2022 Spring Issue - 43

manager, Riley as an investment
performance manager, and Rosie
as a corporate marketing manager.
Over the years, Lewis has often
served as the public face of the
family business, giving interviews
and offering his views on subjects
ranging from the housing market to
the importance of future-proofing
communities to accommodate
anticipated changes in society.
During his career, he has also been
involved with organizations such as
the National Association of Home
Builders and has been inducted
into the California Homebuilding
Foundation's Hall of Fame.
As a developer of masterplanned
communities, Lewis
became attuned to the importance
of incorporating wellness into the
design and operation of projects,
such as incorporating walking trails
and partnering with the YMCA and
other organizations to make fitness
part of community programming.
Over the past quarter century, he
has been involved in the industry's
healthy places movement and
worked to convince others in the
business of the importance of
promoting health.
He sees such efforts as part of
the Lewis tradition of giving back.
" We talk about this a lot in our
company and our family-the idea
of purposeful development, " Lewis
says. " How can our projects make
people's lives better? And we do
that every day. I have a meeting
this morning, for example, to talk
about what we can do through
health programs or partnering with
local school districts in the way we
design our communities. That's
one of the neat things about our
business. "
The clubhouse in the Harvest at Limoneira, a Lewis Group of Companies planned community on
500 acres (200 ha) that includes 1,500 homes, a recreation center, gardens, trails, and parks.
Learning and Solving Big
Issues with ULI
A member of ULI since 1985,
Lewis says he has learned a lot
through his participation in the
organization. " ULI toolkits and
publications have been enormously
impactful on my life, " he says.
When he attends ULI functions,
he grabs as many printed handouts
as he can carry, he says, and tries
to absorb as many new ideas as he
can. " Every business is changing
and evolving, " he says. Instead of
just hearing about what's worked in
the past, " you've got to say, what's
on the drawing boards? What are
the cutting-edge ideas? "
Lewis, who likens ULI's Spring
and Fall Meetings to attending a
university, describes his financial
gifts to the organization as a way of
paying back for that experience. " A
lot of it is just to say thank you for
teaching me so much that I did not
know. And I'm still learning. "
Among his efforts, Lewis supports
the ULI/Randall Lewis Health
Mentorship Program, which
pairs graduate students with ULI
members to help deepen their
understanding of opportunities to
advance health through careers in
the land use industry. Lewis also
has supported the Building Healthy
Places Initiative's focus on shaping
projects and places to improve the
health of people and communities.
" This is about looking through
the lens of health and education
to create change at the community
level, not just at the project level, "
as Lewis explained at ULI's Building
Healthy Places conference in Los
Angeles in 2014.
Lewis describes his involvement
with the initiative and interaction
with Rachel MacCleery, ULI senior
vice president for Building Healthy
Places, as " a fantastic experience. "
" It's all about how you can
create environments for people
in which they'll thrive, " Lewis
says. " ULI really is at the forefront
of that. "
When ULI Foundation president
Janice Periquet met with Lewis
during a California trip last year,
she briefed him on a variety of
other ULI initiatives. " She started
talking about the center that had
climate change, resilience, and
healthy places, " and something
clicked for Lewis: he saw how the
three efforts could combine in an
effective synergy. It also helped
that he had a personal connection
with fellow Claremont McKenna
alumnus Billy Grayson, ULI executive
vice president, who heads ULI's
sustainability initiatives.
Having already engaged with
Grayson and MacCleery on the
topics being addressed by the
center before making the decision
on the donation, " that made it very
easy, " he says.
Lewis says he has come to recognize
that creating healthy places
where people live and work cannot
happen in a vacuum. Instead, a
wellness-oriented built environment
is intertwined with other pressing
issues, such as reducing carbon
emissions and building resilience
against the effects of climate
SPRING 2022
URBAN LAND
43
LEWIS GROUP OF COMPANIES

2022 Spring Issue

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2022 Spring Issue