The Alexandria Beautification Commission honored residents, businesses, and organizations for their exceptional contributions to the beautification of the city of Alexandria through landscaping, architecture and sustainable design.
Commission member, Joseph Crowell, served as the evening’s emcee and announced the winners at the annual Beautification Awards ceremony at the Lyceum in Old Town Alexandria recently.
Mayor Justin Wilson remarked thatAlexandria continually ranks high on many lists as a top place to live and work, in large part due to community participation and the Commission’s beautification efforts.
Joan Honeyman, ASLA, owner of Jordan Honeyman Landscape Design and adjunct professor of Sustainable Landscape Design at George Washington University, delivered the keynote address, about the recent renovation of the Ramsay House garden at the Alexandria Visitors Center, one of the oldest buildings in historic Old Town, “into a more useable and more beautiful civic amenity.”
Holding true to the past and the future, the concept was two-fold: to respect the historic content of the space; and to create a functional, beautiful and resilient contemporary garden space for visitors and residents. Honeyman said, “It’s been determined that thoughtfully designed urban green spaces have the capacity to establish a sense of community that’s beautiful, safe, social and connected,” which ultimately results in community empowerment and ownership.
Awards were given in the categories of: Excellence in Architecture, Excellence inSustainable Design, Green Practices in Beautification, Residential Beautification, CommunityBeautification, and Commercial Beautification. A new award category, Excellence in Planning and Design, was added this year “for a large project that benefits the community as a whole by creating a more livable city.”
Commissioner Christina Mazurkevich, explained, “It was important for us to recognize the King Street Corridor Initiative for its tremendous impact on the city ofAlexandria. We decided that the beautiful transformation of the waterfront and the historic retail corridor was worthy of special merit.”
The Winners
See before and after photos of all the winners' projects here!
Excellence in Architecture:
- Ian McGrath and Churchill & Prior LLC for 1201 King Street (now Penny Post)
- Greg and Beverly Deweese, 1465 North Pegram Street, residential
- Malloy and Catherine McDaniel, 906 Beverley Drive, residential
Excellence in Sustainable Design
- Pulte Home Company Powhatan at Potomac Yard
- Joseph Tiang Yau Liu and Megan Glasheen, 23 West Cedar Avenue
Excellence in Planning and Design
- King Street Corridor Initiative
Green Practices in Beautification
- Energy House LLC Energy House #16 – 23 Sunset Drive
- Energy House LLC Energy House #14 - 1212 Oronoco Street
Community Beautification
- Ivy Hill Neighborhood and Taylor Run Citizen's Association Ivy Hill Neighborhood Parkette
- Founders Park Community Association The Grove Garden at Founders Park
Commercial Beautification
- fibre space 1319 Prince Street
- Del Ray Café 205 East Howell Avenue
- Place One Condominiums 5500 Holmes Run Parkway
Residential Beautification
- Carlos and Terri Chiriboga, 630 South Royal Street
- Megan Beyer, 801 Duke Street
- Fred Peterson, 916 North Columbus Street
- Whitney and Penelope Weber, 45 Underwood Place
- Aileen and Greg Pugh, 1104 Finley Lane
- Jerri Davis, 1601 Chapel Hill Drive
- Susan MacKay and James Schwartz, 22 West Mt. Ida Avenue
- Michelle Mrdeza, 812 Vassar Road
- Jack and Libby Good, 3417 Alabama Avenue