We were delighted to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Lambda Alpha by dining on the stage of the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. Designed by noted architect, Frank Gehry, the Pavilion was completed only months before the Lambda Alpha celebration dinner. Over 200 members and guests joined the black-tie festivities on the stage. The Ely Chapter and Larry Lund were instrumental in making arrangements to use one of the most notable new structures on the Chicago skyline. And, the attendees were treated to a view from the stage that will likely not be available to any of us again (unless we become professional musicians). It was one of those rare events, akin to our dinner in the Painted Hall at Greenwich at our 1999 London biennial, that celebrates the rarified air breathed by all of our members who have an opportunity to attend these events.

Our biennial Awards Dinner at the top of the John Hancock Building was another highlight of the Biennial Congress. The awardees shared our excitement in chatting and dining atop one of the world's highest buildings. Moreover, as we recounted the accomplishments for which they were being recognized, we were again reminded of the wide reach and interest of our chapters who, after all, nominated these awardees. From London to Washington, DC, to Vancouver and Los Angeles, both our geographic and disciplinary reach is wide. Lambda Alpha once again distinguished itself by acknowledging the work of land professionals far and wide.

We have a wonderful membership and it is a delight to join with all of them every six months when we visit another city in which we have representation and "get under the skin" of the city as our European Regional Vice President, Dr. Karen Sieracki, puts it. The breath of knowledge and interest of our members is always impressive and the Chicago Biennial was but one more opportunity to spend time with the fascinating individuals who share membership in our Society.


Gerald D. Hines Int’l Award

Robert E. Simon

Lambda Alpha International was honored to present its Gerald B. Hines Humanitarian Award to Robert E. Simon, Jr. at our 75th Anniversary Awards banquet.

We present the Gerald D. Hines International Humanitarian Award during each Biennial Congress to recognize people with a vision of the future, and an ability to identify the means to achieve the vision and to its implementation.

Lambda Alpha selected Mr. Simon for his creativity in the development of plans for the new community of Reston, Virginia -- development of the community and his return to Reston to live and to oversee its completion.

The award was particularly poignant during the 75th Anniversary of Lambda Alpha because it was his father, Robert E. Simon, Sr., who along with Lambda Alpha’s Richard T. Ely who worked together advising on the development of Radburn, New Jersey – a model town of the late 1920’s. See web site 209.224.198.102 for Mr. Simon’s eloquent acceptance comments.



Weekend Experience

A very special experience was a visit to the Town of Pullman, which is one of America’s first planned industrial communities. It was built between 1880 and 1885 on 4,000 acres 12 miles south of Chicago’s loop. George Pullman hired architect Solon S. Beman and landscape architect Nathan F. Barrett to design a complete town and factory complex for his Pullman’ Palace Car Company. The town provided superior amenities such as parks, stores, churches, schools, bank, library, health services, recreational and cultural facilities. Ultimately 1,740 units were built there, with predominantly row houses, cottages, flats and rooming houses for the single workers. The predominate building material was clay, with lovely red face brick. Each home had indoor plumbing, gas lighting and the town was one of the first to have a separated sanitation and storm system. After the death of Mr. Pullman in 1897 the company and the town began to decline. Proposals in 1960 to demolish the town resulted in citizens rallying to save and renovate it. Today, new homeowners and multi-generation Pullman families, with the assistance of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency are committed to saving this important part of American history. The remaining buildings are being lovingly restored and it is easy to imagine the lifestyle of those who lived there 120 years ago.

Some of the other highlights of the “experience” included a visit to the 61 story One Museum Park, a residential building with unparallel views guaranteed never to be obstructed, views of Lake Michigan and the City skyline. This beautiful building in the South Loop area is in the sleek modernist tradition that fits into the Chicago tradition. It is surrounded by parks and has direct access to the Lake. One Museum Park is part of the 88acre, 8,000 new homes in the Central Station development. We also visited luxury townhouses, apartments and retail stores that are revitalizing this neighborhood. The award winning Enterprise Companies and Central Station Development Corporation are the developers.

Our tours took us to a number of other outstanding developments including 111South Wacker Drive a one million square foot building, 80% pre-leased with Deloitte as one its major tenants. This building exemplifies the latest techniques in “green buildings”. We also visited the superb renovation of the 1.3 million square foot South Water Street Produce Market for residential use, and beautifully done in-fill housing. Chicago has so much to see, the quality of design, development and innovation made us all feel privileged to have such a great insiders look at the City. Lunch was delightful as well as informative. The Managing Director of the Chicago Housing Authority, Bill Little shared insights on Chicago’s approach to improving/providing housing for persons of low and moderate income. We visited the Roosevelt Square development that is an example of the new units of mixed income being made available.

