Winter Newsletter 2022

Letter from the president

This newsletter is focused exclusively on your accomplishments! Celebrating our members is the best, and we’ve done a lot of it lately - from our our Chapter Honors + Design Awards in November to the Annual Meeting + Winter Social in December.

On behalf of AIA CV, I want to congratulate all the winners, and thank everyone who submitted projects and colleagues for recognition. Special thanks to the volunteers who help pull off our fantastic parties - the board, jury, honors committee, and Olivia - and everyone who joined us for the celebration!

It’s been great to see so many of you this year, and we’re excited for more in 2023.

We wish you and yours Happy Holidays and a joyful New Year!

- Shawn Mulligan, AIA NCARB

Design Awards

There are six categories in the Design Awards:  Architecture, Contextual Design, Historic Preservation, Interiors, Residential Design, and Students and Emerging Architects.  Within the six categories, submitted projects may be completed as well as envisioned or unbuilt projects.  This year, the jury selected five projects for recognition.

honor award - Architecture desigN

After Architecture LLC: Tangential Timber

Tangential Timber advances circular construction, customization, and democratization of technology by developing a structural application for carbonsequestering, non-linear wood, piloting methods for adapting designs to nonstandard material stock, and lowering the cost and data intensity of digital imaging techniques.

Non-linear wood is an underutilized material, available globally but limited in use due to the constraints of traditional sawmilling. Tangential Timber defines a methodology in which logs that are curved, irregular in cross section, or otherwise unfit for lumber, are cut into cross sections (‘cookies’ or ‘rounds’) can be deployed as structural units.

JURY COMMENT: An innovative approach to materiality - this project invites designers to see the possibilities in a material that has traditionally been considered waste.  The proposal is beautifully presented, from the clarity of technical assembly diagrams to photography that is tactile and immersive.  This kind of inventive approach to materials should inspire the design community to see infinite possibility in the imperfect.

honor award - Architecture desigN

vmdo architects: lubber run community center

Featuring net-zero energy design and a landscape-focused approach to the surrounding park, Lubber Run Community Center offers a holistic response to an urban challenge – ultimately creating public space that is greater and greener for residents. Located in Lubber Run Park, a precious natural resource in urban Arlington County, Virginia, the Lubber Run Community Center replaces a 1950’s-era community building on a tight 4.5-acre site that also includes new outdoor recreation spaces and amenities. Connection to nature and preservation of open space were essential to designing the new building, and as a result, parking and some programs are located underground to allow for increased outdoor amenities.

JURY COMMENT: This project knits beautifully into context, connecting the neighborhood, the street and the landscape. A smart massing strategy makes a large building feel appropriately sized for its surroundings.  Each building face transforms in a way that enhances connections between inside and outside, celebrating programs within and activating the surrounding public space.  

The quality of design in the section is particularly notable - bringing daylight into the heart of the building below grade, and using vegetated and playroofs to conceal a large parking lot.

honor award - residential desigN

TWO STREET STUDIO: 1125 COMMERCE

1125 Commerce Road is a collection of 139 low cost apartments situated within an existing historic warehouse. The project is 100% affordable housing and responsibly contributes to the revitalization of Richmond’s evolving Manchester neighborhood by offering a new and exceptionally rich space for community to grow within a familiar skin. While the existing warehouse’s square plan and extremely varied section complicated its conversion to apartments, a combination of low income housing and historic tax credits created unique economic viability.

JURY COMMENT: This is an exciting model of redemptive re-use, transforming an unused warehouse into a vibrant and humane affordable housing community.  The architects, through a series of economical yet impactful interventions, create open and light filled living spaces connected by internal streets.  This strategy, not only creates a replicable model for affordable housing and adaptive reuse, but also one that encourages the personality of those that live there to be expressed and celebrated.

honor award - CONTEXTUAL desigN

CUNNINGHAM QUILL ARCHITECTS: DAIRY MARKET

Cunningham | Quill Architects worked with Stony Point Development Group on a multi-phased redevelopment of the historic Monticello Dairy site, located in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Immediately adjacent to the “10th and Page” neighborhood, the goal of the project is to create an active space for community connection, recreation and revitalization.

JURY COMMENT: This project is particularly successful in its interior design approach - where the existing architecture is transformed into a lively space that celebrates its mission to serve the community.

honor award - STUDENT AND EMERGING ARCHITECTS

UVA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS: CIRCULAR CHROMATICS

As the scale and immediacy of the climate crisis becomes ever more apparent, so does the need to develop sustainable building systems that radically rethink the materials with which the built environment is constructed. This project, developed by 14 students over a single semester, shifts the emphasis of a traditional design-build course from program and client to material invention and experimental fabrication: a new research-build model. Students design and construct an experimental biomaterial pavilion piloting three novel building systems: a double layered woven bamboo wall with CNC-milled joinery and a bent greenwood canopy, both sourced from campus landscaping waste, and a façade of custom paper pulp shingles made with campus paper and wood waste.

JURY COMMENT: The jury commends the students that submitted work for consideration.  For this project, the collaborative nature of the studio and consideration given to larger questions of materiality, sourcing and lifespan was particularly notable.

