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April 2007

NCARB’s Director of Education and International Services, Michiel Bourdrez, AIA, will retire at the end of the 2007 Fiscal Year. During Bourdrez’s 17 years of service to the Council, he has overseen everything from Records and transmittals to the NCARB Prize and international agreements.

Bourdrez began his career at the Council as the Director of Operations and Services. This was a new position created by then-Executive Vice President Samuel Balen to provide day-to-day management and coordination for records, transmittals, IDP and Certificate evaluations, and publications. In 1992, he was assigned to the Procedures and Documents Committee and the Communications Committee. A few years later, he became the staff liaison to the Professional Conduct Committee.

In 1995, Bourdrez attended his first International Union of Architects Professional Practice Commission meeting in London with then-President Richard Quinn. This was the start of his international work for the Council.

When Lenore Lucey became Executive Vice President in 1997, the Council was restructured and Bourdrez’s responsibilities shifted. It was at this time that his work relating to international activities increased substantially. Over the past 10 years he has attended every UIA PPC meeting and triennial UIA Congress and has helped the Council reach international agreements with China, Mexico/Canada, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, and the Czech Republic. He has also been heavily involved in numerous discussions with Japan.

In addition to his international responsibilities, Bourdrez continued to staff the Professional Conduct Committee and shifted from Council Records management to become heavily involved with certificate evaluations and the Education Committee. Bourdrez has been an integral part of the development of the Broadly Experienced Architect (BEA) and Broadly Experienced Foreign Architect (BEFA) Programs, the NCARB Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy, and the NCARB Prize Grant. Besides the Education Committee, Bourdrez is currently the staff liaison to the Committee on International Relations, Practice Education Committee, the Broadly Experienced Architect Committee, and the Impediments Task Force.

In 2001, Bourdrez was awarded the President’s Medal of Honor for his significant contributions to the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare through service to NCARB and the practice of architecture by then-President Peter Steffian, FAIA. At the presentation, Steffian said, “In his various roles as architect, linguist, diplomat, and administrator, Bourdrez is a quiet, effective leader who has overseen improvements to the Council's customer service information system. He has been a dedicated staff liaison to a number of committees and was twice elected president of the Federal Association of Regulatory Boards.”

We wish Mike and his wife Diana a truly wonderful retirement and look forward to a final farewell with them during NCARB’s Annual Meeting and Conference in June in Denver, CO.

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About NCARB
NCARB comprises the architectural registration boards of all 50 states as well as those of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. NCARB assists its member state registration boards in carrying out their duties and provides a certification program for individual architects.

The mission of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards is to work together as a council of member boards to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public and to assist member boards in carrying out their duties. In order to achieve these goals, the Council develops and recommends standards to be required of an applicant for architectural registration; develops and recommends standards regulating the practice of architecture; provides to member boards a process for certifying the qualifications of an architect for registration; and represents the interests of member boards before public and private agencies. With the Committee of Canadian Architectural Councils (CCAC), NCARB has also established guidelines for the reciprocal registration of U.S. and Canadian architects.