STEVEN LEWIS
Architecture, Social Justice, and Diversity
LECTURE
Thursday, October 21, 2021
This lecture will be available to the public at 7:00 p.m. PT at Otis College of Art and Design via Zoom.
Email EnvironmentalDesign@otis.edu for more information and the Zoom link to attend.
"Steven Lewis is an architect and a tireless advocate for social justice and diversity within the field of architecture. He currently serves as Urban Design Principal with ZGF in Los Angeles. Previously he was Urban Design Director for the Central Region of Detroit in the City’s Planning & Development Department. He also is a Professor in Practice at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Prior to coming to Detroit, Steven was an Associate Vice President for TRC in their energy services group. He was a founding partner of the firm RAW International, where he helped build a successful design practice over a 20-year period. In 2004, Steven accepted an invitation to join the U.S. General Services Administration’s Office of the Chief Architect in Washington, DC, where he served a four-year term as a program manager.
Steven was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for the 2006-07 academic year, where he focused on the issue of race within the profession of architecture. In December 2010, he concluded a two-year term as President of the National Organization of Minority Architects, traveling around the U.S., and several other countries advocating for architects-of-color. Steven used his platform as president to prioritize cultivating the next generation of diverse architects and designers. In 2011, Steven launched a consulting practice – “Thinking Leadership – What we Do…Who we Are” – aimed at helping clients – particularly civic leaders – attain superior outcomes through his engagement. He was the 2016 recipient of the AIA’s esteemed Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award, and was elevated to the AIA’s College of Fellows.
More than anything, Steven is a facilitator of partnerships and alliances between groups and individuals who seek to use architecture and design to effect positive change to our world." - https://architectsfoundation.org/who-we-are/board-of-directors/
Images, clockwise from top left: Steven Lewis, photograph courtesy of ZGF; California Science Center, Phase 1, photographed by Timothy Hursley; California DGS, Richards Boulevard Office Complex, rendering courtesy of ZGF
