Todd Lee
Architects never stop being architects, or organizing things, or trying to improve the environment. My principal current project is leading the non-profit LIGHT Boston, raising awareness of the benefits to the city as a whole of GOOD Civic Illumination, as well as trying to curb and call out BAD over-lighting and grandstanding. Working with regulatory agencies to include “Lighting” as a criterion for evaluation in the planning and development process.
Currently advising on New England beachfront vacation houses, and helping another Fellow address the impacts of a proposed development on her own house. Modest projects include adjustments to a maison particulier dating from the 15th Century in a village perche in Burgundy, to design consulting in the Caribbean. Over 66 years (first design built when 14), my U.S.-based work has been a motley of education, casinos/hotels, residential and planning in 28 states, mostly for quirky clients, looking for something “other.” Effectively closed my office (TLCR Architecture Planning) after 30 years of successful practice, repeat clients, becoming a Fellow of the AIA, and with enough design awards and editorial note to feel pride in the work.
Internationally, my work has taken me to what seems an astonishing variety of places, cultures and client-types: including Belgium, Brazil, multiple Caribbean islands, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Holland, India, Iraq, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Scotland, Spain, Venezuela, and Wales. Work-related extended stay/repeats: Australia, Canada, Caribbean-Antigua, Curacao, Mayaguana (Bahamas), as well as China, England, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Majorca, Mexico, and Taiwan (R.O.C.)
Pro-bono work for the institutions that shaped and sustain me: Loeb Fellowship – of course; Exeter (co-chair of my 60th Reunion last year, and class president-elect); co-chair of my Harvard College 55th Reunion two years ago and working on the design of a significant class gift project; King’s Chapel (Unitarian), Boston – former Warden, vestryman, Annual Appeal, etc.; Boston Society of Architects/AIA – various committees, urban design projects; mentoring Boston Architectural College students … and doing some watercolors which do improve as I get looser.
Constant joy in sharing life with my wonderful wife of 28 years (K-C Dalton, still working at Harvard), and watching the weather change looking north over Boston’s Inner Harbor from our 32nd floor aerie on the waterfront. Family continues to expand on both coasts as well as in the heartland, with the triumphs, celebrations and difficulties that come with. Health, good friends and colleagues, work and usefulness keep me living a happy and productive life.