Diane Georgopulos.

Diane Georgopulos, FAIA

Diane Georgopulos (BA '73) worked for 27 years as an architect at MassHousing, the country’s leading affordable housing finance agency. Before her retirement from the agency in 2016, she served as head of its Design and Construction Department, overseeing construction lending for a $3 billion rental portfolio.  

Her professional work was recognized in 2005 when the American Institute of Architects bestowed the Thomas Jefferson Award for Architecture in the Public Service. In 1995 she was on the MassHousing team that received the Ford Foundation’s Innovations in American Government Award for the Elder Choice Program. Georgopulos developed the design guidelines for the Elder Choice Program - a first model for state-financed, assisted living programs designed to deliver services to frail elders in a residential setting. She more recently consulted with her state colleagues in developing working draft Design Standards for the Commonwealth’s Smart Growth Zoning Overlay District Program (Chapter 40R).

A key achievement in her career was her involvement as project manager for construction and design of the $275 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Demonstration Disposition Program, the largest single investment made in the history of that agency. Using an expansive resident participation process, the 11 developments in the program, which included 167 buildings, were substantially rehabilitated or newly constructed to produce 1,850 units of affordable family housing.

Georgopulos was elected president in 2008 of the Boston Society of Architects, the largest chapter of the AIA. Working with the AIA staff, she was on the editorial team of Celebrating the Past, Designing the Future, a publication commemorating 150 years of American architecture, released at the Boston AIA Convention in May 2008. Her work in affordable housing and the public sector, however, is a mainstay of her professional involvement. She was appointed in 2011 to serve on the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Architects.  In 2013 she was asked to serve again as the Chair of the Revere Beach Design Review Commission. Prior to this assignment, she served on the Designer Selection Committee for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development.  She was the 2002 chair of the national AIA Housing Committee and co-chair of the AIA Center for Communities by Design. She collaborated with BSA colleagues in 2003 and 2005 to host Boston’s First and Second Conferences on Density, exploring issues in creating sustainable vibrant neighborhoods. She serves on several boards including ArchitectureBoston, LightBoston and Boston by Foot, and has been an overseer for the Boston Architectural College.

She earned her BA magna cum laude from the University at Buffalo's School of Environmental Design (today the School of Architecture and Planning), and completed her undergraduate degree at the University College, London. She earned an MArch from MIT and participated as a New York City Urban Fellow and in the International Laboratory for Architecture and Urban Design in Urbino, Italy.