Board of Directors

SPOTLIGHT...

At the beginning of January, David Segmiller AIA assumed the position of President-elect of AIABaltimore. He was born and reared in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Beginning in the fourth grade, he participated for many years in weekend art classes offered by the Carnegie Museum. There he was exposed to many great professors of Carnegie Mellon University. Recognizing his interest and talent in art as well as science and physics, Dave earned his B.E.D. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and his M.Arch. from North Carolina State. Throughout his youth, Dave was also a musician, playing saxophone in a jazz ensemble through college.

Upon completion of his studies, Dave worked for several years for RTKL in the mid-1980s in retail and urban mixed use, and then for Design International. He has been at Cochran, Stephenson & Donkervoet since 1988 and serves as Senior Vice President. There, he has spent his career specializing in the design of large retirement communities, which he describes as expanded mixed use which includes nursing care. "A retirement community center is very much like a hotel or country club," he explains. For 14 years, David has worked with AIABaltimore past president Glen Tipton AIA and built a practice along side his.

In the early 1990s, Dave earned a M.S.R.E. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Professional Studies. Then, for seven years, he team-taught a core course in design issues in its real estate program.

In the late 1980s, David began the traveling exhibit committee to promote the AIABaltimore Design Awards Program. After studying for four years in the Hopkins program, David returned to chair the Design Awards Committee, and to serve on the Board of Directors, and as Treasurer. As with so many other employees, CS & D has been extremely supportive of Dave's contributions to the profession through the AIA. As 2003 President, he will follow in the footsteps of numerous other AIABaltimore presidents: Alexander Cochran FAIA, 1962; James Stephenson AIA, 1968; Richard Donkervoet FAIA, 1974; Michael Bolinger FAIA, 1986; Glen Tipton AIA, 1993; and Julie Wilson AIA, 1997.

Dave describes his work within the AIA as wanting "to give back to the profession. So many people take the AIA for granted. They pay their dues, gripe, and don't get involved. All architects should give back. I hope the AIA is still around in another 20-25 years. There are so many attacks on the practice law which it fends off and other vital things it does. We should all participate, help out in various ways, and enjoy the camaraderie."