Friday evening was an extraordinary tour of the Chicago Architecture Foundation and three of the prominent Chicago architectural offices that are within the building. We were fortunate to hear a presentation by Dr. Eugene Y. Lowe, Jr. Assistant to the President of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois on the influence of Richard T. Ely on American Culture. This was definitely fitting to be in this place of great architecture and listen to the role the founder of Lambda Alpha International had in influencing American culture and current political thinking.



Business Meeting

The Business meeting was preceded by an opportunity for the Chapter Presidents to hone their organizational leadership skills and exchange ideas. Russell C. Salzman, Executive Vice President/CEO institute of Real Estate Management put us through our paces with training needed to facilitate our uniquely challenging membership organizations. This useful training also helped us get acquainted. It makes it easier to know who to call for advice when we have a chance to hear a bit more about our chapters and programs.

The Board of Governors Meeting covered a broad array of organizational issues from the adopting revised by-laws, to a review of the finances, discussion of the possible formation of an Irish chapter to the important election of new officers for 2006 -2008. Out-going President Larry Lund was heartedly thanked for his extraordinary efforts on behalf of Lambda Alpha and Incoming president, Dr.James Fawcett was roundly welcomed.


Dr. Fawcett indicated that during his term his objectives included:

1. Grow the Society to 3,000 members.

2. Assist chapters in enhancing membership to at least 100 members each.

3. Develop a ten-year plan for the Society.

4. Develop new chapters where we have members willing to work with International to bring them to life.

5. Identify a group of new chapter coaches within our membership.

6. Organize a study-tour of rapidly developing regions of the world for our members.

7. Involve more of our members in our semi-annual "Weekend Experiences."



Letter from the President

Jim Fawcett

As your new International President, I want to thank my colleagues and friends on the International Board of Governors for entrusting me with the responsibility of leading our Society for the next two years. It is indeed an honor to represent Lambda Alpha and I will endeavor to carry on in the tradition of our past leaders.

In particular, I want to thank Larry Lund (Ely Chapter) who has steadfastly led Lambda Alpha for the past two years. His energy, dedication to the Society and good ideas served us well for much longer than his recent two-year term as International President. It was a pleasure to work with him as his First Vice President and I look forward to his wise counsel in the years ahead.

In the spirit of not losing the wisdom of our former leadership, the Board of Governors acted at its Chicago meeting last month to create a new board position of “President Emeritus.” Roger Kallman (London Chapter) has agreed to remain active on the Board of Governors in that role and we appreciate his willingness to continue as a member of the Board.

You’ll meet other members of the 2005-7 Board of Governors in this and subsequent issues but I want to mention a few of them to you in particular. David Lachoff (Los Angeles Chapter) will continue for the next two years as our International Treasurer. We’re delighted at his willingness to remain in this important job. Les Pollock (Ely Chapter), our former Midwest Regional Vice President has accepted an invitation to become the next First Vice President and, as with David, I am very pleased that he will work closely with me over the next two years. Ian Lord (Simcoe Chapter) has worked tirelessly over the past two years on our revision of the International by Laws and other formal documents of the Society. We have asked him to assume the duties of International Secretary for this next term and are very happy that he has agreed.

Three of our four Regional Vice Presidents are remaining in place. David Callies (Aloha Chapter) has been our eyes and ears to the Pacific and has agreed to continue to keep a lookout to the West. David Greenwood (Vancouver Chapter) has likewise been looking out for our large array of West Coast chapters and we have prevailed upon him to continue the good work for another two years. Likewise, Karen Sieracki (London Chapter) has been our link to the UK and Europe. She is now working on our upcoming Weekend Experience to be held in Ireland in 2007 and we have plans afoot to develop a chapter in Ireland as well.

So, there are a few of the folks who will lead your Society. Most of the management team has worked together in one capacity or another for the past few years and I could not ask for a better group of colleagues to join in managing the society. I’ll be back with you in coming months with plans for the future and other news from your International Board of Governors.

In the meantime, I want to wish you and yours the very best of holiday greetings. May 2006 bring you peace in your lives and more peace in the world.

