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For Immediate Release

NEW YORK BUILDING CONGRESS PRESIDENT RICHARD T. ANDERSON TO CHAIR COLLEGE OF FELLOWS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED PLANNERS

NEW YORK – New York Building Congress President Richard T. Anderson has been named Chairman of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). As Chairman of the prestigious group, Anderson will help advance and promote the planning profession.

The AICP is the professional institute of the American Planning Association (APA), providing leadership in the certification of planners, ethics, professional development, education and standards of the planning practice.

Election to the College of Fellows is the highest honor that AICP can bestow upon its members. The honor recognizes the achievements of the planner as an individual; elevating the Fellow before the public and peers as a model planner who has made significant contributions to the profession and to society.

The College of Fellows is primarily concerned with leadership in the advancement of the planning profession. As Chairman of the College, Anderson will help foster a host of mentoring and professional development programs and assist in efforts to establish an AICP Fellows Endowment.

“We are pleased to welcome Richard Anderson, whose career has been devoted to leadership of the planning profession,” said Paul Farmer, Executive Director of the APA and AICP. “We are confident that he and his colleagues at the College of Fellows will be able to find new and innovative ways to share their knowledge, insight, and experience with the planners of tomorrow.”

Anderson, who was inducted into the College of Fellows in 2000, served as the first elected president of the American Planning Association in 1980, after the consolidation of two predecessor organizations. As President of the New York Building Congress since 1994, he has overseen the re-emergence and growth of the venerable public policy coalition, which represents the design, construction and real estate industry of New York City. The Building Congress is considered a premiere organization supporting economic development and sound capital investment in the City. Anderson previously served as Executive Director of the Dallas Plan and as President of the Regional Plan Association, the nation’s oldest metropolitan planning organization serving the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut metropolitan area.

“This is an exciting time to be involved in the planning profession. In New York City and elsewhere there is renewed focus on urban planning and its impact on community revitalization and economic growth,” said Anderson. “Part of our mission at the College of Fellows is to harness this heightened public interest in planning and the built environment and use it as a means of recruiting the next generation of visionaries.”

The American Planning Association is a nonprofit public interest and research organization committed to urban, suburban, regional, and rural planning. APA and its professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners, advance the art and science of planning to meet the needs of people and society.

The New York Building Congress is a non-partisan, public policy coalition of business, labor, professional and governmental organizations serving the design, construction and real estate industry of New York City.