We are always excited to welcome new members to Virginia.
The following members recently joined the ranks of Virginia Society AIA.
New Associate Members
Emily C. Broadwell, Assoc. AIA
Derek Ellison, Assoc. AIA
Sarah C. Field-Jablecki, Assoc. AIA
Julie K. Filges, Assoc. AIA
DeMarco L. Higgins Sr., Assoc. AIA
Kendra Johanson, Assoc. AIA
Harry Kelly, Assoc. AIA
William F. Livingston II, Assoc. AIA
Claire Montecillo, Assoc. AIA
Camila E. Paggi, Assoc. AIA
Carolyn M. Parrish, Assoc. AIA
Russell Ramirez, Assoc. AIA
Patton H. Roark, Assoc. AIA
Amy R. Vetal, Assoc. AIA
Michael Waring, Assoc. AIA
New Architect Members
Madge Bemiss, AIA
Jennifer Callanan, AIA
Brian W. Caro, AIA
James C. Dumminger Jr., AIA
Pete Dykema, AIA
Lawrence W. Kliewer, AIA
Bryce H. Powell, AIA
Joan S. Watkins, AIA
Transferred In
William B. Faudree, AIA transferred here from the District of Columbia
William E. Conkey, AIA transferred here from the District of Columbia
Christiane A. deJong, AIA transferred here from the District of Columbia
Margaret S. Guryan, AIA transferred here from the District of Columbia
1. Robert Russa Moton High School — A student-led strike at this Virginia school played a significant role in ending segregated “separate but equal” schools throughout the nation.
2. Fort Monroe — In 1861,the commander at this Hampton fortification announced that his troops would not enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. Slaves who fled to the fort would be treated as “contraband of war” and not be returned. By the time the Civil War ended in 1865, it is estimated that more than 10,000 enslaved African Americans sought refuge at Fort Monroe. [adrotate banner=”53″]
3. Harrison School — Now the Harrison Museum of African American Culture, the Harrison School was the first public high school for African-American students in Southwest Virginia.
4. Gum Springs — West Ford, a former slave, founded Gum Springs after being freed by George Washington. The oldest African-American community in Fairfax County, Gum Springs became a sanctuary for freedmen and was an important stop on the Underground Railroad.
5. The St. Luke Penny Savings Bank — Conceived of by Maggie L. Walker, St. Luke’s provided a courteous, safe place for African Americans to conduct financial business during a time when Jim Crow laws and oppressive conditions made banking difficult for many blacks.
6. Kate Waller Barrett Branch Library — On August 21, 1939 — more than two decades before the famous sit-in movement — five young African Americans staged what is thought to be the first planned sit-in at the public library in Alexandria, Virginia.
7. Jackson Ward — After the American Civil War, previously free blacks joined freed slaves and their descendants and created this thriving African-American business community, which became known as both the “Black Wall Street of America,” and “The Harlem of the South.”
8. Attucks Theatre — Built in 1919, the Attucks Theatre was designed, developed, financed, and operated entirely by African Americans. Once known as the “Apollo of the South,” the theatre is named in honor of Crispus Attucks, the first American casualty of the Revolutionary War in the 1770 Boston Massacre.
9. Manassas Industrial School —The school was founded largely through the efforts of former slave Jennie Dean who, after years of fundraising, chartered the school on October 7, 1893. The school taught both academic subjects and skilled trades to young African Americans.
10. Longdale Recreation Area/Green Pastures Recreation Area — At the urging of the Clifton Forge Chapter of the NAACP, the Forest Service constructed this recreation area to be used by African Americans in the area. It was built by a local Civilian Conservation Corps company from 1938 to 1940 for the African American community in response to the construction of the whites-only Douthat State Park.
About the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects
The Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects is a professional association representing nearly 2,500 members. Since 1914, the Virginia AIA has represented the professional interests of architects and allied professionals in the Commonwealth of Virginia. For more information, contact the Virginia Society at (804) 644-3041 or visit www.aiava.org.
