April 25, 2008
  A Toast to George Washington’s Distillery
Reconstruction honored by AIA Virginia, AIA Northern Virginia
George Washington's Distillery at Mount Vernon, Va., which opened in March, recently was honored for architectural excellence and historic preservation by AIA Virginia, AIA Northern Virginia, and Wood Design & Building magazine. George Washington’s Distillery is a $3 million reconstruction of Washington's original, 2,250-square-foot distillery, which was erected in 1797 two miles from his Mount Vernon, Va., estate that overlooks the Potomac River. The restoration team at Historic Mount Vernon, led by Washington, D.C.-based Quinn Evans Architects, used 18th-century distillery design and construction techniques and Colonial era wood and other materials to authentically reconstruct the distillery.

Historic Roanoke Building Restored and Green
State and City Building is the first to be LEED-certified in New River Valley
Built in 1905, the historic State and City Building in Roanoke, Va., is a key project in the city’s current downtown renaissance. Spectrum Design, with general contractor Breakell, Inc., spearheaded the project that paired sustainability with historic restoration.

Celebrating The Rock’s 75th
Skyscraper Museum offers a special program on May 8
Seventy-five years after the opening of Rockefeller Center and its 70-story RCA Building/30 Rockefeller Plaza, everyone loves the Rock in the middle of Gotham. It captured the first AIA Twenty-five Year Award in 1969 and last year was named one of the public’s 150 favorite buildings in the AIA’s “America’s Favorite Architecture” poll. (It is #56.) This gi-normous three-block, 15-building complex, now a beloved Big Apple icon, one of the first multisite mega-projects, did not always enjoy universal admiration and respect, even when it was merely a twinkle in John D. Rockefeller’s eye and a sketch on Raymond Hood et al’s drawing boards.

 

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Welcome to the Design Zone
Here is where you will find our weekly Project Watch, short vignettes on notable projects in this country and abroad. The Design Zone is also where you will find coverage of awards programs, including the national Honor Awards as well as state and local component awards.