January 3, 2024

AIA New Jersey Past President, Ben P. Lee, AIA, ACHA, PP, LEED AP, CID, Retires as Principal of NK Architects

AIA New Jersey’s Chair of the Health and Wellness Committee, Ben P. Lee, AIA, is retiring from NK Architects after 30 years. Read NK’s announcement HERE. 

Mr. Lee has advanced Health Care Design at NK Architects into a national Health Care practice. Through his involvement with AIA, healthcare organizations, and other communities, he advocates for wellness in the built environment. Using his design and management skills through implementing the Best Practice Model, Evidence-Based Design, and LEAN process improvements, Ben has improved operational and financial efficiencies. His healthcare practice within NK has spanned the full spectrum of the Life Cycle of Care from birth/ nursery care, mental health, long-term care, and hospice center with work throughout the country. His devotion to Health Care has expanded from providing for the Health Care needs of our community to the management of population health as a focus of the Affordable Care Act. His interest in caring for the community has evolved into a focus on healthcare design after working with major firms such as Gruzen and Partners, Welton Becket, HLW, and The Grad Partnership in the years before NK.

Ben’s professional association leadership roles include 2017 President and 2014 Treasurer of AIA New Jersey. He was 2011 President of the Architects League of Northern New Jersey and received their highest award, The Vegliante Award, in 2015. He has maintained membership in the New Jersey Society of Architects, the American Society of Hospital Engineers/American Hospital Association, the American College of Healthcare Architects, the Healthcare Facilities Management Society of New Jersey, and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association.

As president of AIA-NJ, Lee worked to create a platform for AIA-NJ to work with local and state governments and healthcare organizations to address Health and Wellness in our population. His ongoing goal is to have architects become more aware of the Health and Wellness opportunities throughout and influenced by good design and the built environment. Ben was named AIA NJ Architect of the Year for these many accomplishments in 2018. 

“As architects, we are best positioned to improve the population’s health through our design for housing, schools, offices, and commercial buildings,” Lee said. “By developing physical spaces that promote walking, biking, parks, recreation, and public gathering spaces, we are creating healthier and more livable environments.”

In addition to his terms in office, Ben spearheaded the AIA NJ chapter’s international excursions to Cuba in 2014 and Turkey in 2015. His encouragement of exploration of intercultural dynamics, socio-economic variety, and architectural history on these popular trips go hand in hand with Ben’s recent Foundations release, regarding his personal and professional inspiration triggered by a trip to visit his parents’ childhood communities in China. 

In 2018, Ben created the Diane and Ben Lee Education Fund to encourage K-12 students to include design in their education. The fund is awarded as a grant for schools or teachers who are actively pursuing design curricula in their schools or educational entities. It is to encourage students in kindergarten through twelfth grade to have an interest in design as their life pursuit. The fund is offered to teachers/educators or schools/educational providers in the NJ/NY metropolitan areas. The Architects League of Northern New Jersey manages the fund. An initial fund of $20,000.00 was created in memory of his wife Diane, a former school teacher.

Ben, congratulations on an outstanding career and devotion to the profession and wellness. We wish you well!

We have heard through the grapevine that Ben hopes to spend more time traveling now that he is retired. We hope that he is planning to take AIA New Jersey along for the adventure! 

Photo by NK Architects

By Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA, AIA NJ Advocacy Consultant | Posted in Architects League of Northern New Jersey, Business, Members In Transition | Tagged: #BenLeeAIA, #DianeLee, #Health, #NKArchitects, #principal, #Travel\, #wellness, Cuba, Turkey | Comments (0)