The 25 – David S. Heit, AIA, NCARB

In the five years since David S. Heit, AIA, NCARB, founded Civium Architecture & Planning, the firm has emerged as a regional leader in the practice of contemporary traditional architecture in the American heartland.

The firm’s most significant project to date is the Immaculata Catholic Church in St. Marys, Kansas, which was featured in Traditional Building’s December 2023 issue.

The firm, which is based in Topeka, Kansas, was awarded the Micro-Enterprise Small Business Award by Go Topeka and the Greater Topeka Partnership in 2023.

Heit, who has been practicing architecture in the Midwest for three decades, has vast experience in a variety of project types but has developed expertise in church and church-related buildings, office planning, long-range master planning, and classical/traditional architecture.

“I rarely consider how my work has impacted the field of architecture,” he says. “I prefer to focus on the effect my work has upon my clients and users of the buildings my clients commission.”

Heit, who has a degree in architecture from Notre Dame, spent a year studying in Rome, an experience that he says “really made clear to me the value of classical architecture, traditional cities, and beauty, and that we still need those things today as much as ever.”

A past president of AIA Topeka and AIA Kansas, Heit is on the AIA Kansas Board of Directors and the City of Topeka Landmarks Commission. Previously, he served as architect-in-residence in the architecture program at Benedictine College, where he taught the senior capstone studio. He has also served as a guest critic at Benedictine College, Kansas State University, and at his alma mater, Notre Dame.

“The greatest satisfaction I find in what I do is when I see how my work makes a positive impact in the daily lives of people, whether that be a church that enables people to come closer to God through the grandeur and beauty of the space or an office building that allows them to work more effectively,” he says.u