News

November 18, 2008

RMJM Hillier Wins Preservation Awards

RMJM Hillier’s Preservation Studio has received four prestigious awards for its preservation work on two national historic landmarks, Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home in Washington, DC, and Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Capitol in Richmond, VA.

The AIA Richmond Chapter Honor Award and the 2008 Award for Excellence in Architecture from the AIA Virginia Society are the 12th and 13th awards the firm has received for its work on the 1785 Virginia Capitol. This $105-million project also received a 2008 Palladio Award from Traditional Building magazine. In addition to restoring the interior and exterior of the building, RMJM Hillier also designed a new 27,000-sq.ft. extension to serve as a public entrance, exhibition and visitor center.

For its work on Lincoln’s Cottage, RMJM Hillier, along and the construction manager, The Christman Company, and The National Trust for Historic Preservation, received Washington, DC’s Mayor’s 2008 Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation. In addition, Mid-Atlantic Construction magazine cited RMJM Hillier and The Christman Company for the Lincoln Cottage project, naming it the Restoration Project of the Year. The work included an exterior and interior restoration and modernization of the building and the transformation of an adjacent building into the Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center.

“We are enormously proud to receive these awards,” said Dr. George C. Skarmeas, AIA, AICP, founding principal of RMJM Hillier’s Preservation Architecture Studio. “Both of these landmark historic structures are central to our country’s history. They have been faithfully restored to standards set by the Secretary of the Interior for rehabilitating national historic landmark buildings. The restorations will allow for greater appreciation of these landmarks by improving the experience for visitors. Building on the greatness of our past, we can reconnect to our history.”