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O’Neal was elected to the national Board of Directors of AIA,
where he leads in formulating strategy for the
organization’s knowledge communities. He was appointed to
Community Board 6 last year by Manhattan Borough President
Scott Stringer. He was named in 2009 to the Board of
Directors of the New York Building Congress, and is an
advisory board member of the New York City College of
Technology (2002–present), and the City College of New York
Architectural Center (2007-present). He was appointed to
the New York State Office for the Aging Planning and Zoning
Initiative in 2008 and is writing a chapter on adaptive
reuse for their upcoming manual, to be distributed
state-wide.
O’Neal also serves as a visiting critic at Pratt Institute,
the New York School of Interior Design, and New York
Institute of Technology. He holds a Bachelor of Science and
a Bachelor of Architecture from KSU and received a
scholarship award to Tuck Business School at Dartmouth
University (2005). Before founding TONA, he worked for IBM,
The Eggers Group, PC, and Ulrich Franzen and Associates.
He has been featured in interviews and written for
numerous publications including The New York Times, The
Albany Times-Union, New York Construction, Real Estate
Weekly, The Architect’s Newspaper, AIArchitect, Oculus,
eOculus, and AIArchitect.
Steven Fong, Ph.D., former dean of the College of
Architecture at KSU, praised O’Neal’s dedication to
involving architects in public policy. “We teach that
architects should be committed leaders in their
communities. Terrence has accomplished that. He has
demonstrated values we have tried to have our students and
graduates understand. He has made his alma mater proud.”
The mission of Terrence O’Neal Architect, LLC (TONA), the
eponymous full-service architectural and design firm founded
by Terrence E. O’Neal, AIA, in 1993, has stayed constant
since its inception: to offer architectural services to meet
or exceed client expectations for diverse communities in
urban and other environments -- including those historically
underserved. Its major projects include a series of
rehabilitations for Covenant House New York; large-scale
multi-housing developments; fit-outs for major corporations
including NBC Universal and Prudential Financial; interior
work for such healthcare institutions as Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; and new construction and
renovations for public schools in New York City and Newark,
NJ.
A program led and conceived by O’Neal received a Component
Excellence Award from AIA National in 2007. He received the
2008 Matthew Del Gaudio Service Award for distinguished
service to the profession, and the 2008 AIANYS President’s
Citation for leadership in the completion of the component’s
AIA150 program, which was awarded a grant from AIA. He
continues to reach out to local elected officials, as when
he met with former Senator Hillary Clinton in 2006.
The booklet “Guide to New York State Livable and Sustainable
Communities” was completed in 2008 and distributed to nearly
150 elected officials throughout the state of New York, and
to AIA components nationwide. O’Neal led seminars entitled
“Creating Livable and Sustainable Communities,” at the 2009
AIA New York State convention in Rochester, and at the 2009
National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)
convention in St. Louis. The seminar featured projects from
various cities in America that promote principles that
reduce energy use for a more sustainable future.
Says O’Neal, “An architect’s best contribution to society
can be made by becoming involved with local government and
neighborhood organizations and by providing service to urban
communities that have much to gain from attentive
architectural services.”
Heather O’Neal, his wife and design principal of TONA,
currently serves as treasurer on the national Board of
Directors of NOMA. Mrs. O’Neal, a former assistant
professor at CUNY, the New York City College of Technology,
served as director of education on the Board of Directors
for the AIA New York Chapter. She was one of the
professionals featured in “2% -Women of Color in Design,” a
traveling exhibit first held at the AIA National Convention
hosted by Boston Architectural College (BAC) in 2008.
She will be featured in the exhibition “200+: Black Women
Architects” at Howard University, opening in March 2010.
Mrs. O’Neal holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt
Institute and a Master’s in Real Estate Development from
Columbia University (Graduate School of Architecture,
Planning, and Preservation).
The O’Neals are also committed to introducing more young
people to the architectural profession and to increasing
awareness of the role of minority architects in students and
the general public. The O’Neals have been involved with New
York Foundation of Architecture’s Learning by Design program
which works with grades K-12 in NYC schools and with NAACP-ACTSO
through which NOMA mentors and assists high school students
interested in an architectural career. Says Mrs. O’Neal,
“There is a lack of role models in architecture for many
young people and, most profoundly, for urban youth.”
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