Author: John W

Riverside Baptist Church featured on WUSA9

Last Friday, WUSA9 ran a segment on the recently completed Riverside Baptist Church at The Wharf in Southwest DC. The segment captures a great deal of information in a short video.  Not only does it illustrate the character of the space and the attention to detail, it also talks to the history of the church and the development opportunity that led Riverside to a new building on its own site.   The video can be viewed here:  Riverside Baptist Church is renewed.   For several years before GBR was formally engaged in 2013, Riverside had been exploring options on how to best utilize their real estate assets to overcome mounting maintenance issues.  At that time, the church was poised to move forward with PN Hoffman with a Letter of Intent to redevelop their site and replace the building that had been their home since 1967.  While not an uncommon solution for an urban church...

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GBR Sketchers Club

It all started on a sunny day in October.  A weekly exercise led by Gabe Romero, the GBR Sketchers have been out sharpening their skills in seeing and communicating architecture through freehand sketching. While we all love to use the latest 3d software and gee-whiz techniques to illustrate and animate our design presentations, there is no replacement for putting an HB pencil to paper. (Ok, for some it’s putting an Apple Pencil to iPad, but the judges have ruled and determined that does not qualify as cheating).   Old Town Alexandria is full of great buildings and there are many opportunities within a short walk of the office for an afternoon sketch break – especially on pleasant Fall day. As of today though, we officially have a dedicated group. After the first snow and slush storm of the winter season, the sketchers went out and worked on their craft.  Well done!   The weekly...

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St. Aloysius Roof: The Wind and the Metal

Earlier this month, we were pleasantly surprised to see the roof replacement at St. Aloysius Church featured in Metal Architecture magazine (link to article). Naturally, the article focuses on the metalwork but there was much more to the project than the “double-locked, brush-rolled stainless steel roof panels”.   The need for the roof replacement was the result strong storms in early April 2017.  Heavy winds caused extensive damage in the DC area.  Twisted metal, scattered wood decking, and exposed trusses made for dramatic images of destruction at St Al’s that were featured on numerous local news outlets (WTOP Photos and  WUSA9 Video).   Based on GBR’s long relationship with Gonzaga College High School, we were brought in shortly after the winds subsided to begin work on designing the roof replacement. It quickly became apparent that additional structural repairs would be necessary.  The winds of the storm had taken hold of an improperly attached metal gutter and used...

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Mazel Tov to Milton!

The GBR team was thrilled to join the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School yesterday at the Ribbon-Cutting celebration for their newly renovated and expanded north campus in northwest DC. We have included some of our photos below. For more images, follow this link to the school's facebook post: Milton Ribbon Cutting Ceremony & Celebration. We particularly like the photos of students finding creative ways to use the space.[qodef_separator position="center"][vc_row][vc_column][qodef_image_gallery type="slider" autoplay="3" pretty_photo="no" navigation="yes" pagination="yes" images="4931,4938,4937,4936,4935,4934,4933,4932" image_size="large"][/vc_column][/vc_row]...

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