Walter Andrew Netsch Jr., FAIA, joined the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 1947, shortly after serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. Netsch remained in the SOM San Francisco office until 1954, when he moved to the firm’s Chicago office. He became a partner in the firm and remained with SOM until 1979; he established his own practice in 1981. Netsch’s work complimented the firm’s modernist approach in the postwar era; among his most noted projects are the U.S. Air Force Academy Chapel; the East Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Inland Steel Building; the Miami University of Ohio Art Museum; and the campus and buildings of Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland, and the University of Illinois–Chicago. Netsch earned his bachelor of architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943, and was a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and the University of Illinois, Champaign–Urbana. He served as president of the Chicago Park District and was also affiliated with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Landmarks Preservation Council, Chicago. He was the recipient of several honorary degrees and the Bartlett Award from the Art Institute of Chicago.
CFA Service:
1980–1985