2024 Robert Mosher Lifetime Achievement Award
For the past five decades, Michael J. Stepner, FAIA, FAICP, has consistently been an outspoken advocate of quality design and planning, with particular emphasis on the urban experience. He strongly believes cities are for the people and has been a pioneer in the development of guidelines for streets, sidewalk cafes and people's spaces in the urban environment. Growing up in Chicago – a city where they teach architecture and the Burnham Plan to school children - Michael developed his passion for architecture early. After earning his architecture degree from the University of Illinois in 1964, Michael served in the Navy during the Vietnam War before starting his career.
Michael moved to San Diego in 1971, working as a planner in the Community Planning Division. One of his earliest assignments was to serve as the local assistant to Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard as they prepared their seminal work “Temporary Paradise?”.
For 27 years, Michael oversaw urban planning initiatives as varied as the Gaslamp Quarter’s revitalization, the creation of the Centre City Development Corporation, and the construction of Horton Plaza. His vision, advocacy, and diplomacy helped shape the city’s planning policies during the growth management wars of the 80‘s, preserving landmarks like the Spreckels Theater and Balboa Theater. In 1988, Michael was appointed as City Architect, the first in San Diego’s history.
Teaching at every major college and university in the region, Michael extolls the important role architects play in the concurrent and often conflicting task of preserving while developing our urban environment, our cities, and especially our neighborhoods.
He taught with the San Diego police Regional Community Policing Academy exploring Defensible Space and the importance of community. Michael’s voice has been a constant in major volunteering efforts from AIA’s RDAC to CCDC to Balboa Park’s Committee of 100.
Michael earned numerous awards, including, APA’s Distinguished Leadership Award, the AIA|SD Merit Award, and the AIA|SD Community Design Award now known as the Michael J. Stepner Community Planning Award. Michael received the Crystal Globe Award from the local Chapter of Lambda Alpha International (LAI), for his 30+ years of leading, managing and participating in comprehensive planning programs and the development of public policy in San Diego, and for his role as an educator, inspiring the next generation of architects, designers and planners through his work at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design. As stated by the board’s president, “Michael Stepner is considered the backbone of planning and design for the San Diego we know today.”
