Education

B.S., Northern State University
M.A., University of St. Thomas

Keywords

Design Intelligence, Architecture, Interior Design, Engineering

Biography

James P. Cramer is the former Chief Executive of the American Institute of Architects, Washington DC. He served on the executive committee of the Institute from 1982 to 1994. He is the former Group Publisher of Architecture Magazine and Architectural Technology Magazine. In addition to heading up the business operations of the AIA, he was responsible for the capital campaign and successful restoration of the Octagon Museum, in the nation’s capital.

Following his service with the AIA (19781994) he founded the Design Futures Council and its journal Design Intelligence. He also founded the Greenway Group, Inc. a management consultancy working in the fields of strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and visioning retreats. He sold his shares in the Greenway Group in 2014 and his shares in the DFC and Design Intelligence in 2016.

He has authored four books including How Firms Succeed, A Field Guide to Design Management (co-author, Scott Simpson) now in its 5th Edition and Design+Enterprise, Seeking a New Reality in Architecture now in its 3rd Edition. He has written over 220 articles and book chapters for numerous publications and was founding publisher of both Architectural Technology and Design Intelligence.

Cramer has been awarded honorary membership in The American Institute of Architects, and the International Interior Design Association. He is a Richard Upjohn Fellow of the AIA, a nonresident Leadership Fellow of the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California. He is the recipient of awards from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, the American Society of Interior Designers, and he received the Presidential Medal from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). He has given nine commencement speeches in recent years.

His consulting clients have included top architecture and engineering firms in the world including SOM, American Consulting Engineers Council, Perkins + Will, Foster + Partners, Burro Happold Engineers, Walter P. Moore Engineers, HDR, Helmuth Obata and Kasselbaum, Hammel Green and Abrahamson (HGA) and over 100 others spanning twenty-three years. He has served as an advisor to the boards of the world’s top design organizations. He has advised the Pritzker Prize, The Aga Khan Awards Program, and he served on the Governing board of several organizations including the National Building Museum. With Michael Graves he served as Endowment Campaign Co-Chair of AIA/S. He has led several successful design selection boards in their redesign of interviews and competitions.

Cramer studied at Northern State, University of Minnesota, the University of St. Thomas, and the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Today Cramer writes and teaches and lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, Corinne M. Cramer.