Chapter Honors

The Chapter gives four awards that honor members and community partners: The Milton Grigg Award, Chapter Honors, Community Service, and Young Activist Award.

milton latour grigg award:

The Milton Latour Grigg Award is the highest award bestowed on a member architect, to honor a distinguished, sustained, body of accomplishments.  Award winner’s work spans the spectrum of the profession and transcends the scope of normal professional activities. 

w. douglas Gilpin, faia

AIA Central Virginia is delighted to recognize Doug’s lifelong achievements.  Doug has focused most of his career on historic preservation and restoration as well as finely detailed traditional architecture.   

Doug has served the AIA and his local communities in many impactful ways: as president of both the James River Chapter and the Central Virginia Chapter of the AIA, an active member of numerous design review boards - including Block Island, Rhode Island’s Historic District Commission, the Greenbrier Sporting Club Architectural Review Board, and as a design advisor for Bundoran Farm.  He also served on the Virginia Capital preservation Council, and as president of the Preservation Alliance of Virginia. In 1999, Doug was elevated to Fellow in the American Institute of Architects.

After studying architecture in University of Illinois and Unite Pedagogiqe No. 3 (formerly the Ecole des Beaux-Arts), Doug moved to Charlottesville where to interview with Milton Grigg and join his firm, Grigg, Wood, and Browne. Doug quickly advanced and remained with the firm until 2012, when he left Dalgliesh Gilpin Paxton Architects to become a sole proprietor working in Virginia, West Virginia and Block Island Rhode Island.

Throughout his career, Doug’s work spanned many different building types, from historic preservation of large estates and historic courthouses, to the adaptive re-use of historic buildings and finely detailed residential design. He has won numerous design awards and provided pro bono architectural services to many churches and nonprofits.

Many who worked directly with Doug at Dalgliesh Gilpin Paxton Architects, attest that Doug is a warm, friendly, and supportive team player with enormous aptitude as an architect. AIA Central Virginia is proud to award its highest honor - the Milton Grigg Award - to Doug Gilpin FAIA!

CHAPTER HONOR:

The Chapter Honor is given to members of the Central Virginia Chapter of the AIA who have distinguished themselves in design, practice, education, or in service to the profession or as a “citizen architect”.  This Honor can serve as an accolade for the work of an entire career, or as recognition of the current accomplishments of a younger leader.

PHOEBE CRISMAN, AIA

Phoebe is one of those rare people who achieve much by combining energy with purpose - intelligence with passion.  By day she teaches at the University of Virginia with a focus on the design of sustainable architecture and urbanism.  Her research and teaching extend to the international contexts in India, South Africa, and the Mediterranean, along with her leadership of UVA’s pan-university, interdisciplinary Global Studies program.

But her work is not just academic.  She represented UVA on the AIA Virginia and AIA Central Virginia Boards for a decade, serving on numerous committees and juries, including the current Inclusivity in the Profession Taskforce.  Through the years, her abiding focus has been to build a bridge between UVA and the architectural community, between the academy and the practice , all the while promoting a sustainable future.

Phoebe embodies the ideal of the “citizen architect” and we are honored to award her this year’s AIA Central Virginia Chapter Honor Award.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD:

The Community Service Award is the Chapter award honoring an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to the built environment or the public’s awareness of the built environment within Central Virginia. This year, there are two recipients:

Building Goodness Foundation

For over 20 years the Building Goodness Foundation has focused the resources of Central Virginia’s design and construction industry to reach communities in our region and across the world.  Relying on volunteers who bring their unique skills to work here and in developing countries like Guatemala and Haiti, BGF partners with local construction workers to support the local economies and build their skills and capabilities.  With international NGOs and domestic non-profit agencies, BGF has built schools, sanitation facilities, and health clinics to support their partners ability to do their great work.

Locally, BGF has created “C’Ville Builds”, a coalition of local builders, community members, community-serving organizations, donors, and volunteers who have come together to support a more healthy, equitable, and prosperous Charlottesville. Many of our members and our Emerging Professionals have volunteered on BGF projects over the years.  AIA Central Virginia is proud to have been a partner to BGF.

In recognition of the Building Goodness Foundations contributions to the built environment and its inspirational example of service, AIA Central Virginia proudly offers this Award for Community Service.

CARL SCHWARZ

Carl moved to Charlottesville in 2005 to attend the UVA School of Architecture. Since graduation, he’s become very active in the local community - first at BRW Architects where he was known as a hard worker with an interest in building science and producing clear, legible drawings, then at Powe Studio Architects, and now at his own firm, Carl Schwarz Architect PLLC.

Carl’s experience in AIA Virginia’s 2013 Emerging Leaders in Architecture class inspired him to become an Citizen Architect. He began volunteering in Pop-Up Park events, helping Dan and Liz build the experiential Thomas Jefferson’s bed, and has since served tirelessly for 7 years on the Charlottesville Board of Architecture Review, and he recently joined the Charlottesville Planning Commission.  Since 2016, he’s served as Chair of the Charlottesville Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, and is an active Chair of Volunteers at Red Shoe Charlottesville - a supporting nonprofit of the local Ronald McDonald house. 

