
The American Institute of Architects named Bob Berkebile, FAIA, the recipient of its 2022 Edward C. Kemper Award in recognition of his significant contributions "to the profession through service to the AIA," according to a press release from AIA. Berkebile—the co-founder of the 2011 AIA Architecture Firm Award-winning, Kansas City Mo.–based firm BNIM—is the founding chair of the AIA’s Committee on the Environment and "instrumental" in the founding of the U.S. Green Building Council, according to a description from BNIM.
Born to a German craftsman and contractor father and schoolteacher mother, Berkebile earned his B.Arch. from the University of Kansas. There, he was one of 15 students chosen to study with Buckminster Fuller—an opportunity that Berkebile pointed to as life changing in a 2014 interview with ARCHITECT. In 1970 Berkebile helped found BNIM, ultimately working to position the firm as a leader in sustainable design and growing the firm into a space filled with employees “more diverse, capable, and inspiring than anything I could have imagined when we founded this firm in 1970," Berkebile told ARCHITECT in 2014.

“Bob has always lifted others, insisted on true collaboration, and demonstrated inclusion,” wrote the 2021 COTE chair Betsy del Monte, FAIA, in a letter supporting Berkebile’s nomination. “He saw feminine leadership as crucial to the work. His words: ‘We need a more holistic, integrated approach that’s more nurturing. That will take more leadership from women or from the feminine side of all of us.’ The ranks of COTE chairs over time tells the gender diversity story: 12 of 26 have been women.”
Berkebile also helped lead several renowned BNIM projects including the Kansas City International Airport, the Kansas City Zoo, the Greensburg Sustainable Comprehensive Master Plan in Greensburg, Kan., the Omega Center for Sustainable Living in Rhinebeck, N.Y., and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation Sustainability Matrix in Los Angeles. Berkebile also assisted with several disaster recovery projects in the United States—including supporting New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and setting a LEED Platinum standard for Greensburg, Kan., following a 2007 tornado—telling ARCHITECT that “our job is to have sustainable models that are so compelling that we don’t have to sell them.”

The jury for the 2022 Edward C. Kemper Award comprised chair Ryan Gann, Assoc. AIA, in Chicago; Shannon Gathings, Assoc. AIA, Duvall Decker Architects, in Ridgeland, Miss.; Joseph Mayo, AIA, Mahlum in Seattle; and Katie Swenson, Assoc. AIA, MASS Design Group in Boston.
See more winners of the 2022 AIA Honor Awards here.