W. Cecil Steward

W. Cecil Steward, FAIA, is dean emeritus and emeritus professor of architecture and planning at the University of Nebraska College of Architecture (Arch.) in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. He earned his professional B. Arch. degree from Texas A&M University in 1957 and his M.S. in Architecture from Columbia University in 1961. 

In 1996 he founded, and is President/CEO of the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1997 his peers in the AIA Nebraska awarded him the Gold Medal for Architecture. In 1999 he was awarded the national Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, jointly, by the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.  He is a Senior Fellow of the national Design Futures Council.   

In public service, at the national level, he has served on the National Easter Seals Advisory Committee, on the national Peer Review Committee for design reviews of selected General Services Administration projects, and as a member of the Pennsylvania Avenue Design Charette Team in Washington, D.C. At the international level he served as a member of the National Committee on U.S./China Relations 1980-to the present, the UNESCO sponsored design charrette team for the international Memorial to West African Slave Trade, Dakar, Senegal, and the United Nations Steering Committee of the World Urban Campaign for Sustainable Cities. 

Currently, the JCI under Steward’s leadership is engaging two coalitions  (one in Lincoln, one in Omaha) of city government, utility companies, public school officials, public service non-profits, and business leaders to establish Municipal Green Building and Sustainable Development programs for “Smart Growth” and the reduction of the cities’ carbon foot-prints.