Pub. 3 2015 Directory

14 THE MONTANA ARCHITECT | 2015 | www.aia-mt.org A t the 2015 AIA National Convention in Atlanta, Thomas Bitnar FAIA LEED AP BD+C was elevated to the College of Fellows for his notable achievement in international architecture and contribution to the profession. INTRODUCTION The College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects is com- posed of members of the Institute who are elected to Fellowship by a jury of their peers. Fellowship is one of the highest of all AIA honors and recognizes not only the achievements of the architect as an indi- vidual but also his or her significant contribution to architecture and society on a national level. Of the 85,000 members of the AIA, only 3,200 have been elevated to the prestigious College of Fellows. Thomas’s forty-two-year architecture journey – moving from Central Europe to the American West through Germany and New York City, changing political environments from Communism to Capitalism, learning four languages and earning three masters degrees – has had a profound impact on his design. He believes that all design – regard- less of style – must be in harmony, proportion and context. Thomas puts to use his modernist philosophy while still drawing on and being sensitive to historical architectural elements to create innovative and original spaces. He calls himself a “contextual modernist.” BACKGROUND As the grandson and great-grandson of Austro-Hungarian archi- tects, Thomas Bitnar grew up in the historic environment of Prague, surrounded by all styles of European architecture from Romanesque to today. Early on, he discovered a natural ability to draw and paint, and by the time he was seven years old he knew he wanted to be an architect. In 1967, he was accepted to the prestigious CVUT School of Architecture and Planning in Prague, and continued his post-grad- uate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. The isolation brought on by the closed borders under Communism intensified his hunger for knowledge, particularly of art and architecture. He escaped Czecho- slovakia in 1979, and continued his education in New York, complet- ing a Masters degree in real estate development at Columbia Uni- versity. Before opening his own office in New York in 1990, Thomas worked as designer and job captain for such large architecture firms as Perkins & Will, Helmut Obata Kassabaum and Spector Group. Key milestones in the development of Thomas’s architecture philos- ophy and education are the influences of Czech Functionalism and Cubism, Buckminster Fuller, Archigram and Peter Cook; the book “Complexity and Contradiction” and spending several days with Robert Venturi in Prague; and an exceptional three days spent at Villa Tugendhat with the spirit of his architecture hero, Mies van der Rohe. In Montana, Thomas has been inspired by the traditional Native American custom of living in structures that don’t destroy the land but exist in harmony with it, which has helped him achieve a deeper creativity in his work. MONTANA During the twenty years he has lived in Bozeman, Thomas has brought to Montana a modernist sensibility still very much in keeping with the open space, light and vernacular of historic elements of place. His atelier-style office allows him, as sole practitioner and designer, to control each project from beginning to end and meet the changing demands of his clients and the construction market quickly. His projects illustrate his typological versatility and his ability to ele- vate the standards of architectural design through a blend of architec- ture traditions and a distinctly modernist approach, never losing sight of the culture, history and geography of the American West. The Avis Car Rental facility is a rational design using a wood structural system with a metal and glass façade that exploits Montana Architect Elevated to College of Fellows THOMAS BITNAR, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C AVIS CAR RENTAL