president Kirk Narburgh, AIA.
White Plains, NY Terrence O’Neal FAIA, LEED AP, managing principal of Terrence O’Neal Architect LLC (TONA), received the highest award granted by AIANYS, the James William Kideney Gold Medal Award. In presenting the medallion at the 2018 Design Awards ceremony, current AIANYS president Kirk Narburgh, AIA, noted that the honor is bestowed in recognition of “a lifetime of notable contributions by an architect to the profession, the professional society, and the community.”
O’Neal received the Matthew W. Del Gaudio Service Award from AIANYS in 2008, giving him the distinction of having received two of AIANYS’s highest honors.
Kideney Gold Medal recipients demonstrate a lifetime commitment to making the community a better place in which to live and take a leadership role in the profession and the professional society at the local, state or national level. The awards ceremony was held at the Crowne Plaza.
In accepting the award, O’Neal thanked the AIA New York chapter for nominating him, and many AIA and community stakeholders he has worked with over several years of community and AIA leadership.
As Narburgh pointed out, O’Neal has consistently brought “his firsthand experience engaging with civic leaders to bring architectural and design thinking to social issues.” He was chair, and remains a member of, the Land Use & Waterfront committee of Manhattan Community Board 6. He led CB6 in the community’s response to many issues including a contested sanitation garage on the CUNY Brookdale campus.
He represented CB6 on the East Midtown Steering committee which developed guidelines for East Midtown rezoning, and is now representing CB6 on the East Midtown Public Realm Governing Group approving public realm improvement projects funded through the rezoning.
O’Neal serves on the board of the New York Building Congress and is a trustee on the AIA Trust Board which oversees insurance programs nationwide for the AIA.
O’Neal distinguished his 2006 tenure as president of AIANYS through outreach efforts that resulted in a highly successful conference setting the foundation for ongoing interaction between the architectural community and the public realm and produced the “Guide to New York State: Livable and Sustainable Communities.” O’Neal also served AIA as a trustee of the New York Foundation for Architecture and as a regional director on the AIA national board.
TONA, based in lower Manhattan, is a full-service architecture and design firm that focuses on affordable and supportive housing, schools and healthcare facilities. In the 25 years since its founding, TONA has designed numerous projects for the NYC School Construction Authority, Covenant House NY, as well as affordable and supportive housing throughout the five boroughs. The firm recently completed the design for the Lorraine Montenegro Women and Children’s Residence, a newly constructed five-story building in the Bronx.
TONA projects protect the health and well-being of residents through the creation of warm, welcoming, home-like spaces, often in an institutional setting. Designs optimize the flow of natural light; maximize flexibility by serving multiple purposes; and stress energy-consciousness and sustainability.
The James William Kideney Gold Medal honor is named for AIANYS’s late co-founder and its first president who served from 1938 to 1942.
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