Leadership
Howard Segermark, Chairman, President and Director. Segermark is a businessman with decades of prior experience as a Congressional staffer involved with economic policy issues. He has long had an amateur interest in classical art and architecture, and his strategic vision has been central to the development of the Society’s agenda. He is president of Howard Segermark Associates, his wholly-owned government relations and association-management firm. He also is executive director of the Industry Council for Tangible Assets and the International Prepaid Communications Association, as well as a senior consultant to the American Family Business Institute. Segermark is a longtime resident of Washington, D.C.
Michael Curtis, Director. Curtis studied classical architecture at the University of Michigan and painting, sculpture, and engraving in Florence, Italy. He has been a sculptor for more than 25 years. Major commissions include The History of Texas at the Texas Rangers Ball Park in Arlington, Texas, the largest American frieze produced in the 20th Century; as well as portrait busts for the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Thurgood Marshall Building, and many other public venues. His specialty is portraiture and fine medals. On the architectural front, Curtis currently is designing a classical office building for Sundance Square in Fort Worth, Texas. He has taught and lectured widely, and served on numerous boards, including the Board of Governors of the University of Michigan’s School of Art. He is past president of the Michigan Chapter of Artists Equity. Curtis is currently involved with the establishment of a classically-oriented graduate school of architecture and fine art in Alexandria, Virginia, where he lives.
Milton W. Grenfell, Director. From his architectural firm’s inception in 1986, Grenfell has committed himself to practicing in the great tradition of Western architecture and urbanism. Grenfell’s design endeavors range from town centers to fireplace mantles. He also finds time to lecture, write essays for Traditional Building and other journals, and serve on professional panels. His work has been published in numerous books including Building Classical: A Vision of Europe and America (1993), Southern Style (1999), and the Institute of Classical Architecture’s A Decade of Art & Architecture 1992 – 2002 (2002). Grenfell holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College and a Master’s in architecture.from Washington University in St. Louis. He is a founding member of the Charlotte, North Carolina, Chapter of The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America. In 1997 he received the prestigious Arthur Ross Award from Classical America, which subsequently merged with the Institute. Grenfell has recently designed an extension to the eighteenth-century colonial capital of Edenton, North Carolina, and has proposed a traditional neighborhood for the expansion of Duke University’s campus. In 2005 Grenfell moved his practice from Charlotte to Washington, D.C.
Ronald T. Lyman, Director. Lyman is a businessman and former architect with extensive experience in the recovery of distressed assets, especially real estate. His knowledge of architecture history, grounded in studies at Harvard and Cambridge Universities, is a key resource in his business activities. As an architect with an M.Arch. from Yale, Lyman specialized in residential design and restoration while working in offices in New York City and Boston. He also has been involved in historic preservation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., where he lives. Lyman is an active member of Historic New England, the American Friends of the Georgian Group, and the Washington Decorative Arts Forum.
James C. McCrery, II. Vice-Chairman, Vice-President, and Director. McCrery holds Bachelor and Master of Architecture degrees from the Ohio State University. He began his professional career as a project designer in Peter Eisenman’s deconstructivist office before changing artistic direction and abandoning postmodernism for tradition. He went on to apprentice for many years with leading classicist Allan Greenberg. McCrery now practices on his own as principal of McCrery Architects. McCrery has worked on a range of residential and institutional and civic projects, with the design of churches being a particular specialty. He collaborated on significant urban design projects for Lincoln Center and the World Trade Center site in New York City that were featured in the Manhattan Institute’s prestigious City Journal. In his practice he is committed to the integration of art and architecture. Recognized for his contribution to the public realm, he has been appointed a National Peer of the GSA’s Design Excellence Program. McCrery lives in Washington, D.C.
Andrew T. Olivastro, Director. Olivastro is a communications and public affairs strategist in Washington, D.C., where he has lived for more than a decade. Drawing on experience at think tanks, on political campaigns, in government, and in journalism, Olivastro develops executive communications and public policy engagement platforms for leading citizens, companies and organizations. He received a bachelor’s degree from Troy University with a dual major in print journalism and political science.
Bridgett G. Wagner, Director. Wagner has lived and worked in Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill district for more than 25 years. She has served as a board member, director of development and coalitions director for non-profits ranging from public policy think-tanks to parochial schools and religious organizations.
Board of Advisors
Marcia Feinstein, Alexandria, Virginia
Ronald Lee Fleming, The Townscape Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cherie Harder, Trinity Forum, Washington, D.C.
Peter H. Miller, Restore Media, Washington, D.C.
Henry Hope Reed, New York City
George Weigel, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C.
Directors Emeriti
Michael M. Franck, Franck and Lohsen Architects, Washington, D.C.
Catesby Leigh, Art and Architecture Critic, Washington, D.C.