When Kyle Davy graduated with his newly minted degree in Architecture 30 years ago, he imagined that he would grow in the profession, designing ever larger and more intricate buildings. In his first job, a seasoned group of mentors not only prepared him for increasingly challenging and prestigious opportunities as a designer, but also showed him how design is just one of the many aspects of the profession that converge in the built environment, which itself reflects the leading edge of society’s expectations of how we should live and work. From his base in design, he went on earn an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and returned to professional practice directing the overall operations of an architectural firm, including projects, finance and administration.
Managing a firm underscored larger considerations about the nature of professional practice, and in 1992 Kyle established a consulting practice to provide leadership and management development services to architecture, engineering, and design firms. He was a founding faculty member of the Advanced Management Institute for Architecture and Engineering (AMI) where, for over a dozen years, he designed and delivered many of the AMI’s most successful learning programs. These included project and practice management classes, AMI’s Chief Operating Officers Forum, and the AIA Large Firm Roundtable Shared Learning Program.
Kyle co-designed and is a principal faculty member of the American Counsel of Engineering Companies’ Senior Executive Institute (SEI), the pre-eminent leadership development program for engineers, architects, and design professionals within the design and construction industry. This program has educated over 400 senior leaders of firms around the country in the last fifteen years.
He has assisted firms across the country in their efforts to establish internal “corporate university” and learning organization programs and has designed and delivered in-firm project management training and leadership development programs that have been attended by thousands of professionals. He has also facilitated strategic planning, strategic learning, and scenario planning processes for many of the leading firms in the industry.
Kyle lectures widely and has published numerous articles on project management and other aspects of the A/E industry. His book, Value Redesigned: New Models for Professional Practice (2005), co-authored with Susan L. Harris PhD, charts a breakthrough course for developing new sustainable models of professional practice for architects, engineers, and other design professionals. Kyle is also the author of AMI’s book On Becoming A Learning Organization, and he recently wrote The Design Process - Architectural Thinking,(Chapter 8) in Architecture: Celebrating the Past, Designing the Future, AIA Publishing, April 2008, a new book commemorating the 150th anniversary of the American Institute of Architects.
|
 |
 |
|
