Lawrence W. SpeckFAIA

Lawrence is a Senior Designer for LPA and a well-known design educator, having been a faculty member at M.I.T, University of Western Australia, and University of Texas at Austin, where he also served as Dean of the School of Architecture from 1992 – 2001.

Lawrence has helped lead six major master planning projects for his home city of Austin, including for a seven-mile stretch of the Colorado River as it moves through downtown Austin; a 40-block area around the Texas State Capital; and the University of Texas at Austin campus. He has also been lead architect for two major park projects in Houston: Discovery Green in the heart of downtown, and Buffalo Bayou Park north of downtown. In addition to designing many urban commercial buildings, Lawrence served as lead designer for Austin Bergstrom International Airport Terminal (three phases), Austin Convention Center (two phases) and academic buildings on six university campuses.

His work has been profiled in such outlets as The Atlantic, The New York Times and Business Week; in American industry publications such as Architectural Record, Architecture, Architectural Digest, Architect, Interior Design, Contract and Progressive Architecture; and in international architectural journals such as The Architectural Review (England), OFX (Italy), Design Community (China), Baumeister (Germany), Projeto (Brazil), Tasarim (Turkey), Ottagano (Italy), Nikkei Construction (Japan) and Architectural Design (England).

Over the past 25 years, Lawrence’s work has won more than 120 design awards, including more than 30 from the American Institute of Architects. As an educator, he has received over 40 teaching and service awards, including the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion given to one individual in North America each year in recognition of their contribution to excellence in architectural education.

Lawrence is an AIA Fellow and served as chair of the jury to select fellows in 2005. He has also served on the Architectural Advisory Board for the U.S. State Department Overseas Building Operations, as a National Peer Reviewer for the U.S. General Services Administration Design Excellence Program, and on the boards of national environmental groups such as Greenguard Environmental Institute and Air Quality Sciences.