The American Institute of Architects has elected local architects Kent Duffy of SRG Partnership and Nels Hall of YGH Architecture (he's the 'H') to its College of Fellows, recognizing a career's worth of achievement.
Hall has been a YGH design principal since 1980. Prior to that, he worked as an architect in Boston and Zurich firms. Trained at MIT and Cal Berkeley, his experience includes new town planning, commercial, governmental, medical, educational and housing facilities in the U.S., Middle East, Africa and Europe. He also has quite a head of hair.
In addition to his work at SRG, Kent Duffy served as AIA/Portland chapter president when I worked there six or seven years ago. I remember working together on the chapter's annual design awards, and he was always exceptionally gracious. Soft spoken with an endearingly old-school architect's penchant for bow ties and tweed (I'm guessing elbow patches on a jacket or two as well), Kent grew up in The Dalles as a builder's son, studying architecture at the University of Oregon and (drumroll please) Harvard. His best known work at SRG is probably the Lillis Business Complex at UO, a pioneering sustainable building completed a few years back.
More recently, Kent and SRG have designed for Mt. Angel Abbey has a host of new classrooms and other spaces adjacent to the masterful library there by legendary Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. In particular at Mt.Angel, Kent has embraced forward-thinking daylighting design principles in collaboration with UO professor and sustainable design pioneer GZ "Charlie" Brown, including classrooms that can be lit year-round entirely with natural illumination. SRGD Partnership, anyone?
Your description of Kent is right on the ball. Kudos to Kent for his well deserved recognition.
Posted by: liudehoa | March 19, 2007 at 10:47 AM