James A. Fawcett
International President
fawcett@usc.edu





Thanks to the Ely chapter and LAI past President Larry Lund

Great appreciation was expressed to Larry Lund, past International President, who was the overall coordinator for the event.

The leadership also expressed their appreciation to the Ely Chapter, noting that its organizing committee deserved a special vote of thanks for making the Biennial Congress go so well. Mike Shymanski, Ely Chapter President was also thanked for his great job of coordinating for the chapter including tours of Pullman, visits to the architecture offices in the former Santa Fe Railroad headquarters and the tours of new residential development in the city. Special thanks were also extended to Gene and Joan Stunard for their generous hospitality by hosting the cocktail party on Wednesday night.



Editor’s Column

Helen Sause

Introductions are in order. I am Helen Sause, about to become past president of the Golden Gate Chapter and it is an honor to follow the footsteps of so many accomplished editors! A bit about myself, I have been in both the private and public sector, working for developers, an architectural and planning firm and for many years, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. My role there was as project director of Yerba Buena Center, the 2 billion dollar, 87 acre downtown project, and then serving as Deputy Director.

My approach to being a “public developer” has always been with recognition that the deals have to be “good” for all parties or they don’t work. Public officials have a lot of regulatory power, developers weigh risks, financing, and market conditions etc. and have the option of walking away. I always believe that these diverse strengths need to be brought together for the public good and a profit for the person/group taking the risks. One of my missions has been to share this outlook with colleagues in the public sector. Another major goal has been to model and accomplish assured maintenance for publicly developed or publicly caused to be developed spaces/places. We have all seen the results of building great ideas that become public nuisances because the money was not set aside to provide adequate maintenance and security.

These are some ideas that may be of interest for us to explore in the future.

In the meantime, I look forward to working with all of you as we learn from each other and model best practices. Happy New Year!

Helen Sause
International Editor
helensause@alamedanet.net



In Memoriam

CHARLES ATHERTON, LAMBDA ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FELLOW (2005)

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Charles “Charlie” H. Atherton, FAIA, of the George Washington Chapter. Charlie served 44 years as secretary of the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts were he had enormous influence in major decisions that shaped the Washington landscape. The Commission was established by Congress in 1910 “to advise the Federal and District of Columbia governments on matters of art and architecture that affect the appearance of the nation’s capital.”

His many projects include Freedom Plaza, preservation of the Willard Hotel, the Georgetown Waterfront, extension of the West Front of the Capitol, development of the Air and Space Museum, Lafayette Square directly opposite the White House, the FDR Memorial and the World War II Memorial.

An award winning scholar and architect, Mr. Atherton was the 2005 recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award given by the American Institute of Architects and was also this year made an International Fellow in Lambda Alpha International.

“His exceptional stewardship as secretary of the Commission is without equal in its profound influences on the nation’s capital,” wrote AIA nominator, Harry G. Robinson III, FAIA, dean emeritus and professor of urban design at Howard University and former chair of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. “A scholar on the development of the city, he brought reason and thoughtfulness to decisions affecting its memorials; changes in its landscape, structure, and patterns; and to its built interventions.” 6 December 2005


COLIN LIVINGSTON

Colin was a Golden Gate Chapter, Lambda Alpha member for many years. He was a highly respected real estate professional. He became a member dating to the time from when he was the principal real estate officer at Crocker Bank. He was greatly involved in the planning of the Crocker Center in San Francisco before Crocker was acquired by Wells Fargo.



Chapter Corner

Zia Chapter:

The New Mexico chapter is still in its infancy and is working out a number of administrative kinks including where meetings might best be held and whether we can get our far flung membership together for an initiation banquet for new members next fall.

We have been successful in recruiting members all over the state but some live several hundred miles away from one another. Recently we elected six new members being our chapter total to 37. Our goal is to bring membership to 100 by our first annual meeting in September, 2006.

We have had two very successful programs: New Mexico's Rail Runner light rail program connecting cities paralleling US I-25 from south of Albuquerque to Santa Fe which is under construction and will be complete in 2008: Forest City Covington's new Mesa del Sol project in Albuquerque which will be one of the nation's largest mixed use projects and will be similar to Forest City's project at what was Stapleton Field in Denver. Our next meeting in January will feature a presentation on Kelo vs. New London and the possible impact of the decision on eminent domain matters in New Mexico.