Carl has a reputation for helping others.  When he’s not volunteering, or serving his community - Carl can often be seen cooking chili, serving refreshments in the Ting Pavilion, or lifting weights at ACC.  We are thrilled to recognize all the time and energy Carl Schwarz has contributed to our community - and are proud to present him with the Community Service Award.

young activist award:

The Young Activist Award honors an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to the built environment or the public’s awareness of the built environment within Central Virginia.

hayley owens, assoc. aiA

Hayley is an advocate for emerging professionals in the architecture industry. Through her work she strives to build bridges in diverse communities and create spaces where everyone feels welcome.

She is involved in many volunteer and leadership roles that improve the industry and her community - like her work with AIA Central Virginia Emerging Professionals and Blake Walker to design and document the interior renovation for Computers 4 Kids - a local non-profit mentorship program that helps local high school students develop STEAM skills - project is pictured here. She also organizes a local interfaith community action group called IMPACT, which uses the power of community organizing to advocate for solutions in Charlottesville and Albemarle on affordable housing, access to transit, and affordable childcare.

Last year, Hayley participated in the Emerging Leaders in Architecture (ELA) program where her class created a toolkit that community members could use to help them ensure an equitable future in historically Black and rapidly gentrifying communities - with a focus on affordable housing in Richmond’s Southside.

CONGRATS AGAIN TO ALL THE WINNERS!
Thanks to everyone who made it happen: the board, jury, honors committee, The Space Downtown, and Olivia! Very special thanks to everyone who came to the ceremony and made it a party (we see to you Paul Battaglia)!

Newly licensed + new members!

Congratulations newly licensed members!
Diana Fang, Mert Kansu, Katie MacDonald, and Hana Nguyenky

and Welcome NEW members!
John Trevor, Adrienne Strone, Mira Abdalla, Tyler Pitt, Thomas Wyatt, Nathaniel Fitzsimmons, Julia Kwolyk, Waqas Al Mulhim, Karen Gardia, Diana Fang

news and upcoming events

AIA Central Virginia

AIA CV Winter Social + Annual meeting was held on TUE DEC 13th at VMDO Architects in Charlottesville. It was wonderful for our members to come together, ring in the holidays, celebrate our successes in 2022, and raise a glass to a new year!

New Board, New Leaders!  TUE JAN 10, 12:00pm - 1:30pm. AIA Central Virginia’s new board will meet to set an agenda for the new year and welcome Board Members into their new roles: Jori Erdman AIA (AIA Virginia Board Representative, JMU Liaison) and Deborah Smith AIA (Valley Liaison).  
> More on the board here

Cville Revit User Group (RUG) presentation WED JAN 18, 12:30pm – 1:30pm. Roundtable Workshop: Ask the BIM Experts - 3D Modeling Strategies Series Part 1 - Coordination Between Disciplines. Together we will walk through the challenges we face when coordinating models from each discipline and discuss how we could improve this process. 
> Register here

AIA CV Scholarship Grant deadline is FEB 24th!  UVA architecture graduate students can apply to win a $2,000 scholarship! Winners will be announced in March. 
> Details and requirements here

AIA Virginia

New Leaders!  AIA Virginia’s Board selected Paul Battaglia AIA as new Executive Vice President! Paul replaces Corey Clayborne FAIA, and Interim EVP Helen Combs Drieling FAIA - and we are excited to see what he does next! 
> More here

Cultivating a Path to Fellowship, WED JAN 25, 12:00pm - 1:00pm, first in a four-part series. These sessions seek to elevate diversity in the College’s ranks by teaching young and mid-career architects to reverse engineer their path to Fellowship using the AIA’s Sample Application, a specialized outline, storytelling techniques, and writing basics to define and amplify their voices and accomplishments. 
> Register here

Safety-Assessment Program (SAP) Training, FRI FEB 24, 8:30am - 3:30pm - online. Post-disaster Safety-Assessment Program (SAP) training provides architects, engineers, and building inspectors with the knowledge to provide evaluations of facilities and buildings in the aftermath of a disaster. Earn 6.5 AIA LU | HSW.
> Register here

AIA National

AIA Leadership Summit ’23 FEB 14 - 16 in Washington DC. The AIA Leadership Summit (formerly Grassroots) is back in person after two years of virtual gatherings, bringing together AIA volunteer leaders, chapter executives, and chapter staff across regions, specialties, firm sizes, and career stages. This year’s theme—Architecture’s Generations at Work—focuses on building bridges to create a better world and a stronger profession, skills you can apply to every facet of your professional life.
> Register here

AIA National ’23 AIA National Conference on Architecture will be in San Francisco this June 07-10.  Tour the Bay Area’s most exciting architectural masterpieces, connect with colleagues and friends, and learn about new products and services at the Expo. 
> Tickets go on sale in early 2023!

YAF Connection AIA Young Architects Forum (YAF) has a new newsletter
> Check it out