thomas vonier faia riba Honfraic
AIA International, Founding President 2011-2012
AIA National President 2017
UIA President 2017-2021
AIA Europe, Founding President 1994-1996
Thomas Vonier (FAIA, RIBA) is an architect with a private practice based in Paris and Washington D.C. He is a senior partner in Chesapeake Strategies Ltd, advising organizations on innovations in the building, design, security, and urban sectors.
Vonier is a leading advocate for applying research to architectural design, advancing the use of innovative technologies in buildings and cities, and integrating unobtrusive security measures with architecture and urban design. He speaks frequently to public and professional audiences.
Atlantic magazine's "CityLab" featured Vonier in its live session with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, to address contemporary challenges facing the world's major cities. He appeared on the NPR program All Things Considered, and on the WBUR program Here and Now, in features on urban security. He was the international advisor to the Federal Triangle Security project, which received a Presidential Design Award.
The 95,000-member American Institute of Architects elected Vonier as its national president for 2017. Delegates to the World Congress of Architects, held in Seoul, elected Vonier as UIA president from 2017 to 2021, representing the world's 3.2 million architects.
Vonier has worked as an architect with many public and private international organisations in the United States and abroad. He led the work to produce landmark reforms in embassy design, implemented by the US Secretary of State. He has completed work on educational facilities, corporate office buildings, hotels and resorts, consulates and embassies, public buildings, and retail complexes.
Presidential Term Overview
Key Initiatives
Assisted by AIA members in Europe, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Japan, I established AIA International as the AIA’s newest region. This achieved the political objective of winning a position on the national board of directors for AIA members outside of the United States.
Significant Accomplishments
During my term as its founding president, AIA International obtained official charter for AIA Middle East and the AIA Canada Society. This significantly expanded the number and reach of AIA members across the globe, gaining us many new and effective international activists.
Memorable Events
We staged multiple programs involving the then established offshore Chapters–AIA United Kingdom, AIA Europe, AIA Japan, AIA Middle East, and AIA Hong Kong. The most notable and successful conferences addressed international business practices. We also organized trade missions in cooperation with the AIA national staff and the US Department of Commerce.
Milestones
During first two decades of the 21st century, the foreign-based Chapters of the AIA achieved record-setting growth by attracting new AIA members. We also achieved the Institute’s highest rates of member retention, outstripping the performance of all domestic AIA Chapters.
Professional Background
From bases in Paris and Washington DC, my firm serves clients in Africa, East Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East. After studying architecture at Washington University and at the University of Wisconsin, I worked as an apprentice with architects in Vienna, Austria, and London, UK. Before entering private practice, I was part of a team that established the AIA Research Corporation and I then served as a research affiliate with the MIT Laboratory of Architecture and Planning. Over the years, my work has taken me to more than one hundred countries on all the globe’s continents.
Personal Statement
Working with the AIA has afforded me a profound respect for the power of professional association, as well as a deep appreciation for its abundant rewards; not least among them is the opportunity to forge many personal friendships and business alliances. The AIA’s abiding duty is to stimulate public demand for its members’ work, and we must fulfill that mission.
