2012 Alumni Professional Achievement Award Winner
Since joining Gensler in 1980, four years after graduating from UT with her bachelor’s degree in interior design, Robin Klehr Avia’s contribution to Gensler is one of the reasons the firm now employs more than 6,500 people in 48 international offices. The design firm has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, one of Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work,” and, for more than 30 consecutive years, has been named Interior Design’s “Most Admired Design Firm”. Gensler is consistently ranked as the #1 Architecture Firm by Architectural Record and ENR Magazine, and the company’s New York office is ranked by Crain’s as the top architecture firm in the city.
As regional managing principal for the Northeast and Latin American regions, Avia helped lead Gensler into new markets in Canada, Central America, and South America, growing the region from a single office to more than 1,500 professionals in eight offices. She also serves on Gensler’s Board of Directors and is a member of the executive and management committees.
Avia has guided some of the most respected international organizations, including the New York Times, through major workplace revitalizations. Recently, she completed the high-profile renovation of the landmark Ford Foundation in New York City.
Her work is widely recognized, and in 2000, she was elected to the International Interior Design Association’s College of Fellows, the association’s highest honor. Avia’s designs have won numerous awards including the including the Business Week/Architectural Record Award, the IIDA’s Decade of Design Award, and several awards from the Society of American Registered Architects. She has been listed on Commercial Observer’s Power 100 list of “The Power Architects That Are Reshaping New York City,” and is a member of Interior Design’s Hall of Fame, with a Leadership distinction. In 2016, she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from UT, the 11th given in the history of the university.
UT has received continuous support from Avia, who recently established the Robin Klehr Avia Professorship, which recognizes and awards faculty excellence in the College of Architecture and Design. She also funds a scholarship in her name that assists out-of-state interior architecture students.
Since joining Gensler in 1980, four years after graduating from UT with her bachelor’s degree in interior design, Robin Klehr Avia’s contribution to Gensler is one of the reasons the firm now employs more than 6,500 people in 48 international offices. The design firm has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, one of Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work,” and, for more than 30 consecutive years, has been named Interior Design’s “Most Admired Design Firm”. Gensler is consistently ranked as the #1 Architecture Firm by Architectural Record and ENR Magazine, and the company’s New York office is ranked by Crain’s as the top architecture firm in the city.
As regional managing principal for the Northeast and Latin American regions, Avia helped lead Gensler into new markets in Canada, Central America, and South America, growing the region from a single office to more than 1,500 professionals in eight offices. She also serves on Gensler’s Board of Directors and is a member of the executive and management committees.
Avia has guided some of the most respected international organizations, including the New York Times, through major workplace revitalizations. Recently, she completed the high-profile renovation of the landmark Ford Foundation in New York City.
Her work is widely recognized, and in 2000, she was elected to the International Interior Design Association’s College of Fellows, the association’s highest honor. Avia’s designs have won numerous awards including the including the Business Week/Architectural Record Award, the IIDA’s Decade of Design Award, and several awards from the Society of American Registered Architects. She has been listed on Commercial Observer’s Power 100 list of “The Power Architects That Are Reshaping New York City,” and is a member of Interior Design’s Hall of Fame, with a Leadership distinction. In 2016, she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from UT, the 11th given in the history of the university.
UT has received continuous support from Avia, who recently established the Robin Klehr Avia Professorship, which recognizes and awards faculty excellence in the College of Architecture and Design. She also funds a scholarship in her name that assists out-of-state interior architecture students.
