Two New Appointments to the Commission of Fine Arts

On 13 May 2024, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. appointed architects Bruce Redman Beckerand William J. Lenihanto serve four-year terms on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C. They replace James McCrery and Duncan Stroik, who were appointed to the Commission in 2019. The White House announcement is available here.

Bruce Redman Becker, FAIA, LEED AP,is president of Becker + Becker, an integrated sustainable architecture and development firm in Westport, Connecticut.

Becker designs buildings that have a transformative social and environmental value. His work includes the rehabilitation of the former Bank of America tower in Hartford into a 285-unit LEED Platinum-rated mixed-income community; the design and development of 360 State Street in New Haven, which redeveloped a long-vacant urban site into a 500-unit mixed-income community and cooperative grocery store; and the adaptive re-use of the historic Wauregan Hotel in Norwich, Connecticut, creating 70 units of affordable housing and retail shops. His firm also restored the historic Octagon tower on Roosevelt Island in Manhattan to create a 500-unit mixed-income community and waterfront park. Most recently, Becker completed the rehabilitation of the iconic Pirelli Building in New Haven, designed by Marcel Breuer, into Hotel Marcel-a 165-room boutique hotel that uses no fossil fuels and is the first Passive House Institute-certified hotel in the United States.

Becker is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a LEED Accredited Professional, and a Certified Passive House Designer. He was a contributing author for the AIA Handbook of Professional Practiceon the role of the architect as a developer in project delivery. He was a founding director of the Connecticut Renewable Energy and Efficiency Business Association and served as the chair of the Harlem School of the Arts; he currently chairs the Electric Vehicle Club of Connecticut. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies and Fine Arts from Amherst College, and his Master of Business Administration and Master of Architecture degrees from Yale University. He is a frequent lecturer and design critic at the Yale School of Architecture and is a frequent speaker at architecture, historic preservation, and sustainable development industry events.

William J. Lenihan, AIA, NCARB,is a principal and partner of Tevebaugh Architecture, a planning and design services firm based in Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. His extensive experience in architecture, planning, and historic preservation includes work on prominent institutional, cultural, and public-sector projects, including the Ammi B. Young-designed 1855 historic Custom House in Wilmington; the Schwartz Center for the Arts in Dover; the University of Delaware College of Health Sciences in Newark; the State of Delaware Family Courthouses and Family Justice Centers; the Brandywine Conservancy Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania; the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry Armory; and several regional transit centers on the Northeast Corridor.

Lenihan holds Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degrees from Norwich University, and holds professional architect registrations in more than ten states. He is a member of several Wilmington non-profit organizations, including the Friends of Furness Railroad District, the Washington Memorial Bridge Partnership, and the Rodney Square Conservancy, of which he is a founding member. He has served previously as a board member and sustainability chair of the Delaware chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Del-Mar-Va Council of Boy Scouts of America.