This tour offers a unique opportunity to witness the full spectrum of designing and constructing new buildings in a neighborhood undergoing redevelopment. You will explore two distinct phases of this process: the recently completed Bonsai Apartments and 1200 Bladensburg Road, NE, currently under construction. These projects together contribute significantly to shaping a vibrant and cohesive urban environment.

The Bonsai is a new 41-unit multifamily apartment residences, composed of four floors plus cellar and setback penthouse, located at 1214 Bladensburg Road, NE. The building is designed with clear horizontal and vertical lines, creating a subtle grid and subdivision of the façade allowing a direct dialogue between the interior spaces and the exterior streetscape. The limited palette of artfully composed materials used allows the eye to navigate through the façade in a seamless manner, focusing on the careful composition of the elevation. The upper floors sit on a brick plinth, giving the building a physical and theoretical attachment to the urban streetscape. Nature is omnipresent, from the street planters to the green roofs to Juliet balconies, allowing each resident to have their own connection to nature.

1200 Bladensburg Road, NE – designed by Kurv Architecture – will be a 4-story building with a penthouse that mirrors the scale and ambition of its neighboring project, The Bonsai. The ground floor will host a spacious retail area designed to enhance the local commerce scene. The upper floors are dedicated to residential units, offering a blend of modern living spaces with optimal layouts. The U-shaped design of the building is not just an aesthetic choice; it’s a strategic one. This form allows for maximum daylight penetration, ensuring bright and airy interiors. It also optimizes the organization of units, providing a balanced mix of privacy and community.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the overall process of creating a new building, from its conception to its construction.
• Understand the differences between types of constructions (concrete vs wood) and their respective challenges.
• Understand how a building impacts its environment and vice-versa.
• Understand how sustainability can be part of a project, at various scales and how it can be implemented in their home.

Presented by:

Antoine Laduron - Staff Designer II, Bonstra | Haresign ARCHITECTS

John Edwards, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP BD+C - Associate Partner, Bonstra | Haresign ARCHITECTS

Walk along the beautiful waterfront of one of DC's most up and coming areas, The Wharf, as you explore restaurants designed by local firm //3877. With a vast knowledge of the area and a keen eye for detail, the architecture and design team will guide the exploration of four recently completed food & beverage projects: Limani, Lucky Buns at The Wharf, ilili, MI VIDA, The Grill, and Easy Company. Displaying stunning and unique designs, each of the four restaurants are inspired by a different cuisine, providing unique insight into design’s relationship with a variety of menus and operations.

Kicking off near The Wharf’s Transit Pier, THE GRILL—an upscale American eatery boasts a mid-century modern theme inspired by Miami living. Around the corner, Easy Company is a French- and Italian-inspired wine bar with al fresco dining with a design inspired by bustling European plazas. The tour will then move to MI VIDA, a fresh perspective on modern, south-of-the-border dining. The restaurant embraces colorful design elements the brand has become known for, particularly the traditional Mexican Árbol de La Vida, or “Tree of Life.” Next, attendees will visit ilili, a stunning Lebanese restaurant housed in a glass box building. The restaurant features a large limestone fountain that first flowed in Provence, France, in the late 19th century, bird cages suspended from the ceiling, and pops of bright orange and turmeric. Further south along Wharf Street SW, Lucky Buns— created by chef and Food Network personality Alex McCoy—showcases a classic neighborhood bar and burger restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating. Last on the tour, Limani’s striking exterior architecture greets visitors with a design that transforms a distinct existing building on the pier into an upscale restaurant with panoramic views inspired by Mediterranean cuisine.

Approximately 0.4 miles each way, please be prepared to walk 1 mile through the duration of the tour.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore and evaluate the unique design strategies employed by //3877 in the creation of four distinct food and beverage establishments, understanding how these strategies contribute to the functionality of food service.
• Learn how cultural influences and themes are integrated into the design of each restaurant, from the European-inspired wine bar at Easy Company to the vibrant, south-of-the-border cuisine at MI VIDA, gaining insights into how cultural storytelling enhances the overall dining experience.
• Study the adaptive reuse of existing structures, particularly at Limani, to understand the challenges and benefits of transforming pre-existing buildings into modern, upscale dining venues with unique architectural identities.
• Discuss the design considerations for blending indoor and outdoor spaces, as demonstrated at Lucky Buns and Easy Company, to create versatile and seamless restaurant environments.

