In addition to graduating from Northern State University, this internationally recognized architect graduated from Aberdeen Central High School.
A.J. Kaufman
| Special to the Aberdeen News
When architects, designers, engineers and industry partners gathered Sept. 10-12 for the Celebration of Architecture awards and recognition ceremony in Sioux Falls, an Aberdeen native stood among the honorees.
The AIA South Dakota design awards event honored people who plan, design and develop the landscape across South Dakota and beyond. One of the four winners for 2025, Aberdeen native James Cramer, has a distinguished career worth recapping.
Since graduating from Northern State University decades ago with a degree in Education, he served in prominent roles, including CEO of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Executive Director of AIA Minnesota, President of the AIA Service Corporation and publisher of Architecture Magazine. He founded the company “Design Intelligence” and wrote six books on the practice of architecture, beginning in 1995. He also founded and serves as the Honorary Chairman for the Cramer Center for Design and Innovation at Northern State, his alma mater.
After his time at Northern State, Cramer moved to Minnesota to attend graduate school at the University of Minnesota and University of St. Thomas, where he fell in love with architecture and he said, “benefited significantly from quality of teaching.”
He was soon selected vice president for the Minnesota Society of Architects. Receiving national attention, four years later, he was hired to be deputy CEO of AIA in Washington, D.C., at 29. In the Nation’s Capital, he developed his magazine skills and began a publication called Architectural Technology.
“At that time, it was a good industry to be in,” Cramer told the Aberdeen News. “And especially if you had pretty pics of architecture around the world. I had a fantastic staff.”
By 1988, he was named CEO of AIA, where he served until 1994, with a staff of approximately 240.
Eventually, Cramer started an architectural firm, Design Intelligence, and worked as a management consultant and a researcher of data. Soon he started working around the world, from Asia to Australia to the United States, consulting for the world’s premier architectural firms. In 2014, Cramer sold the company and began teaching at Savannah College of Art & Design and the Georgia Institute of Technology. He currently teaches three classes at the latter school in Atlanta.
Cramer says his favorite type of architecture is traditional and classical, particularly on the residential side, including religious architecture and what is often found on college campuses.
“That is probably my sweet spot for appreciating the beauty of architecture,” he said. “Architecture makes such a difference in people’s lives that it’s a lot of fun.”
After a half-century in the industry, he says there is a shortage of architects in South Dakota. That’s why Cramer sponsors internships, among much else.
“The best education I received was from Northern State University,” he said. “Corrine and I give money to Northern going back quite a long time, and we think of it as an investment in the future…I would like to thank Northern, and now we have a Center that we are developing called the Cramer Center. We are trying to make a difference in young people’s lives. Architecture will be a good career for people in the future, and we are trying to develop the profession, so it’ll be an attractive place for some of the best and brightest young people.”
Cramer is married to the aforementioned Corrine, whom he met while a student at Northern State. They have two sons and two grandchildren. A graduate of Aberdeen Central High School, he recently traveled north again to attend his 60th class reunion.