Michael Maremont, Zia Chapter president, attended the 75th Anniversary meeting in Chicago and accepted the charter for LAI's newest chapter. "I was particularly struck by the diversity in the interests of the membership of the different chapters as reflected by the remarks of the attending officers", he said. "The graciousness and helpfulness of our Ely Chapter hosts and LAI staff were particularly noteworthy. As a member for 10 years I knew LAI was a great organization and now I'm even more impressed with its scope and mission. I was very pleased to be able to say farewell personally to Larry Lund with whom I had worked closely in putting Zia Chapter together."

Zia Chapter meets at noon the last Wednesday of every other month (January 25th will be next) in Albuquerque or Santa Fe. Please let us hear from LAI members interested in attending.



Golden Gate Chapter:

The Annual Banquet held December 1, in the historic Old Mint building was a bitter sweet time, we have long held our event there and enjoy its distinguished architecture, however it is slated to become an integral part of a new development. The sweet part was the wonderful 22 new initiates that joined us that evening and the rueful poking of fun at the condominimizing of San Francisco, and the opportunity to present our newest award. In addition to our Member of the Year award, to John Stewart for his outstanding work in San Francisco and particularly in the area of low income housing, the Chapter has chosen to present a “Lifetime Achievement Award” to a person(s) whose body of work merits exceptional recognition. This award went to Piero N. Patri, an architect whose contributions are all over San Francisco and other parts of the country where he has tirelessly strived for design excellence.

Announcements

Save the Dates! ! !

April 28 - 30, 2006
LAI Spring Weekend experience, Washington, DC
Hotel Monaco, reservations rates $249 single/double
1-877-202-5411

Watch for more information in the coming months.

Fall 2006, Ottawa, Ontario

New Members

Boston Chapter
Merrill Diamond, Diamond/Sinacori, LLC
Francis L. DiMella, AIA, Dimella Shaffer
David Dixon, FAIA, Goody Clancy
David S. Hall, LNR Property Corporation
Emmet T. Logue, Hunneman Appraisal & Consulting Co.
Thomas F. Meagher, Northeast Apartment Advisors, Inc.
George R. Metzger, AIA, HMFH Architects Inc.
Thomas A. Miller, Boston Redevelopment Authority
H. Peter Norstrand, Division of Capital Asset Management
Lowell L. Richards, III, Massachusetts Port Authority

Golden Gate Chapter
Walter S. Cohen, The Enterprise Group
Donald E. Dana, Wells Fargo Bank, Corporate Properties Group
Robert Davis
Craig B. Etlin, Morrison & Foerster
Matthew O. Franklin, City of San Francisco, Mayor’s Office of Housing
Marshall Foster, City & County of San Francisco, Planning Department
Jane M. Graf, Mercy Housing California
Gordon M. Hess, Ellis Partners, LLC
Sean Jeffries, Millennium Partners
Gabriel Metcalf, SPUR
Kazuko Y. Morgan, Cushman & Wakefield
Diane Oshima, Waterfront Planning
Stephen Proud, City of Alameda, Alameda City Hall
Stephen Richardson, Alexandria Real Estate Equities
Kathleen Burgi-Sandell, Morgan Stanley REI
Carl D. Shannon, Tishman Speyer Properties
Susan Smartt, Forest City Enterprises
Tom Steinbach, Greenbelt Alliance
Patricia A. Theophilos, California Savings Bank
S. Douglas Weil, Weil Realty Group
Paul Woolford, HOK San Francisco

New Mexico Chapter
Michael Kelly, Q10 Realty Mortgage & Investment Co.
Mark Lautman, Forest City Covington – Mesa del Sol
Noreen A. Scott, Rio Rancho Economic Development Corp.
Lynn H. Slade, Modrall Sperling
Tony P. Trujillo, Phelps Dodge Mining Company
Robert M. White, City of Albuquerque

Simcoe Chapter
David Amborski, Ryerson Polytechnic University
James Ayres, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
David A. Butler, The Butler Group (Consultants) Inc.
Tarek El-Khatib, Zeidler Partnership Architects
Michael Goldberg, Armstrong Goldberg Hunter
Tony Hernandez, Ryerson Polytechnic University
Glenn R. Miller, Canadian Urban Institute
Myron Pestaluky, Delta Urban Inc.
David B. Richardson, Marshall Macklin Monaghan
Paul B. Scargall, Rueter Scargall Bennett LLP
Gary Switzer, Great Gulf Group Limited