Woodbury University School of Architecture’s Annie Chu Named to AIA|LA 2016 Presidential Honorees

The Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has bestowed its 2016 Distinguished Educator Award on respected architect, interior designer and Woodbury University School of Architecture professor Annie Chu, FAIA, IIDA, one of AIA|LA’s 2016 Presidential Honorees, the university announced today.

The AIA|LA honor is the second recognition for Prof. Chu’s teaching this season.  Earlier this summer, she received the School of Architecture’s 2016 Excellence in Teaching Award, the highest honor Woodbury students can bestow upon a faculty member.  Now in its second year, the award process enables students to nominate members of the faculty and manage review and voting in consultation with the Faculty Development Committee.  Students select winners for each school, the College of Liberal Arts, and the library.

Conferred by the AIA|LA Board of Directors, the Presidential Honoree program recognizes excellence in design and individuals whose passion, talent, and dedication make an undeniable contribution to Los Angeles.  Presidential Honorees are bestowed in conjunction with the chapter’s annual design awards.  The 2016 event to honor awardees takes place on Monday, October 24, at the newly refurbished Palace Theatre.  (For information, see: https://tinyurl.com/AIALA-Design-Awards-Party-2016 or visit: www.aialosangeles.org.)  Each year, deans and chairs from area schools of architecture submit recommendations to the AIA|LA board.

“This year’s recipients share a deep passion for architecture and dedication to the profession,” said AIA|LA President Debra Gerod, FAIA.  “The impact of their contributions extends well beyond the people and projects they have directly influenced.  They have advanced our profession and enriched our community.”

“Annie Chu hones her critical practice through teaching, writing, and public speaking,” said Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, AIA, Interim Dean of the School of Architecture.  “Over the past 26 years, she has instilled generations of students with the values of an integrative approach to design that considers both architecture and the interior experience.  At Woodbury, Annie was one of four key faculty who launched the new Master of Interior Architecture program to advance the definition and status of the discipline. She brings her rigor and passion to the classroom, arguing with authority for the centrality of interiors to the practice of architecture as an honorable and generous service to the public. Respected locally and nationally for design excellence and pedagogy, and sought after for AIA design juries and lectures, Annie represents the very best of our profession and of educators in our discipline.”

“I’m deeply honored and extremely grateful for this recognition from AIA|LA. And, I extend my sincere appreciation to my colleagues, collaborators, and students at Woodbury for the Excellence in Teaching Award,” Prof. Chu said. “Knowing that others value this work inspires me to continue to evolve a critical teaching practice and to help define the value of the interior architecture discipline.”

A founding principal of Chu+Gooding Architects, Prof. Chu has been a dedicated educator of architecture and design since 1989 and a professor of Interior Architecture at Woodbury since 2010, working with her colleagues in both the undergraduate and graduate interior architecture programs.

Prof. Chu has engaged consistently a practice of arts and culture, higher education, and residential projects alongside teaching Interior Architecture, Architecture, and Environmental Design.  She elevates interior architecture as a distinct discipline through the design of award-winning environments and through educational, professional, and civic leadership. Prof. Chu received the International Interior Design Association’s Leadership Award of Excellence from IIDA’s Southern California chapter in 2014.

Prof. Chu served as a Cultural Affairs Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles from 2010 to 2013, focusing on the re-launch of the Mayor’s Design Advisory Panel and public art initiatives that raise the quality of public art and the built environment in Los Angeles. Her recent design work includes a widely published residence showcasing an integration of architecture, interiors, and exhibition design; the winning competition entry for the Los Angeles Convention Center; and exhibition design for the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Huntington Library, Art Collection, and Botanical Gardens.

A native of Hong Kong, Chu received a Bachelor of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and earned a Master of Science in Building Design from Columbia University. She was a recipient of the prestigious Skidmore Owings Merrill Traveling Fellowship through which she studied Mayan and Incan architecture in Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Peru. She worked in the firms of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in New York and Franklin D. Israel in Beverly Hills for twelve years before establishing her own practice. She previously taught at the New York Institute of Technology, Parsons The New School for Design, University of Texas at Austin, UCLA, SCI-Arc, Art Center College of Design, Arizona State University, and USC.  She also has served the greater architecture community as 2009 Chair of the AIA California Council Design Awards Committee and as 2010 Chair of the National AIA Interior Architecture Committee. She contributes to professional publications and serves on the editorial board of Contract magazine.

About Woodbury University

Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California. The university ranks 15th among the nation’s “25 Colleges That Add the Most Value,” according to Money Magazine, was voted “Best Graduate School” in the Los Angeles Daily News 2018 Readers Choice Awards, and is a 2018-19 College of Distinction. Woodbury was a finalist for the General Community Service Award, a part of the 2015 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll recognition program. With campuses in Burbank/Los Angeles and San Diego, the university offers bachelor\\’s degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and College of Liberal Arts, along with a Master of Business Administration, Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Science in Architecture. The San Diego campus offers Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture degrees, as well as a Master of Science in Architecture, Real Estate Development. Visit woodbury.edu for more information.