Design School alum wins architecture's coveted Silver Medal

Phoenix-based architect and ASU alum Lawrence Enyart received the prestigious Silver Medal, the highest accolade given by the American Institute of Architects Western Mountain Region.

Enyart is the first ASU architect in the award’s 33-year history to receive the Silver Medal, a distinction given only to individual architects who make “significant contributions to the institute, the profession, the citizens of the Western Mountain Region, and their communities and who have transcended local boundaries in making those contributions.’’

Enyart was acknowledged for his sustainable-design contributions to public architecture during his nearly four-decade career. A principal of LEA-Architects, LLC, Enyart’s impressive career includes significant work in public and sustainable architecture including the first LEED platinum fire station in the United States. He has designed many public safety training centers, libraries, airport structures and university educational facilities locally and throughout the country and for eight years was an adjunct professor in the ASU architecture program in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Enyart was honored and invested as a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects in Boston, 1992.

"It is no surprise that Larry has been awarded the highest accolade given by the Western Mountain Region AIA. He graduated at the top of the first Masters of Architecture class at ASU in 1977, and for 35 years has continued to demonstrate remarkable dedication, leadership, and contributions to the discipline and profession of architecture,’’ said Darren Petrucci, director of The Design School at ASU.

Enyart and his firm have won numerous design awards and acclaim for their projects that have included the LEED Gold-certified Grand Canyon National Park Airport Operations Building, the new LEED Gold Terminal for the Grand Canyon National Park Airport, and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Operations Facility, Paradise Valley Fire Stations 1 and 2, the ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation's downtown campus instructional labs, and the Glendale Regional Public Safety Training Center 77-acre campus – for which the firm won the Valley Forward Design Award for Environmental Excellence. LEA’s latest project for the City of Phoenix is scheduled to receive LEED Platinum.

Enyart works with his son Lance, in the firm. His daughter, Lindsey, is a lead fashion designer for Laundry by Shelli Segal. Bev, his wife of 40 years who he met in Okinawa, Japan, has a Master of Arts in Education from ASU.

A retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General, Enyart was selected as chairman of the U.S. Air Force Design Advisory Council and for 15 years provided leadership and design guidance for all new facilities at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado and The Air University in Alabama. General Enyart also provided disaster assistance leadership working directly with Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott and the Congress during and after Hurricane Georges and he provided disaster assistance following severe earthquakes in the Azores and Japan.

Enyart graduated summa cum laude in 1977 from ASU’s first class of graduates in its new master's of architecture program. He was the school’s first solar architecture graduate. He received the AIA Henry Adams Scholastic Award while earning his bachelor of architecture and urban planning degree from ASU in 1972. Enyart previously earned a bachelor of arts in industrial design from the University of Iowa, where he is a distinguished alumnus.

He presently serves as chairman of Arizona’s College of Fellows for the American Institute of Architects and says that he has found architecture to be “a deeply rewarding and wonderful profession.”

“This award recognizes architects who transcend boundaries,’’ Enyart said, expressing how humbled he was to be among the select few architects who have been chosen to receive this significant American Institute of Architects award.