David Hinson Receives 2022 ACSA Distinguished Professor Award

The School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (APLA) is proud to announce that Professor David Hinson, FAIA has been named a ACSA Distinguished Professor for 2022. This award honors architectural educators for exemplary work in areas such as building design, community collaborations, scholarship, and service; and specifically recognizes individuals who have had a positive, stimulating and nurturing influence upon students, and a body of work that advances understanding of architecture.

Hinson was nominated for this honor by Judith Kinnard, FAIA and Harvey Wadsworth Chair in Architecture at Tulane University. In her nomination letter Kinnard highlighted Hinson’s “selfless collaboration toward the common good evident in the three pillars of his work – teaching, leadership and practice,” adding “He has worked tirelessly to instill meaningful social change through design and is a tremendous role model and mentor to his students.” Writing in support, APLA alumna Beth Lundell, Dean of Practice at the Boston Architectural Center, said “Auburn graduates become mission-driven architects and educators because David helps them, like me, find community service and advocacy as their North Star.”

Since his early career in Philadelphia, Hinson has worked to mobilize the talents and energy of his professional peers and students to effect meaningful community change, and he has used leadership roles in almost every significant organization of the profession to champion these values.

Hinson’s teaching approach is centered on helping his students achieve their full potential as architects, leaders, and change agents. He focusses on students’ success inside and outside the classroom, championing a learning culture that places students’ growth and development first. Hinson pushed the AIA to become more responsive to the needs and interests of young professionals by helping to establish the Young Architects Forum in 1991. As a ACSA Director, Hinson helped broaden the capacity of the organization to serve its members by helping establish the Education, Leadership, and Research & Scholarship committees.

As a NAAB Director Hinson played key roles in crafting the collaborative approach leading to the drafting of the 2020 Conditions and Procedures, and he has helped NCARB refine the structures of IDP (AXP) to better serve emerging professionals and update its Model Rules of Conduct to better address practice in the 21^st Century. Since co-founding Philadelphia’s Community Design Collaborative thirty years ago, Hinson has worked to nurture a commitment to community service in his students and mobilize his professional peers to action in service of the under-served. Hinson has led a twenty-year partnership with Habitat for Humanity, providing his students with high-impact design-build learning experiences and elevating Habitat’s understanding of the role of design and building performance in its mission to serve low-income families. Hinson co-authored Designed for Habitat; Collaborations with Habitat for Humanity (Routledge,) which highlights how architects across the country are effecting similar change. (https://www.acsa-arch.org/awards-archive/2022-architectural-education-award-winners/)

Professor Hinson has earned numerous awards for teaching, creative practice, and leadership; served as the Head of the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (APLA) for more than 10 years, is an alumnus of Auburn University’s architecture program (BArch’82), and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Please join APLA in congratulating David on this well-deserved honor.

For more information on Hinson’s accomplishments, and this award, see:
https://www.acsa-arch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/DH-DP-2022Awards-8.pdf