BOSTON – Shepley Bulfinch announced that Principals Jennifer Aliber, FAIA, FACHA, LEED AP, and Angela Watson, FAIA, LEED AP, have been elected to the 2018 College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), in recognition of their extensive achievements in design, contributions to the architecture profession, and betterment of the communities they serve.
One of the highest honors an architect can achieve, AIA Fellowship (FAIA) was developed to elevate those architects who have made a significant contribution to the profession and society, and who have achieved a standard of design excellence. The stringent requirements of Fellowship result in only three percent of the AIA’s more than 91,000 members being recognized as Fellows. Jennifer and Angela are two of eight members of the Boston Society of Architects/AIA chapter to be elevated to the prestigious College of Fellows in 2018.
“Jennifer and Angela are among the very best architects I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and we congratulate them on the well-deserved honor of AIA Fellowship,” said Carole Wedge, FAIA, president of Shepley Bulfinch. “Under their guidance, our clients participate in a design process that enhances their ability to serve end users and their communities, and our firm’s emerging leaders are encouraged to push beyond perceived boundaries. We are inspired by Jennifer and Angela’s tenacity, compelled by their leadership, and grateful for their continued dedication to improving our industry and the spaces we live, work, heal and learn together.”
Jennifer Aliber, FAIA, FACHA, has changed the quality of healthcare on a national level, revolutionizing the way hospitals are organized, and improving care delivery by challenging practice norms to set new standards in programming and planning. During her 30-year career at Shepley Bulfinch, she has established a new standard, called metric-based programming, to improve the reliability of programming, a foundational element vital to contemporary healthcare design that has major financial implications. Utilizing Jennifer’s tools, healthcare architects, programmers, and owners can make predictive estimates on size and relative efficiency early in project development.
Jennifer leads by example, enriching the practice of healthcare architecture on local and national levels. She has served on the American College Health Association (ACHA) Examination Committee for more than a decade, contributed to the Center for Health Design’s promotion of design research and standards, and worked to re-engage the Academy of Architecture for Health with the FGI Guideline for Healthcare Facilities. Jennifer has steadfastly remained committed to mentoring staff and has given more than 24 presentations to national healthcare design groups nationwide.
Angela Watson, FAIA, connects research, teaching and practice to engage people in a meaningful, collaborative process that elevates the recognized value of design. Her research builds a transferable knowledge base that serves as a foundation for informed design. Her academic work teaches invaluable skills that truly prepare students as future leaders in practice, and her engaged leadership empowers her clients to be true collaborators. In addition to serving as a visiting critic for 20 years, Angela’s most influential work with future architects has been as an instructor in the design studio, both at Arizona State University and her alma mater, MIT.
Throughout her 24-year career, Angela has directed more than a dozen award-winning projects. An advocate for research-based design for more than 15 years, Angela has demonstrated how understanding projects at the quantifiable level allows architects to articulate value and create a shared platform for design conversations. She has received international recognition for her extensive post-occupancy involvement with clients.
The 152 member-architects of the 2018 class of AIA fellows, including Jennifer and Angela, will be honored at a ceremony on June 22 at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2018 in New York City.
