Wellington “Duke” Reiter, FAIA, is the Senior Advisor to the President of Arizona State University and the Executive Director of the University City Exchange (UCX) at ASU. His UCX portfolio features complex, multi-stakeholder projects involving university/city collaboration, sustainable urbanism, healthcare, and university design. Much of this work is unique to ASU but the examples are quickly becoming models for other institutions with which Mr. Reiter is working.
Over the past twenty years, Reiter has played numerous roles: academic administrator, faculty member, architect, urban designer, community leader, and public artist. In the course of his career, he has established a track a record of highly effective partnerships with public office holders, the business community, non-profit groups, professional organizations, and private sector developers. Central to his experience has been the construction of mutually beneficial relationships between the institutions he has led and the cities in which they are located. A student of higher education and economic development, Reiter is particularly interested in the symbiotic relationship between major US metro areas and the colleges and universities embedded within them.

Accordingly, Mr. Reiter was a key player in the conceptualization and creation of the award-winning Downtown Phoenix Campus for ASU. He continues to expand the impact of university engagement via the Central Idea initiative which was featured at CEOs for Cities national meeting in Phoenix. He is also driving a proposal entitled NEXUS City- a framework to leverage the unique adjacency of the ASU Polytechnic Campus, the Phoenix-Gateway Airport, and surrounding businesses. At the metropolitan scale, Reiter is spearheading the Rio Reimagined study at the urging of the late Senator McCain, a 40+ mile vision which will unite the interests of municipalities and is soon to be designated a priority project via the Federal Urban Waters program.

Reiter’s most ambitious project at the moment is Ten Across (10X), an expansive undertaking which suggests that the U.S. Interstate 10 corridor provides the most compelling window on the future of the country, one which presents the challenges of the 21st century in their highest relief. On the front lines of social, economic, and climate change, the Ten Across (10X) initiative positions this region as a living laboratory for the future of the entire country. The second annual 10X Water Summit recently held in Phoenix, drew considerable interest from across the country as actionable projects are emerging at scale.

Reiter is the past President of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the former Dean of the College of Design at Arizona State University, and a long-time faculty member at MIT in the Department of Architecture. He is the recipient of the Arizona Architect’s medal and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He is a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute and former Chair of the University Development and Innovation Council. His projects and visualizations have been featured in numerous museums and Princeton Architectural Press previously published a monograph on Reiter’s work, Vessels and Fields.