After being announced as president-elect this past September, Texas-based Dan Hart, FAIA, was formally inaugurated as the 98th President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) on December 10. Hart, a member of AIA Austin who serves as principal and executive vice president of architecture at the architecture and engineering firm Parkhill, succeeds the Chicago-based 2021 AIA president, Peter Exley.
“I’m spectacularly optimistic,” said Hart in a statement of his new role. “As I consider this moment in AIA’s deep history and the complexity that all of us together represent, I see beauty on the other side. I believe we are at a pivotal moment. As we move from aspiration to agency on our core dual strategies of addressing climate and justice through the built environment […] we stand together and are prepared to take action.”
His election as 2022 AIA president follows several other national leadership roles held by Hart within the organization including serving as the 2016 moderator of the AIA Strategic Council, chairing both the AIA Board Knowledge Committee and the AIA Public Outreach Committee, and co-chairing the AIA Public Outreach Committee. Hart has also served on the AIA National Board of Directors.
Outside of the AIA, Hart served as president of the Texas Society of Architects in 2011 and, in addition to holding the previously mentioned titles at Parkhill, sits on the 450-person firm’s board of directors. Parkhill maintains multiple offices across Texas as well as offices in Oklahoma and New Mexico. Hart is also an educator, having served as adjunct instructor for four years for senior-level architecture students at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where he was the distinguished alumnus of the College of Architecture in 2017 founding president of the college’s Design Leadership Alliance. Hart was also trustee on the board of Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas.
Hart’s inauguration comes as the AIA puts out a flurry of big announcements ahead of the new year, including the reveal of its most prestigious honors. On December 9, MASS Design Group was bestowed with the 2022 AIA Architecture Firm Award while Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa were named as AIA Gold Medal recipients. The following day, Deborah Berke was named as recipient of the 2022 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education and RIDING THE VORTEX was honored with the annual 2022 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.
In late November, the AIA announced that Lakisha Ann Woods, CAE, had been selected as the successor to outgoing AIA Executive Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Ivy, who announced his retirement in May.
