Giving Back
VMDO’s Sidney Griffin at Junior Achievement, sharing with students how the role of architects impact their community.
One of the core values of VMDO is to share our success with the communities that we work in and organizations with which our individual team members are involved. We recognize that giving back is much more than writing a check; it is a contribution of our time, energy, talents and passion.
The following is a representative list of some of the charitable causes we’ve embraced. We’ve worked within the Charlottesville community since our founding in 1976. Many of our principals and associates are involved in local community organizations and churches. Our commitment to our home extends beyond individual service: as a firm, VMDO architects has committed to donating a minimum of one percent of our billable hours to community service. We have given of our time and resources to the following organizations and projects:
- The Salvation Army
- Building Goodness Foundation
- People Places of Charlottesville
- The Piedmont Family YMCA
Founding Principal, Bob Vickery, with his partners, David Oakland, Lawson Drinkard and Bob Moje (circa 1985).
Architecture for Education / Educating Architects
Thirty-five years ago, our founder, Robert Vickery, Department Chair at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, posed a question: could a professor of Architecture establish a firm that would tackle the issues taught in the academy in real-world settings? Could this firm establish itself as a going concern but also as a fertile incubator for young architectural talent? Could this practice engage the larger professional community in an on-going debate, introducing the latest ideas generated in the school? The answer was, resoundingly, yes. In a short time, Bob and three of his pupils from the graduating class of ’76 opened a modest office. A nearby independent school was the first non-residential client, and the young architects quickly developed a rapport with clients who were motivated by teaching.
Building on a Legacy: Investing in young Architects
Long before and well after founding VMDO, Bob was a teacher. He was notable for having taught 4,100 first-year students in his “Concepts in Architecture” course. For more than a generation of design students at UVa, Bob was the first professor they would encounter, and he challenged each of them by asking a profound rhetorical question: “What does it mean to make a mark upon the land?” For so many of us who later joined the practice, he inspired us to apply our concepts to actual built work.
Consequently, many of us who have been attracted to VMDO are also teachers. Whether we teach on an adjunct basis at the University, participate in the ongoing dialogue between theory and practice, or sit on end-of-year design reviews, we are motivated to give back something of ourselves to a place that so rigorously shaped us as students. In parallel, we are motivated by teaching opportunities here in the office: we recruit the very best of the graduating students and groom them as well-rounded young architects. More than an “intern development program,” we envelop interns in our teams and expose them to all facets of our work. Interns are informally coupled with one or more senior architects to coach, guide, encourage and mentor their careers. Countless young architects, returning to VMDO after exploring graduate schools or other firms in other cities tell us that they appreciated the caring, inclusive, family-like atmosphere that we have that contributes so much joy to our daily work.
