The Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair in Architectural Design is made possible by a generous endowment created in honor of Georgia Tech alumnus Tom Ventulett, founding partner of tvsdesign in Atlanta.

The Ventulett Chair is intended to engage an exceptional practitioner with a record of international leadership and excellence in architecture to teach in the School and to develop significant initiatives to heighten the critical importance of design in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry, nationally and internationally.

Kelly Bair is Partner at BairBalliet, Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Architecture. Bair has also taught in Los Angeles at UCLA and SCI-Arc and has held Visiting Professor appointments at University of Toronto, City College of New York and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She brings over two decades of experience in the architectural profession at firms such as Pugh+Scarpa, Greg Lynn Form, and Gnuform. Bair holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design from University of Colorado (B.Envd) and a Master’s degree (M.Arch) from the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design. 

Kristy Balliet is Partner at BairBalliet and Design Faculty and Undergraduate Program Chair at SCI-Arc. Balliet was an Associate Professor at the Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State, Assistant Professor in Studio Greg Lynn at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna and faculty at University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia University. She has worked as a project designer at Erdy McHenry Architecture in Philadelphia. Balliet holds a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) from Philadelphia University and a Master’s degree (M.Arch) from the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design. 

Thomas (Tom) W. Ventulett III earned his undergraduate degree in architecture from Georgia Tech in 1958.

“My uncle said if I’d go to Georgia Tech and become an architect, he’d pay my way,” Ventulett told the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine in 2001. “I grew up in South Florida. My family couldn’t afford to put me through college. I was extremely fortunate to get into Georgia Tech and I was even more fortunate that I didn’t flunk out that first quarter.”

By 1968, Ventulett cofounded one of Atlanta, Georgia's most influential architecture firms, TVS Design, also one of the nation's largest. TVS Design is known for projects such as the Omni Arena, the Georgia Dome, the Georgia World Congress Center, CNN Center, the Mall of Georgia, Tech Square, and Atlantic Station. Aside from their work that helped establish the convention and sports industries in Atlanta, their work in Chicago (McCormick Place addition) and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania Convention Center) has won coveted AIA awards.

Ventulett established the Thomas W. Ventulett III Professorship in Architectural Design within the Georgia Tech School of Architecture through an endowment in 2001. TVS Design established the studio-critic program taught by the Ventulett Chairs in 2004. The firm has a tradition of hiring architecture talent from Georgia Tech.

“The firm enjoys a lot of success nationwide and some of the very best people we have continue to come out of Tech,” Ventulett said in 2001. “It’s an absolutely sound investment because we look to Tech for our resources”

Michael Murphy, Int FRIBA, founder AMMA

Débora Mesa, partner with Ensamble Studio and professor of architecture, arts, and technology at ETH Zurich

Marc Simmons, the founding partner of international design and façade consulting practice Front and is currently associate Professor of the Practice at the MIT School of Architecture

Monica Ponce de Leon, founder of architecture firm MPdL Studio and current Dean of Princeton University's School of Architecture

Nader Tehrani, founder of architectural firm NADAAA and former professor and Dean of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

Lars Spuybroek, founder of art and architecture design firm Nox, and currently a professor in the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech