Mr. Shaw attended Yale University on a National Merit Scholarship, where he graduated cum laude and was awarded the Fellows Prize for his thesis. He later did post-graduate work in planning at the University of California at Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr. Shaw served his internship in San Francisco with the firm of Wurster, Bernardi, and Emmons, which was awarded the AIA's highest honor, the Gold Medal. After becoming registered as an architect, he served as the chief architect for the leading airport planning firm in the United States, Leigh Fisher Associates, where he worked on more than 35 major airports throughout the world, including the expansion of Washington - Dulles, and the Honolulu Interisland Terminal. He also participated in site selection studies for Denver International and Incheon International Airport in South Korea.

Mr. Shaw then became a senior designer for WATG, the leading international firm for the design of resort hotel facilities. He was in charge of the design of hotels for companies such as Ritz-Carlton, Hyatt, Sheraton, and other major chains, in locations throughout the world.

Mr. Shaw served as an Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii School of Architecture for seven years, where he conducted research on building energy use and environmental controls, in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After returning to private practice, he joint-ventured with Arthur Erickson, winner of the AIA Gold Medal. He has been a design consultant on hotel projects for such firms as WATG, and was a planning consultant for several airport projects, in cooperation with such firms as NBBJ and others.

His work has been recognized with awards from the Honolulu, San Francisco, and Oregon chapters of the AIA. He recently received a design award from the Honolulu AIA for the Reconstruction of the Water Palace at Ujung, Bali. Recently, he has served as Executive Consultant for Design and Planning for Space Group, one of the leading firms in Asia, on various projects in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific.