press release

VMDO Architects Wins GoGreen Award From
the James River Green Building Council

JRGB Hosts First Annual Green Building Leadership Awards Luncheon

Charlottesville, VA — On Wednesday, November 30, at the University of Richmond Jepson Alumni Center, the James River Green Building Council (JRGBC) will host its first annual awards program to recognize a wide range of leadership contributions that encourage high-performance green building design, construction, and operation. VMDO Architects will be honored by the JRGBC with an inaugural GoGreen Design Honor Award for its design of a fine arts classroom building at Free Union Country School in Albemarle County. The GoGreen Design Awards are for projects that illustrate regional efforts to integrate environmental responsible design methods and materials into the built environment.

Keynote speakers for the JRGBC event are Austin Ligon, president and chief executive officer of CarMax, Inc., and James J.L. Stegmaier, Deputy County Administrator for Management Services of Chesterfield County. They will address the business and environmental case for building high performance green buildings.

In August 2003, VMDO Architects was selected from a pool of talented local architects as the winner of the Free Union Country School Design Competition. The contest sought designs from architects for the construction of a new two-story, 3000 square foot, fine arts classroom building. VMDO was chosen to design the new fine arts building for their ideas about landscape, educational programming, and sustainable architecture.

Free Union Country School’s vision is to have an inventive and innovative building that supports and extends its mission of providing progressive education utilizing small class sizes and experiential learning. The proposed design uses high-performance, environmentally sensitive techniques and materials to meet the school’s program needs. More importantly, the building acts as a tool for teaching the children about the natural systems at work on the site (topography/earth, sun/light, rain/water, wind/air).

The James River Green Building Council is one of the newest chapters of the U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org) and is working to promote LEED® products and resources through policy, educational, and marketing tools that support the adoption of sustainable buildings. The Chapter fosters strategic alliances with key industry and research organizations and state and local government agencies to transform the built environment.

High-performance building construction has begun gaining in popularity nationally and in Virginia. Hundreds of buildings are registered to become LEED certified, thousands of professionals have become LEED Accredited Professionals, dozens of states and jurisdictions across the country have committed to the LEED green builder system and increasing numbers of private corporations are building green. Virginia is the home of three green building councils in Northern Virginia, Richmond, and Roanoke.

“I believe green building is at a tipping point in Virginia and in the country,” said Karl Bren, JRGBC board member. “Our awards luncheon has drawn over 40 sponsors from a wide spectrum of public, private and non-profit sectors. Folks are beginning to understand that building green high performance buildings makes sense economically and environmentally. They are asking, “Why wouldn’t we design and build our buildings in ways that save money, give us better indoor air quality, last longer and have less impact on the environment?” he said.

For more information about the James River Green Building Council, visit www.jrgbc.org.

For more information about VMDO Architects and Free Union Country Day School, please contact William Bishop at 434-296-5684 or bishop@vmdo.com or visit www.vmdo.com.

VMDO Architects was founded in 1976 and is youngest firm to receive the T. David Fitz-Gibbon Virginia Architecture Award, the most prestigious honor given by the Virginia Society of American Institute of Architects.