The American Institute of Architects North Carolina Chapter (AIANC) is pleased to announce this year’s recipient of the William H. Deitrick Service Medal is Erin Sterling Lewis, FAIA. The Deitrick Service Medal is presented to an AIA North Carolina member who exhibits extraordinary service to the community, profession or AIA North Carolina, and was named in honor of the late William Henley Deitrick, FAIA, a former president of AIA North Carolina..
Erin is a native of Illinois and grew up in Yazoo City, Mississippi. She earned a BArch from the University of Kentucky in 2002. Before founding in situ studio in 2010, Erin worked for over eight years at Frank Harmon Architect PA, where she established a foundation of practicing architecture with emphasis on critical design and environmental responsibility.
She is involved in various community outreach and volunteer programs. From 2004 to 2006, Erin served on the Raleigh Historic Development Commission. She served on the Raleigh Planning Commission from 2009 to 2015. In 2010, Erin joined the AIA North Carolina (AIANC) Board of Directors as the Young Architects Forum (YAF) Director and is past President of AIANC. She is also a founder of ACTIVATE NC, which is a statewide AIANC outreach initiative to strengthen the civic role in architecture and design, and CONNECTIONS 81.2, an initiative that promotes architect-led development visioning. Erin occasionally teaches design studios as Professor in Practice and serves on the advisory board for the NCSU College of Design School of Architecture. In 2018, she was awarded a national Young Architects Award by the AIA.
“A brilliant leader and selfless volunteer, Lewis has made a resounding impact on North Carolina and the region at large. Through direct, hands-on facilitation, she is always ready to energize a program or idea, and her commitment to positive change is something all architects should aspire to” said AIA.
“She is the epitome of this award. I first met Erin when she was on the design team when we were developing and designing the Center for Architecture and Design. I had been involved with the planning of that facility and we all knew what was so critical to that building was going to be the programming. Finding someone that was dedicated and had the energy to really bring about that program component of the building to give the Center it’s heart and soul was a challenge, but Erin stepped up to that challenge and she did such a wonderful job creating something from nothing and through her creativity and her energy that ACTIVATE was created” said Walt Teague, FAIA.