About the Virginia Center for Architecture
The Virginia Center for Architecture is located at 2501 Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia’s historic Fan District. The Center is dedicated to developing the understanding of the power and importance of architecture through programs, exhibitions, and its stewardship of an historic landmark. The Center is open to the public Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Learn more at www.architectureva.org.
About Virginia Celebrates Architecture
Virginia Celebrates Architecture is a year-long public outreach program marking the 100th anniversary of the American Institute of Architects in Virginia. It is intended to develop a broader understanding of architecture and design by beginning new conversations about buildings and the impact they have on our lives. Learn more at www.vacelebrates.org.
What makes some communities seem like better places to live than others? Ask several neighbors, and you’re likely to get a different answer from each of them. The American Institute of Architects has identified some common elements and created 10 Principles for Livable Communities. Livable Communities for Virginia explores each of the 10 principles using examples from communities all over the state, including Richmond, Fredericksburg, Charlottesville, Newport News, Harrisonburg, Roanoke, Alexandria and more. Attend the opening reception for Livable Communities for Virginia at the Virginia Center for Architecture on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014 from 4:30–7 p.m.
For more information, call (804) 644-3041, extension 100 or visit www.architectureva.org. There is no charge to attend the Opening Reception; however spaces are limited. RSVP online to secure tickets. Livable Communities for Virginia is at the Virginia Center for Architecture through March 23, 2014. There is no charge to visit the exhibition.
Livable Communities for Virginia kicks off a year-long recognition of the centennial anniversary of the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects called Virginia Celebrates Architecture. The exhibition is intended to help citizens, public officials, and others who are actively engaged in civic dialogue, to understand the basic elements of community design. It is a starting point to leverage existing tools, strategies, and synergies at the policy, planning, and design levels so that our communities can reach their full potential.
In addition to the exhibition, the Center will be offering an SOL-correlated educational program for groups each Wednesday through March 20.
Livable Communities for Virginia is sponsored at the Virginia Center for Architecture by Branch & Associates, Inc.
If you thought the building code is continually changing, you would be right. Every three years, the International Code Council publishes an updated family of model codes. Every three years, Virginia spends about 18 months reviewing it.
The reviews and approval of the alterations, deletions, and additions are still under way. The latest date for implementation of the new Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code still looks like the fall of 2014. And then, traditionally, Virginia allows a one-year grace period for projects already in design to continue under the old code.
Prior to implementation, however, several hurdles still need to be cleared. These include publication, public hearings, approvals by the Housing and Community Development Board, the attorney general, the secretary of commerce and trade, the governor’s office, the codes commission and then a final publication.
Anyone considering taking advantage of the grace period should confer with the local building official first. By the same token, those who wish to incorporate portions the future code also should confer with the local building official for a variance.
The latest information can be found at the DHCD website: http://www.dhcd.virginia.gov/index.php/va-building-codes/building-and-fire-codes/code-change-process.html.
Join your colleagues at the Annual Meeting of the Membership of the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects. The meeting will take place at the Greater Richmond Convention Center during Architecture Exchange East at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012. During the meeting, the slate of officers for the Society will be placed in nomination.
Students from Hampton University, Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center, and the University of Virginia took part in the 32nd annual Virginia Society AIA Prize competition over the weekend of Jan. 27–30, 2012. From those submissions, each school advances 10 finalists; the winning design will be selected by a jury in February.
This year’s competition problem was developed by faculty at Hampton University and addressed our ability (or inability) to provide temporary emergency housing. Students were asked to propose a semi-permanent and reusable intervention in one of the region’s most naturally vulnerable locations — Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The problem asked students to design one prototypical unit, not to exceed 600 square-feet, capable of housing up to 4 individuals. Designs were to include a site plan demonstrating how four of these prototypical units could be arranged to form the embryo of a community. Students were also asked to envision how these structures could be used as housing for special events during non-catastrophic times.
The Virginia Society AIA Prize — along with the accompanying $2000 check — will be awarded during the Virginia Design Forum: Skins, March 16-17, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Best of School nods (and possibly an honorable mention or two) will be noted as well. An exhibition of all of the finalists will tour each of the schools and will wrap up in the ArchEx Exhibit Hall at Architecture Exchange East on Nov. 8–9.
