New President and Board Directors elected at 137th Annual Meeting
League members elected Paul Lewis 62nd President of The Architectural League along with Tatiana Bilbao and Kris Graves as Board Directors.
On June 27, at The Architectural League’s 137th Annual Meeting held at The Cooper Union’s Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery, members of the League elected Paul Lewis as its 62nd President. Lewis follows Billie Tsien, who served as president from 2014 – 2018. Tsien remains on the League’s Board of Directors. New board members Kris Graves and Tatiana Bilbao were also elected to the board (Graves as Vice-President for Photography and Bilbao as a member of the Class of 2021), and continuing board members Mario Gooden and Mary Burnham were newly elected to positions as officers of the board, Gooden as Vice-President for Architecture and Burnham as Secretary of the Board.
Members of The Architectural League play an important role in its governance. At the League’s Annual Meeting, members elect the organization’s directors and officers, who oversee the League’s operations and its professional staff. The proposed slate of officers and directors is nominated by a committee of the League’s current Board and approved by the full Board. The structure of the League’s board, with vice presidencies representing the allied arts and disciplines, dates to the early years of the organization’s history in the late nineteenth century, and was designed to bring artists and designers together for dialogue and mutual education.
(L) Mary Burnham; (C) Kris Graves; (R) Mario Gooden
At the Annual Meeting, League executive director Rosalie Genevro welcomed the new officers and directors and paid tribute to outgoing president Billie Tsien, praising her “manifold generosity:”
“…generosity that extends from deep interest in and enthusiasm for the work presented by the League’s myriad competition winners, lecturers, writers, and photographers, to willingness to use any and all contacts she may have on behalf of the League, to unstinting commitment of time to League affairs, to open-handed financial support—and readiness to encourage others to be supporters as well. The last two years of Billie’s service have coincided, as we all know well, with a very fraught political climate. She has been clear about the importance of organizations such as the League standing strong as proponents of a pluralist, diverse, tolerant, compassionate society.”
Paul Lewis has served on the board of The Architectural League since 2006 and is a long-standing member of its executive committee and a frequent juror for League competitions. Lewis, along with his LTL Architects partners Marc Tsurumaki and David Lewis, was chosen as an Emerging Voice by The Architectural League in 2002; and, with David Lewis, was a winner of the 1997 League Prize competition.