Jeremy Gentile, Assoc. AIA

Jeremy Gentile, Assoc. AIA 

Jeremy Gentile, Assoc. AIA, is a champion for the profession whose unwavering focus is trained on elevating students and emerging professionals. His advocacy efforts parallel his design aptitude, evident across different project types, from large-scale infrastructure and master planning to hospitality interiors and designed objects.

A leader at an early age, Gentile assumed his first position with AIAS during his freshman year at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The chapter’s leaders tapped him to help them plan the AIAS Forum 2013 in Chicago, for which he envisioned and directed the conference graphics, branding, and marketing strategy. That early experience encouraged Gentile to pursue leadership excellence, and he eventually became president of the chapter and, later, director of the Midwest quadrant. As a director, he oversaw 42 AIAS regional chapters and ushered in a period of heightened engagement and membership growth.

After graduating, Gentile found a new community and outlet for leadership in AIA. He was recruited as regional associate director to represent Illinois on the National Associates Committee. He also founded the AIA Illinois Emerging Professionals Network, the state’s first significant connection between early-career professionals and young architects. As this network’s founding chair, he helped create robust programming for the Emerging Professionals Summit and a series of Firmside Chats, both of which received grants from the College of Fellows.

As a designer, Gentile has demonstrated excellence with firms such as Ross Barney Architects, where he served as the construction administrator for the Lincoln Park Zoo’s new welcome center, which received the Chicago Athenaeum’s American Architecture Award in 2020. For Vladimir Radutny Architects, Gentile was an architectural designer for a series of new duplexes and single-story units in Ukrainian Village, one of Chicago’s oldest neighborhoods. 

As a fierce advocate and adroit convener, Gentile supports his peers and the next generation of architects. He leads by doing, and his actions will surely inspire new AIA volunteer leaders and civic champions to follow suit.