Readers 'nominate' new GSA chief architect

BD&C readers responded to our March editorial asking who should replace Ed Feiner as GSA's Chief Architect with nominees from private practice, academia, and the GSA itself.

One reader, who did not give a name, wrote: "Who was Feiner and what was so great about him? I live in NYC and do not know his work."

Another reader said: "GSA does not need a 'Chief Architect.' It needs someone to manage the design and construction of [Federal buildings] that meet the needs of the tenants, the landlord (GSA), and the taxpayer." Who would do that? "The head of GSA Design and Construction," said the correspondent.

Here are the names you submitted:

• David M. Childs, FAIA, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, New York
• Alan Chimacoff, AIA, ikon.5 Architects, Princeton, N.J.
• Philip G. Freelon, FAIA, The Freelon Group, Research Triangle Park and Charlotte, N.C.
• Gregg Gossens, AIA, Gossens Bachman Architects, Montpelier, Vt.
• Dan Peter Kopple, DPK&A Architects, Philadelphia
• Bill Latoza, Bauer Latoza Studio, Chicago
• William A. McDonough, FAIA, William McDonough + Partners, Charlottesville, Va.
• G. Gray Plosser, Jr., FAIA, KPS Group, Birmingham, Ala.
• Ronette A. Riley, FAIA, Ronette Riley Architect, New York
• Gene Schnair, AIA, managing partner, SOM, San Francisco
• Robert A.M. Stern, FAIA, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, New York (2)
• Stanley Tigerman, FAIA, Tigerman McCurry Architects, Chicago

• Lt. Col. William Aldridge, base civil engineer, LAANG, New Orleans
• Frederic Bell, FAIA, executive director, AIA New York Chapter
• Daniel R. Brown, GSA Region 10, Auburn, Wash.
• Kevin Kelly, GSA, Washington, D.C. (Workplace 2020)
• Carl Riday, GSA MidAtlantic Region, Philadelphia
• Leslie Shepherd, acting chief architect, GSA, Washington, D.C. (2)
• Robert Theel, chief architect, GSA Region 5, Chicago
• Joel Zingeser, manager, NIST Building and Fire Research Laboratory, Gaithersburg, Md.

• Lia Gartner, director, design and construction, New School University, New York
• Richard Koshalek, president, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif.
• Andrea P. Leers, Harvard Design School
• Lars Lerup, dean of architecture, Rice University
• David Lewis, director, Cornell (Univ.) Institute for Public Affairs
• Robert Livesey, director, Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University Thomas L. Schumacher, FAAR, School of Architecture, University of Maryland
• Karen Van Lengen, dean of architecture, University of Virginia
• Peter Wheelwright, chair, Parsons Department of Architectural Design

I am writing to nominate Leslie Shepherd as Chief Architect of the GSA. As a National Peer Advisor, I have had the fortunate opportunity to work with Les, most recently as a GSA Design Excellence panelist at the Center for Architecture in New York City. As Chief Architect, through his sustained vision, advocacy, and leadership of Design Excellence in Federal design, Les will continue to allow a diversity of voices to be heard with clarity and distinction, a particularly important position given the somewhat loud and confused panorama of American architecture today.

Karen Bausman , AIA, FAAR, Karen Bausman Architects, New York, N.Y.