Susan Manch, Board Chair of the Waterford Foundation, will provide an overview of the historic town of Waterford, VA, a National Historic Landmark to give context prior to exploring three of the historic structures. She will then discuss the historic and restoration efforts that are ongoing at the John Wesley Church and Old School House. Following this, Susan Reed, Director of Historic Preservation with Glave & Holmes Architecture, will lead a tour of the historic Waterford Mill and discuss the history of the Mill and its relationship to the town, examine basic concepts of milling technology, explore historic masonry and timber construction, and demonstrate the kinds of deterioration associated with equipment vibration and moisture infiltration found in historic mill environments and how they were addressed during the restoration.
Tour Timeline:
9:45 – Gather at Waterford School
10:00 – Introduction to Waterford Foundation (Jim S/Sue Manch)
10:15 – Walk to Schoolhouse – Visit Inside
10:45 – Walk to Mill – Tour of Mill
11:30 – Tour/Discussion about John Wesley Church and Ongoing Work
12:15 – Return to Waterford School for light lunch and refreshments
1:30 – Event concludes
Presenter Bios:
Sue Manch is the Waterford Foundation’s Former Board President. Sue lives in the Ephraim Schooley House in Waterford. Sue has been a thought leader in the legal talent development field for over 30 years and is currently the principal of Legal Talent Strategies, a consulting firm that supports law firms with talent strategies. She sits on the Waterford Foundation Education Committee, the Waterford Foundation Homes Tours Committee, the Waterford 2033 Committee, and the Waterford Citizens Association Beautification Committee.
Susan Reed, AIA, NCARB is the Director of Historic Preservation at Glave Holmes. As a historic preservation architect, Susan brings a wealth of experience to projects in historic settings. She is skilled in restoration and rehabilitation design, designing compatible additions to historic structures, creating new designs for historic contexts, and navigating State and Federal Historic Tax Credits, Historic Structure Reports, and Conditions Assessments. Susan has worked on various project types including theatres, museums, academic buildings, warehouses, historic residences, commercial buildings, churches, rural farm buildings, government buildings, and even an offshore lighthouse
Join AIAVA COTE and USGBC for our 2026 building tour series! We wish to celebrate exciting and innovative sustainable building design around the Commonwealth. Each month we will focus on a project in one of the five AIA Virginia component areas that has achieved LEED or other sustainable certification. Tours will provide AIA and USGBC CEU’s for participants.
Join us on May 21 for a tour of The Data and Decision Sciences Building at Virginia Tech is a 120,000 SF, four-story academic facility that opened in 2023 to support interdisciplinary collaboration in data analytics and decision sciences. Located on the campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, the building brings together students and faculty from the College of Engineering, the College of Science, and the Pamplin College of Business. Its Collegiate Gothic exterior clad in Hokie Stone reflects the university’s architectural traditions, while the interior features a vibrant multilevel atrium, advanced data visualization classrooms, a trading lab, and more than 30 team rooms designed for collaborative learning.
The tour will highlight key sustainability strategies integrated into the project, including a 33% reduction in whole-building energy use, 35% reduction in indoor water use, and participation in demand-response programs. Additional highlights include high-performance indoor air quality strategies, responsible material sourcing and transparency, 87% construction waste diversion, and biophilic design elements that support occupant wellbeing and connection to nature.
1 AIA LU | HSW
1 GBCI LEED Specific BD+C and LEED Green Associate CE
Visit the island of Tangier, Virginia with AIA Virginia’s Historic Resources Committee to learn about the community’s long history and insights about its built environment. Lincoln Lewis, Climate Equity Doctoral Fellow with the University of Virginia’s Equity Center where he works on the Coastlines and People (CoPe) project for Virginia’s Eastern Shore, will be leading the tour. As part of HALS, he documented the Tangier Island Watermen Working Landscape.
Tangier is a unique island community that is experiencing dynamic environmental change in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Storms, erosion, and subsidence have reduced the low-lying island’s area by more than two-thirds since 1850. The community of about 300 residents have found ways to prosper and have adapted their own form of vernacular architecture to suit the environment. Participants of the day trip will ride a round-trip ferry to the island from either Reedville (Virginia), Onancock (Virginia), or Crisfield (Maryland). While coming into Mail Boat Harbor participants will see the vernacular crab houses and then have an opportunity to eat lunch at a local restaurant. A 30-minute golf cart tour will provide an overview of the island and participants will see the historic Swain Memorial Methodist Church along with other vernacular buildings. Free time will be available for participants to visit the Tangier Island Museum and Interpretive Cultural Center along with other sites.
Schedule:
10:00 – Depart from Ferries (Reedville, VA, Onancock, VA)
11:30 – Arrive at Tangier’s Thomas main dock
11:35 – 12:05pm Golfcart Tour (30-minute) 12:10 – 1:10 Lunch (1-hour) 1:10-1:30 Walk together to Swain Memorial Methodist Church, continue walking together to the museum (meet the Mayor)
1:30-2:15 Free time (talk more with Mayor, go into museum [$3 entry], visit gift shops, or wander around; museum is about 7 minutes walk back to docks)
2:15 – Depart Tangier for Reedville
(departure is 3:30 for Onancock, VA)
Costs
AIA Virginia tour fee of $15 (AIA member) or $30 (non-member)
Ferry roundtrip $35 (each person needs to confirm and pay the ferry company themselves depending on which port they are traveling from)
Golf cart 30-minute tour $10 (each person pays the tour provider individually, CASH is preferred)
Lunch on your own at Lorraine’s Seafood Restaurant
Ferry Links (MAKE YOUR RESERVATION IN ADVANCED. FERRIES CAN SELL OUT)
The Virginia Center for Architecture is pleased to offer an architectural pilgrimage to Columbus, Indiana. Called the “epicenter for brilliant innovation in architecture,” Columbus boasts more than 70 significant buildings and public artworks designed by a veritable “who’s who” of architectural superstars. Although based in Columbus, the tour will also branch out to explore the architectural treasures of Indianapolis and Cincinnati.
Developed by architecture writer and VCA board member Sally Brown, the tour will be guided by expert Tony Costello, FAIA. Destination Architecture :: Columbus Explored takes place over Columbus Day weekend, from Thursday, Oct. 6–Monday, Oct. 10, 2011. The tour includes accommodations, reception on Thursday, a boxed lunch and dinner on Friday, coach transport, and all entrance fees. Air travel and shuttle service is not included. The cost (based on double-occupancy) is $895. Download the registration form here.
Itinerary
Thursday, October 6
Enjoy a Welcome Reception at the boutique Hotel Indigo and meet Tony Costello, FAIA.
Friday, October 7 The tour kicks off with an exclusive guided tour of the J. Irwin Miller House featuring the work of architect and designer Eero Saarinen, interior designer Alexander Girard, and landscape architect Dan Kiley.
After a boxed lunch, the tour continues with the project that really got the ball rolling in Columbus— the1942 First Christian Church by Eilel Saarinen — followed by other notable projects, including:
First Baptist Church by Harry Weese
Irwin Union Bank by Eero Saarinen, with landscape by Dan Kiley; and the addition by Kevin Roche
Mabel McDowell School by John Carl Warnecke
North Christian Church by Eero Saarinen
Cleo Rogers Memorial Library by I. M. Pei
Columbus East High School by Romaldo Giurgola
Commons Centre and Mall by César Pelli
Otter Creek Golf Course by Harry Weese
Fire Station #4 by Robert Venturi
The evening wraps up with a dinner at the award-winning Smith’s Row Food & Spirits and a lively talk by Tony Costello.
Saturday, October 8
Head to Indianapolis for a whirlwind exploration of the highlights of the city’s urban renewal triumphs. Tour Michael Graves’ Indianapolis Art Center and the NCAA Hall of Champions, then see and the Thompson Consumer Electronics Building (now St. Vincent Health).
Enjoy some free time for lunch, then tour Edward Larrabee Barnes’ Christian Theological Seminary, see the College Life Insurance Buildings by Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo, and explore the Canal and White River State Park —America’s only urban state park. There you’ll also see the Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial, created by artists Eric Fulford and Ann Reed of ROAMworks.
Return to Columbus for dinner on your own, followed by another engaging evening talk with Tony.
Sunday, October 9
Hit the road to Cincinnati to explore the University of Cincinnati’s campus by Hargraves and Associates. Afterward, see buildings by Frank Gehry; Richard Meier; I.M. Pei; Peter Eisenman; Michael Graves, Gwathmey, Siegel and Associates; Morphosis and Moore Ruble Yudell . Following lunch on your own, see Zaha Hadid’s Aronoff Contemporary Art Museum, a nearby pavilion by César Pelli, and Daniel Liepskind’s condo building, Ascent at Roebling’s Bridge.
That evening, Tony wraps up the tour with another spirited talk.
Monday, October 10
Depart
About Your Guide
Anthony J. “Tony” Costello, FAIA Irving Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Architecture, Ball State University, and principal at Costello + Associates in Muncie, Indiana
Tony has been involved with various educational and professional activities in support of the internationally-acclaimed design heritage of the Columbus community for two decades. He has been the presenter for a number of Columbus Area Visitors Center’s tour guide training sessions, focusing on the buildings and their architects from the 1960’s and ‘70s. For his efforts the center awarded him the center’s Unforgettable Partner Award in 2008.
Since 2007, he has been deeply involved with helping to expand the public and professional education programs offered by the Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives (CIAA), especially as they relate to partnerships with the American Institute of Architects and AIA Indiana. His successful nomination brought the CIAA the 2010 Walter Blackburn Award from AIA Indiana. In 2010, he was responsible for bringing George Miller, FAIA, Immediate Past-President of the AIA, to Columbus to initiate the Institute’s Town Talk Program and present an AIA Presidential Citation to the citizens of Columbus.
In 2008, he facilitated a one-day charrette sponsored by the Miller Family and Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana that resulted in the J. Irwin and Xenia Miller Residence and Gardens being donated by the family to the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Tony earned a B.Arch degree with honors in 1966 from The Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. The previous year (1965), he was awarded a B.Arch degree from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. He graduated in 1967 from Columbia University, New York, with M.S. Arch (Urban Design) degree. After teaching for ten years at Ball State, he completed a year of post-graduate work in planning law and public policy at Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, while on a Lilly Endowment Open Faculty Fellowship.