Presented by:

David Shove-Brown, AIA, NCARB, Partner at //3877

David Tracz, AIA, LEED AP, Partner at //3877

This course will take the participant on a directional color journey showcasing stimulating imagery, evidence-based findings and a focus on Health, Safety and Welfare requirements that are found throughout the main design drivers and color, material and finish directions for 2025.

We will explore the macro trends influencing future color directions that include global, technological, historic, psychological and sustainability factors that have insight over the four-color trend stories for 2025; Chrysalis, Paradox, Wellspring and Kindred.

This program will focus on commercial design and aim to give you information and inspiration for current or future design projects. 

Learning Objectives: 

• To gain knowledge and insight into the influences for residential color trends for 2025.
• To gain knowledge and insight into the cultural, environmental and designer influences for color and design trends in 2025/2026.
• To gain inspiration for current and future design projects.
• To gain knowledge of how color plays a role in a variety of interior environments.

Presented By: 

Amanda Lowery 

Amanda Lowery provides coating specification and color support for Sherwin Williams in the DC, MD, and Northern VA areas. She has been with Sherwin Williams for 13 years and has worked with specifiers for the last 11 years. Amanda services commercial A&D markets with product specifications, color development and support, and continuing education presentations. She has degrees in Interior Design and Political Science. Amanda has the following certifications: Fitwel Ambassador, LEED Green Associate, WELL AP, CDT-- and is passionate in learning how to improve the built environment both for the environment and those working and living in such spaces.

On October 22nd, Deans and representatives from five regional architecture schools will unite to explore 'The Future of Education' in a pivotal discussion. This event will focus on evolving pedagogical approaches, emerging trends, and the role of architecture education in shaping future architects. Attendees will gain insights into how educational practices can adapt to meet the demands of an ever-changing profession and foster innovation in architectural training.  

Learning Objectives:

• Identify how academia is adapting to a quickly evolving changing technological landscape.
• Identify current and impending challenges and opportunities that academia is facing.
• Compare and analyze the pedagogical approaches of various schools of architecture.
• Use the ten-year plans to plan for their own strategic planning needs.

On October 8th, students from five regional architecture schools will gather to present their innovative projects themed 'The Future of Washington DC.' This event will highlight forward-thinking designs and solutions aimed at reshaping the city’s urban landscape, offering a glimpse into how emerging architects envision the capital’s future.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the built environment challenges that currently affect Washington DC, and will likely affect Washington DC in the future.
• Compare and contrast varied design solutions to similar Architectural and Urban issues affecting Washington DC.
• Discuss pressing climate change issues and explore creative resilient design solutions.
• Analyze proposed innovations in architectural design and detailing, urban design and planning, and land use.

Please join us for a historic building tour of the beautiful Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

Come celebrate as Woolly Mammoth approaches a milestone of nearly 20 years in their building, as well as Woolly's 45th Anniversary Season. Learn about the history of the Woolly building, and how it grew as the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Along with Woolly Mammoth, we celebrate these milestones and look forward to the bright future ahead!

Speakers include:

Mark McInturff, FAIA, McInturff Architects- Mark McInturff founded McInturff Architects in 1986.  The five-person Bethesda based studio is dedicated to the making of modern, highly crafted residential, commercial, and small institutional projects. The size, intentionally kept small, allows for close interaction within the studio and with clients and builders.

While all the work can be characterized as modern, there is no single style. Instead, the aesthetic of each project is tailored to its specific program, location, and client.

The firm has received more than 400 design awards, and has been frequently published locally, nationally, and internationally. The fourth monograph, HomeWork: McInturff Architects, was published in 2023 by the Images Publishing Group.

