Thomas Jefferson may be the most celebrated American architect, albeit an amateur one, to lead a political life, but he certainly wasn’t the last. According to the American Institute of Architects, there are currently about 1,250 AIA members serving in elected and appointed positions, including six mayors, 55 city council members, 135 historic preservation commissioners, and 226 planning commissioners.
But oddly, there are no architects currently serving in the U.S. Congress, and according to the AIA, there was only one during the entire 20th century: Richard Swett, who worked in Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s San Francisco office before entering politics in the 1990s. A New Hampshire Democrat, he served two terms as a member of the House of Representatives and was later named ambassador to Denmark by President Bill Clinton.
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