Board of Directors

SPOTLIGHT...

Although Jim Determan AIA was born in Seattle, he and his family lived in California, Washington, DC, Massachusetts, and Edinborough, Scotland. One of six children, his three younger sisters were triplets. Jim attended Towson High School before earning his B.S. and M.Arch. from Georgia Tech in Atlanta. In 1986, he returned to Baltimore where he worked for several firms during the next twelve years: Gaudreau, Inc., Colimore/Clarke Associates, Inc., and Bignell Watkins Hasser. In 1998, Jim joined the Cochran Stephenson & Donkervoet (CSD) education studio where he specializes in K-12 private and public schools as well as university work. He has worked on projects in the Schools of Medicine and Nursing at The Johns Hopkins University. At St. Paul’s School for Girls, St. Vincent Pallotti (Laurel), and the Park School, he has designed athletic facilities and chapels, renovations and new construction.

After he became registered in 1989, Jim joined the AIABaltimore lecture series committee and eventually became its chair. He helped design and implement another AIA series called Cutting Edge Architects, co-sponsored with the Maryland Institute College of Art. Several years ago, he became active in the AIABaltimore communications committee which he still chairs. This group has developed regular architectural columns in The Urbanite, Chesapeake Home and Garden, and has contributed frequent letters to the editor of The Baltimore SUN. It has also developed a Speakers Bureau and a specialized architecture Media List which it promotes to members of the media. Last year, Jim became a member of the AIABaltimore board of directors, and this year serves as its secretary.

Jim is an active volunteer for the Neighborhood Design Center, and for the past seven years, he had served as a mentor for Master’s candidates at the Morgan State University Institute of Architecture and Planning.