Howard Shalwitz co-founded Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC in 1980 and guided the company as Artistic Director for 38 seasons.  Under his leadership, Woolly Mammoth grew from a tiny alternative theatre into one of the nation's most influential producers of provocative new plays.  He has directed and performed in works by American and international playwrights – at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Arena Stage, Portland Center Stage, Milwaukee Rep, Woolly Mammoth, and other US theaters.  In 2014 he received the prestigious Margo Jones Award for his lifetime commitment to new American plays.  Over the past decade, partnering with CITD, Shalwitz has sought new models for American theatre by engaging with artists in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Russia, and sharing his insights with the US theatre field. Currently he is heading up CITD’s Linkages: Poland project, building new relationships between Polish and American theatre leaders.  He teaches in the graduate theatre program at the University of Maryland and is currently working on a book about the language of theatre. 

Maria Manuela Goyanes (she/her)- is the Artistic Director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Prior to joining Woolly, she served as the Director of Producing and Artistic Planning at The Public Theater, where she oversaw the day-to-day execution of a full slate of plays and musicals at the Public’s five-theater venue at Astor Place and the Delacorte Theater for Shakespeare in the Park. Earlier in her career at The Public, she managed some of the theater’s most celebrated productions, including Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Josephine & I by Cush Jumbo, Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee, Barbecue by Robert O’Hara, and Here Lies Love by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. While at The Public, Maria also held a position on the adjunct faculty of Juilliard and curated the junior year curriculum of the Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU. She has guest lectured at Bard College, Barnard College, Brown University, Columbia University, Juilliard, the National Theater Institute at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, UCSD, the University of Texas-Austin, and Yale University, among others. Since 2015, Maria has also served as a member of the board of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. From 2006 to 2008, she co-chaired the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab with Jason Grote, and from 2004 to 2012, Maria was the Executive Producer of 13P, one of her proudest achievements. Maria is a first-generation Latinx- American, born to parents who emigrated from the Dominican Republic and Spain. She was raised in Jamaica, Queens, and has a collection of hoop earrings to prove it. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in 2001 from Brown University.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss how the Woolly Mammoth Theatre utilizes the design of the building it resides in to promote cultural, progressive, and artistic programs in the local community.
• Gain in-depth knowledge on the design process and choices made when creating an open concept theatre known as a "transparent theatrical laboratory", that is focused on artistic programming and community engagement.
• Identify how to encourage community engagement through the design process, such as increased accessibility and a variety of space types (such as a workshop room and theatre) to increase occupant comfort while maximizing capacity.
• Explore the advantages of designing a community-focused space with an emphasis on health, safety, and well-being,

Organized by:

The District Architecture Center in partnership with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

The Tony Award®-winning Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company creates badass theatre that highlights the stunning, challenging, and tremendous complexity of our world. For over 40 years, Woolly has maintained a high standard of artistic rigor while simultaneously daring to take risks, innovate, and push beyond perceived boundaries. One of the few remaining theatres in the country to maintain a company of artists, Woolly serves an essential research and development role within the American theatre. Plays premiered here have gone on to productions at hundreds of theatres all over the world and have had lasting impacts on the field. Currently co-led by Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes and Managing Director Kimberly E. Douglas, Woolly is located in Washington, DC, equidistant from the Capitol and the White House. This unique location influences Woolly’s investment in actively working towards an equitable, participatory, and creative democracy.  

Woolly Mammoth stands upon occupied, unceded territory: the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank whose descendants belong to the Piscataway peoples. Furthermore, the foundation of this city, and most of the original buildings in Washington, DC, were funded by the sale of enslaved people of African descent and built by their hands.  

Being a brilliant architect rarely translates into having a successful business. With all the years of education and training to make us experts in our profession, the skills needed to have a successful business were conveniently overlooked. This session will fill the void and provide you with the business management highlights that every firm needs to apply to achieve their full potential.

In this session, we will learn the fundamentals of all successful AE firms and provide the basis for making well-grounded business decisions. We will learn how firms can transition from being professionals providing services, to highly tuned businesses that can identify the needs of the marketplace and create services and products that are appropriately priced and yield consistent and greater profits.

Rather than seeking out new projects that merely build upon your current skills, you will start from a business-thinking mindset, where processes that are critical to building a thriving firm are examined and constituted in your firm. We will explore the importance of data within an architecture firm and demonstrate how careful collection and interpretation can lead your firm into more exciting and profitable territory.

