2025 Community Design Advocate Award
The Community Design Advocate Award acknowledges a community member that consistently contributes to the enhancement of the built environment. The awardee is contributing within our chapter boundaries and is not a licensed architect or affiliated with our professional organization.
D. J. Waldie
CULTURAL HISTORIAN, MEMOIRIST, AND TRANSLATOR
In books, essays, and online commentary, Waldie has sought to frame his suburban experience as a search for a sense of place. Often using his hometown of Lakewood as a starting point, Waldie’s work ranges widely over the history of suburbanization and its cultural effects in Southern California and the nation.
He is the author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir; Where Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles; and Becoming Los Angeles: Myth, Memory, and a Sense of Place. Forthcoming in September, 2025 is a new collection of essays: Elements of Los Angeles: Earth, Water, Air, Fire.
In collaboration with Diane Keaton, Waldie provided the text for two photographic explorations of home: California Romantica, dealing with homes in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style of the early 20th century, and House, examining post-modern interpretations of domesticity.
In 2007, the New York Times described Waldie’s work as “a gorgeous distillation of architectural and social history.” In 2017, he was awarded the Dale Prize for Urban and Regional Planning administered by Cal Poly Pomona.
He began his career in public administration in Lakewood in 1977. He served as the city’s Public Information Officer between 1981 and 2009. He retired as the Deputy City Manager of Lakewood in 2010.
For additional information visit: https://www.djwaldie.com/