DGS: The Department of General Services (DGS) won the top honors in Mid Atlantic Construction magazine’s Best of 2005 awards program. The renovation of the Patrick Henry Building (former Old State Library) was recognized as the 2005 Project of the Year by the category of adaptive reuse and as the overall project of the year across all 18 categories. The annual competition recognizes construction and design excellence in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Eastern Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. DGS James T. “Jim” Roberts, who was profiled in the Virginia Review (May/June 2005), was very pleased with the recognition. “With this historic building one of our challenges was converting floor areas and adjusting floor heights that were once ‘stack’ areas for books into offices. We wanted to preserve and restore what we could, provide much needed state office space, and create a beautiful building to enhance Virginia’s Capitol Square.” Built in 1939 as a Public Works Administration project, it was originally designed for the State Library and Supreme Court of Virginia. The $32 million renovation included replacing all the building systems, repairing the exterior masonry, installing new elevators, windows, and roof, waterproofing and installing fire systems, bathrooms, providing entrances and other features accessible to the disabled, and preserving and restoring the Old Supreme Court Chamber, entrance lobbies, and the Library’s former grand reading rooms. The oak walls in the lobby, 80 original light fixtures, the terrazzo lined floor, the granite on the walls in the entrance ways, and the American walnut inlaid with ebony in the Supreme Court room were all preserved and restored. Dedicated and renamed in June 2005, the building houses the Governor’s Office, Cabinet Secretaries, and the Departments of Planning and Budget and DGS. During the 2006 General Assembly, it will house the legislature while the Capitol undergoes restoration and renovation. For more information contact Susan S. Pollard, APR at (804) 786-0282 or www.DGS.
virginia.gov and click onto Major Construction Projects.

DUMFRIES: David Whitlow, formerly the Ashland Town Manager, and before that the King William County Administrator, has been named Dumfries Town Manager. He had been serving as interim town manager, and before that as a consultant with KW Poore. For more information call David Whitlow at (703) 221-3400.