Measuring Dirt

FROM NOMADS TO ASTRONAUTS 10,000 YEARS OF HUMAN CONQUEST

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Receiving my presidential Chain of Office

ANN E. GRAY, FRICS, RIBA, FAIA, LEED AP was elected to the presidency the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 2023 after serving for nearly ten years on its Global Governing Council. During her tenure, she experienced face-to-face the wide-ranging profession as it is practiced the world over. She has the practitioner’s perspective. The year of her presidency saw her relocated from her sunny Southern California milieu and ensconced in the 19th-century bastion of global surveying at

12 Great George Street on Parliament Square in London. In 2024, Ann became a Freeman of the City of London as a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Surveyors. She is a licensed architect and real estate broker. She holds a B.A. in Applied Mathematics and a Master of Architecture both from UCLA.

In 1994, Ann launched her consulting practice, Gray Real Estate Advisors. Prior to that she led pre-construction activity at Paramount Pictures for the development of corporate and production facilities. She is a frequent speaker on the topic of property, building conservation and professionalism at industry conferences such as the American Institute of Architects national convention, the California Preservation Foundation annual conference, and the RICS Built Environment Forum summits in Los Angeles, Toronto and Washington DC. Ann has been a lecturer and juror at universities such as USC, UCLA, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design and has served on the Board of Advisors to the Woodbury University School of Architecture.

In 1994, Ann founded award-winning Balcony Press to highlight architecture and culture of the West in books often overlooked by the publishing industry at large. From 2001 to 2014 she was founding publisher of FORM magazine, the AEC industry journal in Southern California and authored several articles during the life of the publication. Her work at Paramount Pictures was the subject of the January 1989 TIME magazine ‘Best of” issue in a piece called Best of Design: A Compelling New Modernism. Ann has shared her views on Seattle public radio on the new Amazon headquarters.

In 2021 she was interviewed for a Costar podcast and in 2023 was filmed beach-side in Cannes for Costar News on the topic of international practice. Local television host Art Levine interviewed her on the topic of the profession for the program Straight Talk with Art Levine. Likewise, she was a guest on The Christopher Lowell Show on Discovery Channel. She is the credited Executive Producer of the documentary film The Spirit in Architecture: John Lautner. Ann has been profiled in Modus magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Architecture California, Verdugo and Southern California Magazine. Awed by the rigor with which the practice of surveying is conducted with technical exactitude and a codified system of ethics, Ann views her writing on the topic of planning, design and property as inevitable.

Bio

IN THE PRESS

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

"Balcony's books bring a rush of deja vu because her images are already part of our visual and cultural landscape – though we've never seen them framed quite so poetically before."

DENISE HAMILTON

LOS ANGELES TIMES

American Institute of Architects granted Ann their National Award for Collaborative Achievement calling her “a professional who celebrates vernacular and heritage, who builds bridges to community, and who “makes you see.”

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

"She is publishing things which otherwise would be inaccessible to the general public."

NATALIE SHIVERS

FOX STUDIOS

In The Press

LECTURES

Ann is a trained public speaker and has keynoted, presented research findings, moderated panels and offered her informed opinions in a variety of settings including banquets, board installations and industry conferences. Ann is a respected expert on the property professions and the real estate industry.

Inquire: agadvise @ gmail.com

SELECTED APPEARANCES

CBRE - Graffiti Towers: Abomination or Opportunity 2025
Global Building Conservation Conf. Webinar – 2025
Glasgow University – Decoding the Nineteenth Century 2024
London – Commercial Property Conference 2023
Glasgow Sustainability Conference 2023
London – Building Surveying Conference 2023
Memorial service for Sir Christopher Wren's 300th, St. Paul's Cathedral, London
Inaugural address as incoming President – RICS 2023
Northumbria University Annual Keynote – 2022
Caribbean Conference – Sea Rise and the Future of Grand Cayman 2022
NYU Chen Institute of Real Estate – 2021
ULI FutureBuild 2017 – Innovation and Energy in the Built Environment
Straight Talk with Art Levine – The Profession of Surveying, cable interview program
RICS LA Summit Keynote 2011 – The Merely Ethical Surveyor: Taking Responsibility
AIA National Convention 2001 – Making Your Way as a Woman in Architecture
Lightfair Intl - The Art of Museum Lighting panel moderator
VerdeXchange – Resiliency, Profits and Public Policy panel moderator
RICS LA Summit 2015 – Corporate Management of Real Estate panel moderator
Washington DC – World Built Environment Forum 2014
RICS Toronto Summit – New trends in creative office
ULI Fall Conference 2011 – Presented RICS Public Private Partnerships: Will they work in the US?
Westweek 2001 – Keynote: Italian Design What’s Next
The Christopher Lowell Show – Discovery Channel 1996