Glavé & Holmes collaborated with Sweet Briar College to create a lively and comfortable space for students, faculty, and alumni to gather for both social and academic purposes. The design team created a classic and serene space with high performing finishes. Indoor/outdoor area rugs protect a seamless patchwork of old-and-reproduced historic wood flooring. Approximately one-third of the seating was salvaged and reupholstered from across campus to align with the college’s environmental values. The new furnishings are residential-feeling and were selected to feel cozy and residential. The design evokes a sense of an elevated “living room” where students can meet with classmates to study, enjoy an afternoon of visiting with friends or parents, or discuss an upcoming exam with a professor.
Category: Architecture
Allen Hall
Glavé & Holmes Architecture designed a new STEM academic building on Longwood University’s campus. The project established a gateway and east campus entry point. The multistory building complements the historic campus core and High Street buildings in the Palladian-Jeffersonian campus architectural style.
This structure serves as a multipurpose, adaptive building that provides approximately 43,000 square feet of academic space for student undergraduate programs. The building contains laboratories, faculty offices, various-sized classrooms, collaborative learning space, student research/inquiry space, the Center for Academic Faculty Enrichment, digital and distance learning facilities, other academic support spaces as well as a permanent home for Longwood’s Herbarium collection.
A prime function of the new building is the provision of Behavioral Studies Laboratories with accompanying vivarium, lab procedure spaces, and ancillary lab support. Two “dry lab” programs are served by the Exercise Physiology Laboratory, and a Kinesiology motion-capture studio. The project is targeted to achieve LEED Silver designation.
Liberty University School of Business
Liberty University desired a world-class, nationally recognized facility with a global reach for its new School of Business. The 78,000 sf building is located in the historic core precinct of campus and its exterior reflects and enhances the contextual, traditional character of its surrounding precinct. The building’s interior employs a contemporary aesthetic to express the School’s mission and vision for the program.
The School of Business emphasizes the connection between business and technology, showcases the integration of IT and business, and addresses the global economy. The new facility embraces technology to connect to the national business community. It advances trends for learning by including simulated work environments; spaces for collaborative, team-based learning and presentations; forward-thinking technology; spaces for interdisciplinary connectivity and entrepreneurship; a cyber security lab; and a data center.
Scott Shipp Hall Renovation and Addition
Scott Shipp Hall (c1918), is one of the core academic classroom buildings at the Virginia Military Institute. This facility, originally constructed in 1918 and expanded in 1955, serves the Institute’s academic programs in the Liberal Arts including the departments of English, International Studies, Economic/Business, Modern Languages, and History. With the Corp of Cadets growing at VMI, G&HA was commissioned to complete a rehabilitation and expansion of the facility, including renovation and rehabilitation of approximately 66,840-square-feet, and a five-story 28,000-square-foot addition. Work included a complete redesign of the 1955 wing while restoring much of the original 1918 character. The new addition is designed with a compatible Gothic Revival style to match the original structure and the overall character of VMI’s academic facilities.
The building includes five stories on a heavily sloping site and is located on a key corner of the main access road through the Post. Among the challenges in the project included developing a phasing plan to allow a portion of the building to remain operational for classes throughout the project construction. The compact site area also required careful design consideration to integrate the facility and create better accessibility for the facility, without impacting the adjacent Letcher Avenue or overwhelming surrounding facilities. The facility includes the addition of new classrooms, interactive learning spaces, faculty offices, a photo lab, and significant new space for Cadet study areas. A new Front Entry Terrace will serve as the review stand for Cadet leadership to review the daily parade of Cadets down Letcher Avenue. New technology has been integrated throughout the project to provide state-of-the-art learning spaces for the next generation of VMI Cadets.
Willow Oaks Country Club
Willow Oaks Country Club has existed on an idyllic plot of land in Richmond for the past 60 years. The architecture of the club echoed the different decades it had seen and needed a more cohesive aesthetic. Glavé & Holmes Architecture took on this task as well as other renovations to help reshape the Club’s member experience. Architectural work focused on renovating the Pro Shop envelope, providing a new covered walkway, and expanding the patio that overlooks the golf course and James River.
To help unify the Pro Shop and covered walkways, the design team mimicked existing club architecture and extended paving to provide a more formal entry. The patio expansion provides three times the dining area than previously existed and is covered with a pergola. Columns and retaining walls are faced with granite to pay homage to the club’s past as a granite quarry.
