in and with local government.

Stewart, a principal with Gensler’s San Francisco office, is a familiar face in the AIA national leadership, as a two-term AIA vice president and as an AIA regional director. He focused on emerging professionals issues during his first term, and was asked to lead advocacy initiatives in 2005. Stewart has been an active participant on the AIA board and has worked closely with allied organizations including AIAS and NCARB. Active in regulatory and licensing issues, Stewart has served on the national Codes and Standards Committee, Integrated Practice Strategy Group, and A/E Productivity Task Group. He also served as chair of the Emerging Professionals Board Discussion Group and the Specialty Certification Task Force, and was co-chair of the IDP Coordinating Committee. Prior AIA service includes a term as a California regional director, president of the AIA California Council, and president of AIA San Francisco and a member of its Board.

Stewart joined Gensler in 1988, and has managed several award-winning architecture and historic renovation projects. In addition to his responsibilities as a principal and project director, he serves on the firm’s technical steering committee.
Prior to employment at Gensler, Stewart taught at Louisiana State University and Mississippi State University schools of architecture, then worked at a small firm in Wyoming and at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Chicago office. He later moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as SOM’s director of computer operations. Stewart then relocated to San Francisco, where he worked with Heller Manus Architects. He received his bachelors of environmental design from the University of Kansas and his MArch from the University of Michigan.

Stewart also contributes his time as a member of the California Architects Board, AIAS Studio Culture Task Force, International Alliance for Interoperability Board of Directors, Building Owners and Managers Association, and the Construction User Roundtable A/E Productivity Working Group. Stewart and his wife Barbara Lyons Stewart live with their two children in San Anselmo.

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