Thomas Luebke

Thomas Luebke has served since 2005 as the secretary of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the federal design review agency for the nation’s capital. As secretary, he has initiated the National Capital Framework Plan, a major federal planning effort to extend the commemorative core of the National Mall in cooperation with the National Capital Planning Commission. He represents the Commission of Fine Arts on the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission to guide the authorization, location, and design of memorials in Washington D.C. under the Commemorative Works Act.

An architect with experience in planning and historic preservation in both public and private sectors, Luebke served previously as the city architect for Alexandra, Virginia, where he was responsible for design review of all new public and private projects in the city, including the Potomac Yard and the Carlyle developments. He served previously as executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and was design principal for the First National Bank Tower in Omaha, Nebraska, for Leo A. Daly Architects. 

Luebke is a frequent speaker and panelist on topics such as the design of Washington, D.C.; the history of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts; and the design of commemorative works for such institutions as the National Building Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the American Institute of Architects, and the American Society of Landscape Architects.  In cooperation with the National Building Museum, he has initiated and participated in numerous symposiums and exhibitions, including Monuments and Memory (2001), Framing A Capital City (2007), and Power, Architecture, and Politics: The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the Design of Washington (2010). He is the editor of the forthcoming publication, A Century of Design: The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 1910–2010.

Luebke received a bachelor of arts degree with honors from Washington University in St. Louis and graduated with a master in architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He was a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome in 2010, where he edited a centennial history of the Commission of Fine Arts. He has served as a board member for the Washington, D.C. chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Washington, D.C. chapter of Lambda Alpha, the honorary land-use society. He recently served as president of the Washington Architectural Foundation Board, a non-profit organization of architects serving the Washington, D.C. community, and was named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2011.

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