Glavé & Holmes also provided interior design services to refresh the Restaurants, Event Spaces, Public Corridors, Locker, and Restrooms in the Main Facility and Fitness Areas. The team provided a clean, transitional aesthetic while retaining a connection to the historic portion of the building. The designers provided a comprehensive interior finish package, decorative and service lighting, and a full furniture package to update the facility. Careful attention was focused on finish performance and furniture plan flexibility to accommodate a variety of Club activities for years to come.
Thomas School of Business
Glavé & Holmes Architecture designed a new School of Business for the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP). The 62,000 sf building supports teaching and research, community outreach and professional partnerships in an integrated, state-of-the-art facility. The building offers flexible spaces that promote interdisciplinary collaboration, student engagement, and community connections.
The design complements and strengthens the UNCP Master Plan and is targeted to achieve Net Zero certification. Glavé & Holmes, serving as design architect, partnered with SfL+a Architects who lead the design for sustainability and energy positive attributes of the building.
Carr’s Hill Rehabilitation
Designed by architect Stanford White and constructed in 1909, Carr’s Hill is home to the President of the University of Virginia and provides meeting and entertainment space for University events. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register, this signature historic property has been renovated for the first time. Glavé & Holmes, in collaboration with Associated Architects John G Waite Associates, prepared a feasibility study to provide programming and a site study for a new entertainment pavilion. The study included site analysis, massing studies and the development of a site plan. The team was subsequently awarded the full project to restore the exterior and interior of the historic house, as well as provide outdoor event space.
The renovation work was designed and executed to high preservation standards and in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. The landscape was also sensitively redesigned to support events in an unobtrusive way. The goal was to minimize permanent change to significant features of the buildings and site while making it more functional for modern use. Restoration design was also completed for the out-buildings located on the Carr’s Hill site.
Carr’s Hill was awarded first place for Historic Preservation at the IIDA Virginia & West Virginia Chapter/ASID IDEAS Awards, AIA Virginia’s Excellence in Design Historic Preservation Honor Award as well as the Historic Preservation Merit Award from AIA Richmond. This project is LEED Certified.
Sandy Hall Renovation
SANDY HALL, CONSTRUCTED IN 1924, is located adjacent to Virginia Tech’s Drillfield at the core of the University, and is one of the earliest buildings on campus. The 10,960-square-foot building previously served as temporary swing space for academic programs in transition, without any major renovation since its initial construction. Glavé & Holmes designed a matched pair of contextual additions for updated circulation as well as a total interior renovation of the original building. The renovated building provides critical program space for the School of Neuroscience, created in 2016, which now calls the building home. The School of Neuroscience, the first school of its kind in the United States, sought an interior environment that would stimulate casual but innovative interactions among students and faculty, facilitating spontaneous discovery of new ideas.
Robinson House Rehabilitation
THE VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS engaged Glavé & Holmes for the complete rehabilitation of the Robinson House, originally erected ca. 1820 as a family farmhouse. The structure was converted into the R.E. Lee Camp No. 1 before it became part of the VMFA in 1964. The museum’s goal was to restore the facility and adapt it for use as a regional visitor center. The Robinson House was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 and is one of the oldest buildings in the Boulevard Historic District of Richmond. The reimagined building houses the Richmond Region Tourism Center, VMFA’s Human Resources Division, and a first-floor gallery featuring an exhibition about the story of the site from the 17th century to the present.
The project has added 3,200 additional square feet to the original 7,600- square-foot structure. The addition complements the former home’s style and introduces an accessible entrance. The expansion houses an elevator, stairway, and three floors of glass-enclosed porches that connect to the original structure. Interior work included restoring the space to reflect historical accuracies. New mechanical and electrical systems are among other building updates.
Reids’s Row Renovation
REID’S ROW is one of the earliest examples of Italianate architecture in Richmond, Virginia. The three bow front townhouses are located at 219-223 Governor Street near Richmond’s Capitol Square. The property, constructed in 1853 and designed by James Morson as a rental property, is now largely vacant. Reid’s Row is the only remaining evidence of the residential neighborhood that once surrounded Capitol Square and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The buildings have received various upgrades and general refurbishment; however, they have deteriorated significantly since vacancy.
The Department of General Services hired G&HA for the renovation and adaptive reuse of Reid’s Row. G&HA began the process with a historic assessment, which will help guide the careful repairs and upgrades to the historic property. The three buildings have a total floor area of approximately 24,000 square feet, which is split over four stories. One challenge has been determining how to provide accessible circulation between each building. The design team is working to strategically insert a new circulation spine and tower that will provide an accessible route to each floor. The renovated facility will provide offices and various spaces for use by the state government.