WASHINGTON, DC.- The following people have been elected to the Board of Trustees of the National Building Museum during 2009:

Jeffrey S. Abramson is a partner in The Tower Companies, a three-generation, family-owned real estate development firm based in Rockville, Maryland. Largely thanks to Abramson’s commitment to environmental responsibility, the company is widely recognized as a leader in green development. Abramson is a trustee of the David Lynch Foundation and chair of the board of the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. He has organized and funded extensive medical research related to cancer, cardiovascular diseases, preventative health care, and transcendental meditation. He previously served on the Museum’s Board of Trustees from 1997 to 2003.

Greg Bentley is CEO and chairman of Bentley Systems, which provides software solutions for architects, engineers, construction professionals, building owners, and others. Prior to joining the firm in 1991, he founded and served as CEO of Devon Systems International, Inc., a provider of financial trading software. He holds a bachelor’s degree in decision sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School. He is a member of the Board of Overseers for the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design.

William M. Collins is senior managing director at Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers, the largest locally owned full-service commercial real estate firm in the Washington metropolitan area. He is also a member of the Colliers Global Investment Services Team, which provides investment sale services to institutional and private clients around the world. A native of Washington, D.C., Collins is a graduate of the University of Maryland.

Todd DeGarmo, FAIA, is chief executive officer of STUDIOS Architecture. Based in both Washington and New York, DeGarmo has worked with various prominent clients such as Bloomberg, Dow Jones, and the Pentagon. His work has received numerous awards and has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, Business Week, and Architectural Record. He was inducted into Interior Design magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2007. DeGarmo is a member of the Partnership for New York City and a trustee of the University of Cincinnati Foundation.

Andrew C. Florance is founder, director, president, and chief executive officer of CoStar Group, Inc., the leading provider of information, marketing and analytic services to commercial real estate professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been awarded two US patents for mobile information-gathering systems, and was named Real Estate Industry Executive of the Year for 2009 by Cornell Real Estate Review. A graduate of Princeton University, Florance serves on the boards of the American Real Estate Society, Ford’s Theatre, and Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School.

Kenneth M. Grunley is president of Grunley Construction Company, Inc., a full-service construction firm based in Rockville, Maryland, with expertise in high-profile, complex projects such as the renovation of the US Supreme Court and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. He is a third-term member of the US General Services Administration’s National Registry of Peer Professionals and a member of the Washington Building Congress Board of Governors. Grunley received a Bachelor of Science in finance and real estate from Kent State University.

Philip Harrison, AIA, LEED AP, is principal, president, and chief executive officer of Perkins+Will, an architecture and design firm founded in 1935. He received a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude in visual arts and philosophy from Harvard College, and earned a Master of Architecture with Distinction from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Harrison is a member of the AIA’s Large Firm Roundtable Executive Committee, the Atlanta Urban Design Commission, and Leadership Atlanta. He also serves on the boards of the Museum of Design Atlanta and the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities.

Diane Hoskins, FAIA, LEED AP, is one of three executive directors of Gensler, an architecture, design, and planning firm with offices in 32 locations around the world. She is also managing principal for the firm’s Southeast region. Hoskins holds a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a member of the Board of Regents of the American Architectural Foundation and the Board of Directors of the Greater Washington Board of Trade.

Christopher A. McFadden is vice president for communications at Turner Construction Company, where he is responsible for creating and implementing external communications, marketing, and public relations plans, as well as managing internal communications activities. He joined the company in 1990 after graduating cum laude from Manhattan College with a degree in economics.

Richard Ruben is chief executive officer of Ruben Companies, which develops and manages major office and residential properties in New York, Washington, and Boston. He is also the founder and chairman of Workspeed Holdings, LLC, which develops and markets internet-based software applications for property management workflow and communications. Ruben is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School.