Join us for an engaging event presented by Steven Burns, FAIA, Founder of The Well-Designed Firm, as he shares lessons learned over 35 years working with over 1,400 architecture firms.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify why a “business-thinking” mindset is of utmost importance for service professionals
• Explain best practices for implementing a metrics-oriented leadership system
• Summarize how data-based performance management drives smarter business decisions
• Analyze how profitability drives growth rather than being merely a result

Presented By:

Steve Burns, FAIA
As a distinguished thought leader, Steve blends his passion for design and firm management with profound insights into emerging technologies. Over the past 2 decades, working directly with over 1,400 firm owners, Steve has significantly contributed to reshaping these businesses for enhanced growth and sustainability.

Steve's career highlights include a 7-year tenure at SOM Chicago, founding BBA Architects in 1993 and growing it to 17 architects before its 2007 sale, and creating ArchiOffice, a groundbreaking project management software company acquired by BQE Software in 2010.

Recognized for his significant impact on the profession, in 2009 Steve was elevated to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. Currently, as Founder of The Well-Designed Firm, he focuses on leading AE firms to operational excellence, mentoring leaders to craft businesses as elegant and innovative as the architecture they create.

Organized By: 

BQE Software
 

All are welcome to join the Fellows Public Program Committee and the Emerging Architects Committee for a sunset Happy Hour at Fox Architects rooftop terrace in the West End. Catch up on what both committees have been doing, mingle with current DC Fellows and Emerging Architects and offer good luck to this year's Fellow nominees (they will have just wrapped up their final submissions for the 2025 jury). Happy hour fare and beer and wine will be provided as we all enjoy a fall sunset in DC!

Please enter through the lobby at 1255 23rd St, NW. In the case of inclement weather, we will meet at Fox Architects at 1240 22nd Street (around the corner)

Evolving our future in an uncertain world: design, technology, practices, examples, and reflections~

We are overwhelmed and even paralyzed with bad news: human conflict, climate change, ecosystems degradation and more. Exploring design in this new and evolving world, we will examine leading edge environmentally innovative institutional, commercial, residential, and master-planning projects designed by Maclay Architects and other firms. We will dive into key practices, technologies, innovations, performance and evaluation methodologies and impacts, outlining new directions for the future. Since 1971, Bill has focused his work on renewably powered, ecologically focused healthy buildings, and educated others through lectures, courses and writing articles and a book: The New Net Zero. Ecological design is his focus and passion. Please join us for this groundbreaking discussion!

The Robert and Kay Lautman Lecture is a new annual program to honor two strong proponents of the Washington Architectural Foundation’s work. This program brings nationally and internationally renowned figures in the fields of architecture and art to lecture on the intersection between architecture, design, and art. We believe this special annual lecture will have the added benefit of highlighting WAF’s work in the community.

Robert Lautman was a renowned architectural photographer who served on WAF’s board. His wife Kay was well known in DC’s philanthropic community.

Presented by:

Bill Maclay, FAIA, LEED AP, Maclay Architects- As principal and founder of Maclay Architects, Bill Maclay is a nationally recognized innovator and leader in ecological, regenerative and Net Zero design. Since his first solar project in 1971, Bill has been at the forefront of designing innovative projects that serve as replicable and cost-effective models for the future. He is a passionate practitioner, author, speaker, teacher, and advocate for a nurturing future, offering transformative thinking to his clients, other professionals, and the public at large. Bill’s book, “The New Net Zero” is recognized as a leading resource on Net Zero building design and construction. It offers a renewably powered vision for the planet with concrete strategies and technologies for implementation. His and Maclay Architects’ work demonstrates that Net Zero and carbon reducing practices are feasible, essential, and cash flow positive to implement at every scale. In all of these endeavors, Bill brings passion, commitment, and expertise to nurture a thriving planet and future in collaboration with others. 

Learning Objectives:

• Identify case studies of projects that have incorporated leading edge sustainable innovations into their design, and the positive effects of these innovations on the environment.
• Illustrate new design practices, technologies, innovations, and performance and evaluation methodologies that can be utilized to reduce climate change.
• Explain and examine how to make sustainable design choices while addressing affordability and consumers interested in energy efficiency and long-term savings.
• Describe the various considerations when designing an eco-friendly building, such as air, water, and vapor barriers; embodied energy; residential and commercial net-zero standards; monitoring and commissioning; insulation options; costs; and more.

Organized by the Washington Architectural Foundation