1140 Formosa Ave. Lorcan O’ Herlihy Architects. Photo by Lawrence Anderson.
It is often said that beauty is only skin deep, and yet striking — sometimes astonishing — façades are quickly becoming a device to charm developers, funders, and the public alike. Clients are beginning to understand what architects have long known: innovative building skins can be used to woo investors and buyers for commercial projects as well as funders for museums and universities. Because apparently impossible structures jar us out of our everyday pursuits and force us to contemplate the built-environment, unusual façades generate a tremendous amount public interest in contemporary architecture as well. But more than just a potential selling point, building skins are evolving as new computer technologies, new materials and new societal behaviors are changing the perception of architecture. As architecture is functioning more as a synthetic organism working within its surrounding ecosystem, more literal comparisons are being made between biological skins and built skins, and thus the topic for the tenth bi-annual Virginia Design Forum was born.
The Virginia Society AIA has assembled some of the world’s most acknowledged experts on building skins to speak at the upcoming tenth Virginia Design Forum: SKINS in Charlottesville on March 16 and 17, 2012. Registration is open.
About the speakers:
Keynote Speaker
3XN’s Bella Sky Hotel. Image courtesy of 3XN.
Kim Herforth Nielsen, MAA, RIBA of 3XN, Copenhagen
Kim Herforth Nielsen is founder and principal of 3XN. He graduated from the Aarhus School of Architecture in 1981 and was one of three founders of 3XN in 1986 (all with the surname Nielsen). He has been involved in all the practice’s major projects, including The Blue Planet, Kubus in Berlin, Museum of Liverpool, Ørestad College, Muziekgebouw Concert Hall in Amsterdam, the Danish Embassy in Berlin, and the Architects’ House in Copenhagen. Often called upon as a jury member in international architectural competitions, and as lecturer at art academies and universities around the world, Nielsen is also a Knight of Dannebrog and has received Denmark’s highest architectural honor, the C.F. Hansen Medaille.
LOHA’s Habitat 825. Photo by Lawrence Anderson.
Lorcan O’Herlihy, FAIA, of Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, Los Angeles
Since LOHA’s inception in 1990, founder and principal Lorcan O’Herlihy has sought opportunities to engage the operative layers of the urban landscape with respect to spatial, sensory, and experiential information. In 2004, the Architectural League of New York selected O’Herlihy as one of eight Emerging Voices. His firm has garnered 42 national and international awards including 17 AIA Design Awards. He has taught and lectured extensively over the last decade, including the Architectural Association in London, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan, Columbia University, New York, and the National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., among others. Previously, Lorcan worked at Kevin Roche/John Dinkeloo & Assoc. on the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at I.M. Pei and Partners on the celebrated Grande Louvre Museum in Paris, and as an associate at Steven Holl Architects, where he was responsible for several project, including the award-winning Hybrid Building in Seaside, Fla., which received a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects.
Marc Simmons, Front Inc., New York City
Marc Simmons, a founder of the New York-based façade-engineering and-design consultancy firm Front Inc., is a faculty member at the Princeton University School of Architecture and holds both a bachelor of environmental studies and professional BArch degrees from the University of Waterloo, Canada. His specialist façade knowledge and experience in custom curtainwall and hybrid cladding system design is built upon previous work at Foster and Partners, Meinhardt Façade Technology, and the structural glass and façade consulting group at Dewhurst Macfarlane & Partners in New York.
Voussoir Cloud by IwamotoScott with Buro Happold. Image courtesy IwamotoScott.
Lisa Iwamoto of IwamotoScott Architecture, San Francisco
Lisa Iwamoto received her MArch from Harvard University, and a BS in Structural Engineering from the University of Colorado. She has worked as a Structural Engineer at Bechtel Corporation, and Architectural Designer at Schwartz Silver Architects, Thompson and Rose, and Architectural Intern at Morphosis. She previously taught at the University of Michigan where she was a Muschenheim Fellow, and Harvard University. Currently she is an Assistant Professor at University of California Berkeley where her design research concentrates on the perceptual performance of material and digital fabrication techniques.
