Bruce E. Blackmer FAIA
AIA Knowledge Initiative
Northwest Architectural Company
As chief executive officer of Northwest Architectural Company, Bruce Blackmer directs the operations of a 100-person firm with offices in Seattle, Spokane and Coeur d'Alene. His experience spans small, midsize and larger firms, as well as government and academia.

His AIA leadership has included AIA Spokane and a three-year term on the AIA national Board of Directors representing the AIA Northwest + Pacific Region – which included service as liaison to the PIA Council, forerunner of the AIA Knowledge Communities, and a term as AIA national Vice President 2003-04. Blackmer has addressed numerous AIA local and national component meetings on topics relating to the AIA Knowledge Initiative.

John Cary
Public Architecture, San Francisco
John Cary (BA Arch U Minnesota summa cum laude, MArch UC Berkeley) now serves as Executive Director of Public Architecture. A non-profit organization based in San Francisco, Public Architecture encourages architects to assume leadership roles as problem identifiers rather than just problem solvers. John oversees Public Architecture's pro bono projects as well as a national program, the "1% Solution," through which firms pledge one percent of their billable hours to nonprofit groups and communities-in-need that could not otherwise afford professional design services. A former Vice President of The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and co-founder of ArchVoices, a nonprofit organization and think tank focused on the future of the profession recently honored with the 2005 AIA Collaborative Achievement Award, John Cary also serves on the AIA Diversity Committee, National Associates Committee, and Educator / Practitioner Network; as a board member of the Association for Community Design, AIA California Council, and Design Citizen; as well as an advisor to a variety of nonprofit organizations and publications.

Gordon H. Chong FAIA
Chong Partners Architecture
Founding partner and president of Chong Partners Architecture, with offices in San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and London and 2002 AIA President, Gordon Chong has brought his visionary leadership and commitment to improving the quality of life through community-based design and to achieving the expansion of the architectural profession to embody its potential to serve society.

Gordon Chong has led development of the company as one of Northern California's top architectural practices. For more than 25 years, he has served as a technical and management resource for the firm's large commissions serving community needs: buildings, campuses, and urban design for education, healthcare, transportation, and civic and cultural facilities. In May 2005, the AIA College of Fellows presented the Latrobe Fellowship, which provides $100,000 biennially for research into the profession of architecture to Chong Partners; the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan; and the University of California-Berkeley.

Bruce Donnally AIA
Donnally Architects
Principal owners and founder of Donnally Architects, Bruce Donnally (BArch U of Virginia, MArch Yale) previously designed and managed projects with Cesar Pelli Associates, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, and LMN Architects – firms of exceptional national and international reputation and design caliber. His Skyspace Pavilion at the Henry Art Gallery received design recognition in the AIA Seattle 2003 Honor Awards for Washington Architecture.

Clair Enlow
Design Journalist
Clair Enlow has made architecture the focus of her journalistic career. A 2001-02 Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, she has made a distinct journalistic contribution to the Northwest dialog on design. Her writing and editing responsibilities include columnist (and Architecture Editor 1990-99) for the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, contributing editor to ArchitectureWeek, and an editorial board member of ARCADE Magazine. Her byline appears in magazines including Planning, Landscape Architecture, World Architecture, and Public Art Review. In these and other activities, Clair has given attention and space to Northwest architecture. She has had a leading role in creating and sustaining the DJC/AIA Project of the Month, a comprehensive series of case studies on the commercial value of good design. Her discernment has made her a valuable jury member in awards programs throughout the region. In her acceptance of AIA Seattle Honorary Membership in 1995, Clair offered this expression of her commitment and challenge to the profession: "As long as you continue to design as if it mattered, I'll continue to write about design as if it mattered."

Jim Glymph FAIA
Gehry Partners/Gehry Technologies
Los Angeles
A Partner at Gehry Partners, LLP and CEO of Gehry Technologies, Jim Glymph has a previous Northwest connection: in the 1980s, he worked with LMN Architects in downtown Seattle, heading the team that designed the San Diego Convention Center. In 1989, Glymph joined Frank O. Gehry & Associates (now Gehry Partners). He has always had a strong interest in building technology and how it influences design. His role at GT allows him to put to work his understanding of how the integration of design, invention and building processes can enhance the project development process.

Greg Kessler AIA
Director, School of Architecture & Construction Management
Washington State University
Greg Kessler's responsibilities at WSU include the overall management of the School, and working with the faculty to establish long-term goals and objectives for the future of the School at both the Pullman and Spokane campuses. He joined the WSU faculty in 1987, bringing extensive professional design experience with a broad range of building types, in work with design firms with national and international portfolios. At WSU, he has taught design studio courses, as well as architectural theory/philosophy.

