Meet John I. Lehman, AIA, Founding Principal

At the heart of Lehman Associates, PC is the founding principal, John I. Lehman, AIA.

After completing his formal education in Architecture at Drexel University in Philadelphia, John moved to Tampa Florida where through a bustling economic construction boom of the early 1980’s he was able to gain valuable and extensive experience in design, project management and construction oversight.

In 1985, John was offered an Associate position with the international firm of RTKL so he moved his family back north to Maryland to take advantage of this opportunity. During his years with RTKL, John was the lead project architect on the design and construction of a 20-story high-rise office tower in Baltimore’s inner harbor, a Marriott Suites Hotel in Bethesda, MD and a high-end residential development for the DuPont family in Delaware.

In 1989, John left RTKL thinking about his ultimate goal of starting his own practice and was able to secure a term contract as a consulting architect for the federal government. He designed and managed projects throughout the mid-Atlantic region. These projects included high visibility renovations to retail operations within the Pentagon, Mount Vernon, the House of Representatives side of Capital Hill and one directly under the rotunda in the U.S. Capitol. His projects received multiple awards including an Award of Excellence with the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

His contract ended in 1992, at which point John felt sufficiently confident in his abilities to incorporate his private practice under the name of Lehman Associates, P.C. In the following years, he proved his design and business abilities to a growing clientele of developers, corporate clients, property managers, retailers and private residential clients.

With expanding corporate and government projects in the pipeline, John briefly entered into a limited partnership with an engineering design firm in McLean, Virginia and together opened a second office in Rockville, Maryland. By 2003, troubled by a post 9-11 economic downturn John dissolved this partnership to return to a sole ownership private practice.

Now, with over 40 years of professional experience, 26 as a business owner and a lifelong passion for architecture, John’s focus is where his greatest gratification lies in custom residential projects and light commercial design. “Smaller projects are much more gratifying as they impact homeowners and small businesses more directly.”

John has received numerous state and national awards for residential and commercial designs as well as for historic landmark preservation. He has spoken at local gatherings and at national conventions on the restoration of historically significant buildings and designing for handicap accessibility. John is currently licensed to practice commercial and public architecture in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia but extends his residential reach as far away as Texas, Florida and Maine. He is “GREEN Advantage” certified with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) on sustainable design and is a member of the Maryland Society of Architects, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Custom Residential Architects Network (CRAN).