Philip Freelon has been chosen to speak at this year’s spring commencement ceremony.
Freelon graduated from the University with a degree in environmental design architecture in 1975 and earned his master’s degree in architecture from MIT. After graduation, he founded Freelon Group, Inc. and is currently the firm’s current president.
Freelon’s architectural designs helped him aquire notoriety, and in 2011, he caught the attention of President Obama after he led a team of designers in the construction of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Freelon is the lead architectural designer of the future Gregg Museum of Art & Design for the University.
Many national magazines and journals have also recognized Freelon, as well as professional associations like the American Institute of Architects.
Enrollment Management and Services Vice Provost and University Registrar Louis Hunt said he believes Freelon was chosen because he is a “transformational alum.” Freelon said he was very excited to hear the news.
“It’s both a surprise and very humbling, and I am quite moved to be asked,” Freelon said.
Freelon said he is still in the early stages of speech planning, but he did say he may discuss transformation, as it has been a key theme throughout the University’s 125-year anniversary.
“The transformation I’ve noticed is the emergence of Centennial Campus,” Freelon said. “It was just a notion in the early ‘70s, but now it is just an amazing transformation.”
Due to the African-American influence in his work, diversity may also be an element of his speech, but Freelon had this to say about the word: “Diversity is such an abused term. We might say the inclusion of tapping into the broad resources of our constituency.”
According to Hunt, all of the speeches are surprises. However, he said he would speculate that Freelon might focus on the “influence of design on life.”
Other notable achievements in Freelon’s career include his receipt of a Loeb Fellowship, recognition as a LEED Accredited Professional and obtainment of the 2009 AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for Public architecture. Freelon’s projects have also taken him across the country to cities such as Washington D.C., Baltimore, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Freelon has served as an adjunct faculty member at North Carolina State University’s College of Design and has been a visiting critic/lecturer at Harvard, MIT, the University of Maryland, the University of Utah, the California College of the Arts, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, among others.
Currently, Freelon serves on the faculty of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning.
