Profile Updated: January 2012
ANDREW CARUSO, ASSOC. AIA, LEED AP, CDT is firmwide Head of Intern Development and Academic Outreach for Gensler, one of the world’s largest multi-disciplinary design firms with more than 40 offices across the globe. In this capacity, Andrew develops human capital strategy and advises the firm’s chief executives on emerging talent populations in the design industry. He directs a portfolio of programs that include: talent acquisition, early-career professional development and licensure, academic outreach, student internships, scholarships, research fellowships and global talent exchange programs. In 2011, he was named an Associate with the firm, among the youngest leaders to be appointed to Gensler’s titled leadership cohort. Andrew is also a Richard Upjohn Fellow and a Henry Adams Medalist of the American Institute of Architects.
Since 2009, the firm’s talent strategies, including the programs under Andrew’s direction, have been recognized with six national and international awards; among them a 2011 Best AEC Firm to Work For by Building Design + Construction Magazine, a Top 125 Training Firm by Training Magazine, and the 2010-2013 IDP Outstanding Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects, the architecture industry’s highest honor for excellence in early-career professional development.
A recognized thought leader on human capital strategy, Andrew is often an invited speaker at national and international symposia. Speaking engagements across the United States, Europe and the Middle East include the International Conference on Humanities and the Arts, the Oxford University Conference on Architectural Education, and the International Union of Architects’ World Congress on Architecture, among others. Andrew publishes frequently, and has been featured in publications by DesignIntelligence, the United States National Building Museum, the United States General Services Administration, the National Endowment for the Arts, the AIA Committee on the Environment, and Architect Magazine, among others.
Andrew has held seats on the national Boards of Directors for three of the five governing organizations for the profession of architecture in the United States: the American Institute of Architects, the National Architectural Accrediting Board, and the American Institute of Architecture Students. He has been appointed to national committees for all five governing organizations, served on the steering committee for the National Academy for Environmental Design, and has juried the AIA National Honor Awards for Architecture and the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion.
Previous to his work with Gensler, Andrew was the 51st national president and chairman of the board for the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), directing a host of policy and advocacy initiatives related to education and the built environment. In his capacity as president, Andrew represented 20,000 architecture students throughout the country, including nearly 7,000 AIAS members in over 140 chapters across North America and abroad.
Maintaining a strong connection to the academy, Andrew is a guest lecturer and critic for the Catholic University School of Architecture in Washington, DC and appointed to the advisory board for the George Washington University, Columbia College of Arts and Sciences, School of Interior Design. Andrew’s teaching focuses on issues of professional practice, collaborative design processes, and client communication.
Andrew is a LEED Accredited Professional (with specialty) of the United States Green Building Council and has created design work for national and international hospitality, financial retail and museum clients. Prior to practicing, Andrew earned his professional degree with Highest Honors from Carnegie Mellon University as valedictorian of the School of Architecture and was named an Andrew Carnegie Society Scholar, the university’s most prestigious honor.
Andrew is a passionate advocate for shaping social, physical and economic equity through the built environment. With particular interest in the intersection of ecology, transportation, public health, and tourism within contemporary cities, Andrew firmly believes that architects are called to be policy makers with a spatial vocabulary.