Charles E. Dagit Jr.

In 2012 the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Pennsylvania presented Charles Dagit with its highest honor, the Gold Medal of Distinction for his career achievements in architecture. Only three other Philadelphia Design Architects have ever received this award; Robert Venturi, Peter Bohlin, and Vincent Kling. The AIA’s Philadelphia chapter also honored Dagit in 2012 with the prestigious Thomas U. Walter Award for a lifetime of achievement in design excellence, dedication as a teaching professor, and for his committed service to the AIA over four decades. In 2013 his first book was published, Louis I. Kahn Architect - Remembering the Man and Those Who Surrounded Him.

Charles Dagit has provided leadership in the AIA National Committee on Design (COD) for over 3 decades, chairing the National Awards Task Group and the Gold Medal Task Group. He served as Chairman of the Committee in 1994. He chaired the AIA COD National Design Conference in 1991, with a focus on “The Philadelphia School”. Dagit has also served on the Boards of both the AIA Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, and was President of AIA Philadelphia in 1991.

In 1970 he founded Dagit•Saylor Architects and won over 60 Design Awards including the Gold and Silver Medals for design from AIA Pennsylvania and AIA Philadelphia. In 1976 Robert A.M. Stern named him one of the “40 Under 40 American Architects” in A+U Magazine. 1983 he was elevated to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, the youngest architect to that time to be honored as an AIA Fellow. Dagit’s work has been published in international design magazines including; Architectural Record, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’Hui, The Japan Architect, L’Industria delle Construzioni, and many others.

Dagit was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was raised in a family of architects. His grandfather had founded a prominent architectural firm in 1888, Henry D. Dagit & Sons, known best for Catholic Churches in the eastern United States, and his father and uncles were architects at the firm. Dagit studied in the Louis I. Kahn Masters Studio in architecture, earning a Masters in Architecture in 1968, at the University of Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia in the 1960s, Louis I. Kahn’s Masters Studio was the hub for what became known as "The Philadelphia School". The philosophies and design of Louis Kahn, Robert Venturi, Aldo Giurgola, and other members of this group were influential in Dagit’s professional development.