Rena Klein AIA
RM Klein Consulting, Seattle
Knowledge by Design Conference Chair
The firm of RM Klein Consulting offers meeting facilitation, business planning services and management education and coaching to architects in firms nationwide. A lecturer at the University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Rena Klein (BArch U of Oregon, MS Management Antioch U) teaches leadership, ethics, and management in design practice; and through AIA Seattle's continuing education program, a range of subjects relating to small firm practice management to professionals throughout the region. Also a practicing architect and small firm owner with more than 20 years experience, Rena Klein has presented programs on small firm management at AIA components throughout the US and at AIA Convention.

A grant from the AIA/American Architectural Foundation supported Rena's studies and advanced research. She served as AIA Seattle President 2002-03, and on the 2005 AIA Convention Continuing Education Committee.

Stephen A. Kliment FAIA
Author and educator
An architectural journalist (Architectural Record Editor in Chief 1990-96), author, and teacher, Stephen Kliment has written, edited, or co-authored numerous books on all aspects of architecture. He founded and edited the respected "Building Types Basics" series published by John Wiley & Sons. Other popular titles by the author include Writing for Design Professionals: A Guide for Architects, Engineers, Landscape and Interior Architects, and Other Designers, and Architectural Sketching and Rendering. A frequent speaker at AIA Convention and numerous other professional gatherings and currently an adjunct professor at City College of New York, Stephen Kliment resides in New York City.

Clark Llewellyn AIA
Professor & Director, School of Achitecture
Montana State University
An AIA Member since 1976, Clark Llewellyn served on the board of AIA Montana 1998-2003 and as its President in 2003, before his election in 2004 to the AIA national Board of Directors, representing the AIA NW + Pacific Region. Registered to practice in California, Oregon and Washington, he he has worked for architectural firms in Portland, Seattle and Tacoma. For the past 25 years, he has maintained a small independent practice, Llewellyn Architects, recipient of three AIA Montana awards, numerous community design awards, and recognition from the State of Montana for historic preservation and for "Library of the Year."

W. Mike Martin PhD, FAIA
Chair, Department of Architecture
University of California, Berkeley
Mike Martin's teaching and research focuses on the study of practice, collaborative design, work-studies of practice, and storytelling as a means of knowledge transfer. He has served as President of AIA San Francisco, and as editor of Architecture California (AIACC). Martin received an Honorable Mention in the 2002 NCARB Prize for his "Building Stories: A Case Study Analysis of Practice" project. Current writings include Fundamental Processes in Concurrent Design and Construction, Progress Through Partnerships: The Changing Profession/Changing the Profession, and a book on Building Stories: A Case Study Approach to Practice. In May 2005, the AIA College of Fellows presented the Latrobe Fellowship, which provides $100,000 biennially for research into the profession of architecture to Chong Partners; the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan; and the University of California-Berkeley.

Douglas L Steidl FAIA
Braun & Steidl Architects,
Akron & Columbus, Ohio
2005 President, The American Institute of Architects
A founding principal of Braun & Steidl (est. 1983), a general-practice architectural firm and recipient of AIA Ohio's Gold Medal Firm Award, Doug Steidl directs the firm in its work providing architectural planning and interior design services for widely-recognized university, medical, religious and commercial projects. Presently, the staff of Braun & Steidl Architects consists of 41 professionals, including 13 registered architects.

First elected to the AIA national Board of Directors for a 1998-2000 term, Steidl went on to serve the AIA as Vice President 2000-2001, Treasurer 2001-2003, and First VP 2003-2004.

Norman Strong FAIA
The Miller|Hull Partnership, Seattle
As managing partner of Miller|Hull, an architectural practice headquartered in Seattle, Norman Strong has helped shape a practice that embodies the highest aspirations of Northwest design and firm culture, as recognized by the AIA 2003 Architecture Firm Award. He has applied the same idealism and practicality in professional service, including a term as AIA Seattle President 2000-2001.

Through Strong's leadership and vision, Miller|Hull has grown from a firm of 10 architects in 1985 doing mostly local design projects, to a 50+-person nationally recognized firm executing large-scale public projects in the Pacific Northwest and across the nation. Miller|Hull remains driven by design, as signified in the firm's recognition by more than 130 design awards.

Currently serving on the AIA national Board of Directors and elected to serve as AIA VP 2005-07, Strong has engaged at the national level with practice- and knowledge-based initiatives to move the profession forward.

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Hear and talk with these and other knowledgeable luminaries at the Knowledge by Design NW+Pacific Region Case Study Conference in Seattle, August 4 through 6.