APLA Professor of Practice Named Inaugural March Endowed Chair

This endowment is made possible through the generous support of Virginia Stephens March. After graduating from Tupelo High School in 1944, March began studying Architecture at what was then Alabama Polytechnic Institute at the age of 16, persevering at a time when women were largely absent from the profession. After graduating in 1948, she made significant contributions to her field, the City of Mobile—where she established two historic districts and contributed award-winning design work to many of the city’s landmarks—APLA and the College of Architecture, Design and Construction (CADC).

In 1990, March was inducted into the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) College of Fellows, an honor that recognized her contributions to both the architectural profession and society. March was the first woman appointed to a state architectural board since the inception of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards and served as the president of AIA Alabama. In addition to her support of Tuskegee University’s Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science, she was a founding member of APLA’s Architecture Advisory Board in 1980 and received CADC’s first Distinguished Alumni Award in 2013, which honors graduates who demonstrate 50 years or more of significant contributions to their profession and the greater community.

The Virginia Stephens March Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair honors March’s legacy of leadership, excellence and advocacy in architecture. The endowment highlights a faculty member with a strong record of achievement in academia and practice—recognizing that both are in a constant state of change. The scholar works to keep APLA’s education on the leading edge of industry standards.

“This generous gift makes a profound impact, enabling the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture to support a distinguished faculty member in Architecture—one with a demonstrated record of excellence in teaching, professional practice and research,” said CADC Dean Dawn Finley. “I’m pleased to share that the appointment, effective February 2026, has been awarded to Tom Chung, FAIA—a highly accomplished practicing architect who is also deeply engaged in academic work.”

“Tom is widely regarded as a national leader, bringing exceptional expertise in mass timber construction, grounded in a strong tradition of design excellence,” she continued.

Chung, a Professor of Practice in Architecture since 2022, earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture with Honors from the University of Virginia and a Master of Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is an AIA Fellow and a Principal of Boston-based Leers Weinzapful Associates (LWA).

Throughout the firm’s five-decade history, LWA has been recognized with over 100 national and regional awards, including the AIA Firm Award in 2007. Founded by Andrea P. Leers and Jane Weinzapfel, LWA was the first women-led firm to be recognized with the prestigious award.

“As a principal of a women-founded firm, it is very meaningful for me to in a way, carry on the legacy of Virginia Stephens March, who herself was a trailblazer as one of the first licensed women architects in Alabama and a role model for many,” Chung said. “I am honored that CADC and Dean Finley have entrusted me as the inaugural appointment of the March Chair to set an example in teaching and research of a renewable and more sustainable way to design our built environment and hope to fulfill those expectations.”

A national leader in the practice and education of mass timber design, Chung has led several award-winning projects, including the John W. Olver Design Building at UMass Amherst, Adohi Hall at the University of Arkansas and the Kreher Preserve & Nature Center Environmental Education Building at Auburn University.

“Mass Timber represents an importation solution as an architect to design buildings for human flourishing as well as environmental resilience and regeneration,” Chung said. “It is also an opportunity for architects to step forward into the arena of construction as experts and advocates for importance of craft and detail as well as material economy, efficiency and reuse, given that architects can shape fabrication process through the digital design process given our education and training.”

Over the past decade, he has been invited to speak on mass timber construction at conferences and workshops throughout the U.S. and internationally. He has led Timber Development Workshops for architecture faculty across accredited schools nationwide, including three based at Auburn, and is a member of the Auburn Mass Timber Collaborative, a research group working to grow resilient communities through research, education and outreach.

“Having Tom on the Auburn Mass Timber Collaborative team brings tremendous value to our efforts to promote wider adoption of mass timber as a building solution and help expand the market for Alabama’s forest products,” said David Hinson, the CADC Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies. “He has the ability to move seamlessly from the classroom to the lab to the outreach stage; and has the experience and connections within the mass timber industry to help raise our profile within this diverse community of stakeholders. Tom will play a critical role in helping the AMTC build the partnerships that are essential to furthering our mission.”

In addition to educating colleagues and faculty, Chung spearheads mass timber design education at multiple institutions. His graduate-level studio “Mass Timber and New England” received the inaugural Timber Education Prize by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture in 2022 for a course taught at the Wentworth Institute of Technology. For several semesters, he has co-taught an interdisciplinary seminar with Building Science Assistant Research Professor Jake Elbrecht at Auburn, helping both architecture and construction students blend mass timber design thinking with real-world applications.

Chung finds encouragement in Auburn’s investment in mass timber—not just from the CADC and APLA, but from the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment and the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

“It will take a village to make meaningful process in wide adoption of mass timber as a standard building material and technology that is better for our society and our natural environment,” Chung said. “I see my appointment as a commitment to that on part of CADC and APLA to tangibly educate our students to be impactful upon graduation in this emerging field within architecture and participate in cutting edge research that continues to explore the wide possibility of mass timber application.”