The Association of Licensed Architects (ALA) has named Bill Watkins, Jeff Whyte and Lew Wilson to its College of Fellows in recognition of their service and contributions to the organization. The association for architects and related professionals held the induction ceremony in December.
“Their dedication to our profession and work to advance the knowledge and careers of their fellow architects have been exemplary,” said Joanne Sullivan, ALA Executive Director of the new inductees. Since 1999, 41 members have been named to the ALA College of Fellows.
Bill Watkins, principal in the Watkins Building Group, Florissant, Mo., joined ALA in 2003 and has served on the ALA Missouri Chapter board since its inception in 2006. He was named chapter president in 2015 and is also on the ALA National Board of Directors.
Watkins worked for companies in facilities and architectural design, including the University of Missouri and the St. Louis Housing Authority and he also worked for St. Louis design firms Franklin and Associates, The Christner Partnership and Hellmuth Obata and Kasabaum. His own firm, founded in 1995, specializes in architectural design services in the residential, commercial and religious markets. He received a Master of Architecture Degree from Washington University in St. Louis and is licensed in Missouri and Illinois.
Jeff Whyte is an award-winning architect and president of Architect Jeff Whyte & Associates Inc., a design-build firm based in Schaumburg, Ill. Whyte joined ALA in 2002 and is currently on the ALA National Board of Directors and chairman of the ALA Marketing Committee. Previously he served on the Technology Committee.
Whyte attended the University of Illinois-Chicago, studying under noted architects Tom Beeby and Stanley Tigerman, and spent one year in the Versailles Program studying the architecture of Europe.
He is a board member of the Schweikher House Preservation Trust and sits on the architectural review board for Deerpath Farm Conservation Community in Mettawa, Ill.
Lew Wilson, Naperville, Ill., is production principal at Sullivan, Goulette, Wilson, Chicago and is responsible for all technical operations for his company. After obtaining a degree in architectural technology from the New York Institute of Technology, Wilson moved to Chicago, where he worked with several prominent firms and joined Sullivan, Goulette, Wilson as a partner in 2000. His experience includes the successful completion of projects in virtually all areas of the built environment – residential, commercial, retail centers, educational, health care, public works, and religious projects.
A member of the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago and the Chicago Chapter’s Government Affairs Committee, Wilson is on the ALA National Board of Directors and is chairman of the ALA Education Committee. He is currently an advising committee member of the Chicago Building Commissioner's Building Code modernization group.
