Submitted story

NORTH LEWISBURG – This year’s Triad Distinguished Alumni honoree is Scott Yocom.

Upon graduation from Triad, Yocom attended the University of Cincinnati majoring in Architecture at the School of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning.

The extensive academic curriculum also required two full years of cooperative education, an integrated professional work experience, which placed him in architectural firms in multiple cities around the country including Baltimore, Nashville, Washington D.C. and New York City.

Additionally, during his university studies, Yocom was accepted into the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience and was awarded an international internship in The Hague, The Netherlands. There he worked for the Rijksgebouwendienst, the Dutch Government Buildings Agency, which among other things exposed him to the inner workings and institutions of a foreign government.

Though the internship helping design the Federal Courthouse in Limburg was brief, the experience along with that of his cooperative education had a significant new influence on Yocom’s professional and personal interests. The cumulative experiences would reorient his life towards a broader world view and create an interest in culture, art and design in the time of the emergence of a new global order – something which only a few years prior was completely foreign to the young Triad graduate. He would go on to complete The Grand Tour of classical European Architecture, settling in Paris for several months to live the joie de vivre of painting and prose.

He completed his Bachelor of Architecture Degree and graduated with honors in 1995, and then took a position in New York with the prestigious Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, forging his architectural skills and experience there and making those 10 years with the firm the foundational years of his career. Having become a registered Architect and LEED certified professional during his time there, he attained the position of Senior Technical Coordinator and would continue as a Senior Project Architect at other large, corporate firms COOKFOX, Perkins+Will and Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK). Yocom was named Principal in the HOK, New York office in 2019.

Yocom has been a primary Senior Project Architect on the following new airline terminal buildings: Terminal A and C Concourses at Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Dallas, TX; Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport, New York, NY; Salt Lake City International Airport, Salt Lake City, UT and Terminal 4 at JFK International Airport, New York, NY. The new Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport was the first airport project in the world to achieve the stringent LEED v4 Gold certification for sustainability and energy efficiency in building design and was recognized by Skytrax, the global aviation industry’s rating agency as the best new airport in the world in 2022.

Other significant projects as Senior Project Architect include The Four Seasons Hotel, Manama, Bahrain; Gateway Community College, New Haven, CT, Kuwait University School of Education, Kuwait City, Kuwait; 150 Charles Street Residential Tower, New York, NY and several projects for the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. These projects have provided him the opportunity to travel, live and work in cities around the world including San Francisco, Toronto, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Manama, Bahrain; Beirut, Lebanon and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Even though Yocom has spent the majority of his adult life in New York, he has maintained close relationships with friends and family in Champaign County with frequent visits and extended stays over the years. He has continued to be engaged with local community organizations like the Champaign County Historical Society and the 2005 Champaign County Bicentennial Organization, serving as the Agricultural History Committee Chairman.

Info from Triad Local Schools