A successful WV State Historic Preservation Office project that preserved the exterior painted surfaces of the Carnegie Hall In Lewisburg, WV.

Our consulting practice is growing beyond north central West Virginia; in the last month I and members of the staff have found ourselves in the central and southern parts of the state.  It is not uncommon to put 400 to 500 miles on the company vehicle is any one day.

The last two days I have spent time on the road.  The trip started in Lewisburg, WV; a quaint town some 180 miles from Morgantown voted the 2011 coolest town in America, working on Carnegie Hall.  The other stops on the return north included Camp Wood a CCC  historic site and the Pearl S, Buck Birthplace.  My overnight stop involved battling 30 mile an hour winds and a snow storm to get to a friend's condo on Snowshoe Mountain that we are developing a renovation plan for.  This morning I awoke to four inches of snow and a cold walk to inspect a restaurant project, the Sunset Cantina, with in the Snowshoe Mountain Village.

Some days I feel more like a road warrior rather than an architect but it is a great feeling to be the consultant of choice for so of the most significant properties in West Virginia.

We all have busy schedules; rushing to work, running to pick up the kids, trying to squeeze just one more thing into our crowded schedules.  We walk past the same buildings day in, day out, but how many of us take time to look up and appreciate the architecture that has shaped our lives?  This segment hopes to give you pause, make you look up and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.

What is it?
This is a picture of a capital, the top part of a pilaster which is a rectangular column.  This capital has Ionic ornamentation which you can see in the scrolls at the top (also called volutes).    The Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, popularized the Neo-Classical architectural style as Americans were looking back upon their history with pride.  The style also looks back onto the Greek and Roman influence of architecture with balance, symmetry and order as essential elements.  The Beaux Arts style is a French movement which roughly translates into “Fine Arts” that became popular following the Neo-Classical style.   The style incorporates additional classical detailing such as swags, cartouches, brackets, carved panels, ornamental keystones, and escutcheons. 

I must admit that as a ten year old boy I started my career as a "dumpster diver" at the lumber yard next door, where I pulled out expired product catalogs. I have convinced myself that this influenced me for life, provoking an interest in the objects that composed our built environment and developing a knack for reusing the left behind treasures of others.

Many architects shape their careers to focus of the creation of edifices that celebrate their personal thesis on architecture. My perspective is that we as architects have a social responsibility to be good stewards of the planet that we populate and the built environment we shelter within.

The existing built environment provides cultural footprints of the past-components that compose the structures form the artifacts. These artifacts represent craftsmanship and production efforts of their respective time periods and have preconceived end uses. In the society of today, many have the mentality that newer is better and the items of the past prohibit progress. Furthermore, the concepts of green design and sustainable practices are starting to permeate our culture and a social consciousness is developing.

I am a firm advocate that material reuse and adaptive reuse of the current building stock is the most sustainable incorporation an architect can practice. Construction waste management and recognition of embodied energy of the products produced are guiding principles of sustainable design.

(This is an article derived from a presentation given to a WVU School of Dentistry-Practice Management Seminar on May 22, 2009)

For many folks that do not know where to even begin with a building project it is first important to understand how to hire and work with an architect. What is an architect? By definition an architect:1) A person who is responsible for inventing or realizing a particular idea or project, 2) A person who is involved in the planning, designing, and oversight of a building's construction, 3) A person who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money. I would further and state the following defines an architect: 1) Professional and advocate that guides you through the design and construction process. 2) Licensed by the state to practice architecture having worked for a minimum of 3 years and having passed a series of exams thus allowing only licensed professionals having the ability to legally call themselves architects. 3) Specially educated and trained to provide clients designs for all aspects of the places in which people work and live. Above all as a licensed professional, an architect has the primary obligation to protect health, safety and welfare of the public.