The AIA has compiled a list of opportunities and resources to help grow your business with projects funded by federal stimulus dollars and pro bono projects. Check the AIA site regularly for new RFPs and RFQs.
As the markets begin to thaw, now is the time to position your award-winning talents before the eyes of your clients, potential clients, colleagues, and public through the 2012 Inform Awards, which recognize outstanding work in landscape architecture, interior design, and object design. The program is open to anyone in the Inform magazine primary circulation area, including architects, interior designers, landscape architects, furniture designers, industrial designers, students, and faculty.
Entrants must have a business address in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, or North Carolina, and submitted work must have been completed after January 1, 2007. And for members of the Virginia Society AIA, there is a special entry-fee discount.
Award winners in both the Honor and Merit categories will be featured in a special section of Inform magazine and announced to the public. The registration deadline is March 9, 2012, and you can enter online or via email, fax, or mail using the PDF registration form.
The Inform Awards fee structure for 2012 is $135 per project for members of the Virginia Society AIA, and $175 per project for entrants who are not members of the Virginia Society AIA. Note that the fees are due upon registration, non-refundable, and non-transferable.
As a clarification, the Object Design category covers furniture, appliances, fixtures, and building components and systems, as opposed to full-building design. For more details, click on one of the registration links above.
Member Bill Brown, AIA, met with Del. David Bulova (D-Fairfax Station)
A new initiative to foster closer relationships between Society members and their elected state representatives shows promise for the future. Instead of providing campaign contributions to candidates via mail, VSAIA members hand delivered the organization’s 2011 donations.
Although some appeared uncertain about the task they were asked to accomplish, all provided positive feedback from the short — 10-15 minute — conversations with their delegate or senator.
None of the architects discussed legislation. They were asked to talk about the economy, their work, their elected official’s work, or fishing. The goal was to make a connection with the legislator on any level other than legislation.
These people are elected to represent their constituency. The better they know architects within that constituency, the better they can represent the profession. Bill Brown, AIA, with BeeryRio Architecture + Interiors, for example, met with Del. David Bulova (D-Fairfax) for at least the third time.
However, this was the first time he delivered a contribution for the profession. The other times he was speaking on legislative issues. Perhaps because of their previous meetings and that talk of legislation was forbidden, Brown and Bulova discovered a common interest: playing guitar.
Kelly Southard, AIA, of Gillum Architects in Orange took a VSAIA contribution to Del. Ed Scott (R-Culpeper). This was Southard’s first experience representing the profession. “Thank you for asking me to do this, it was a very pleasurable experience,” he wrote.
In all cases, the VSAIA members were asked to offer their expertise on the various issues that may come before the legislators in the future and to reiterate the breadth of an architect’s range of work including building codes, planning, land use, sustainability, historic preservation, and design.
So far, the VSAIA has provided $7,250 to candidates — eight Democrats and eight Republicans — running in this November’s election. Those in hotly contested races might receive more. All were on the House or Senate General Laws Committee or in leadership positions.
Anyone wishing to contribute to the VSAIA PAC may do so by sending a check to VSAIA PAC, 2501 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23220. The VSAIA suggests that each member contribute an amount equal to one billable hour and that each firm match that amount.
In addition to Brown and Southard, the members who participated in delivering the campaign contributions for the VSAIA included Bill Black, AIA, Jim Boyd, AIA, Jon Covington, AIA, Charles Enos, AIA, Lynden Garland, Jr., AIA, Keith Hayes, Assoc. AIA, Hunter Hurt, AIA, Wayne Mortimer, AIA, Charles Piper, AIA, David Puckett, AIA, Jeff Stodghill, AIA, Charles Tilley, AIA, and Kirk Train, FAIA.
As the markets begin to thaw, now is the time to position your award-winning talents before the eyes of your clients, potential clients, colleagues, and public through the 2012 Inform Awards, which recognize outstanding work in landscape architecture, interior design, and object design. The program is open to anyone in the Inform magazine primary circulation area, including architects, interior designers, landscape architects, furniture designers, industrial designers, students, and faculty.