Ankie Barnes and Steve Vanze left their day jobs 30 years ago to form their own, eponymous architecture firm in Georgetown. They’re still in Georgetown today, with a studio of 21 architects and designers, and have expanded their leadership to include four new principals: Wayne Adams; Melanie Giordano; Ellen Hatton and Michael Patrick. As the firm celebrates three decades in business, we’re revisiting favorite projects our architects have designed since the beginning; you can see them on Instagram, tagged #BVA30. In the meantime, we’ve asked our principals about their impressions since ..read more

The Wall Street Journal turned to BVA Principal Steve Vanze last week for his take on the growing popularity of glass-enclosed garden and sun rooms, because the firm has done many of them for its luxury residential clients. “If you’re in an urban environment, it’s a way of capturing outdoor space and still not being in the middle of what could be an unpleasant city environment,” Steve told the paper. “And if you’re in a rural or suburban environment, it’s a way of reaching out from the house into nature and bringing the two together.” About 20 percent of our residential designs includes ..read more

Following a recent trip to Prague for the annual conference of the Leaders of Design Council, BVA co-founder Ankie Barnes reflected on the magic of this ancient city: “One contributing factor is this city has never really been either air-bombed or destroyed by house-to-house fighting, so there’s a mix of Medieval, Renaissance and 17th, 18th and 19th-century architecture that’s largely intact,” he says. “The best of these older buildings from many different eras were retained because their beauty was appreciated and treasured by all, even by Hitler. This diversity keeps it a notch above many ..read more

We at Barnes Vanze are congratulating BVA Principal Ellen Hatton, who just began a term as Committee Chair of the DC Custom Residential Architects Network (CRAN), a committee within the American Institute of Architects (AIA) that focuses on the custom residential practice. We asked Ellen what her new post entails, and about her work designing custom homes in general: How long have you been a CRAN member, and how many of you are out there in the tri-state area? CRAN is basically a peer group for architects who have a custom residential practice, where we can share ideas, gain knowledge, and net ..read more