OnSite LLC Blacksburg and Paris, France Founded: France office: 2003. Roanoke architecture office, 2012. Architects Marie and Keith Zawistowski (from Paris and New Jersey, respectively) have taught together in Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design since 2008; they’ve studied, worked in, written about and received awards for rural design. They met while working together on an Auburn University Rural Studio student charity project, the Lucy House. The Zawistowskis believe that design can do some greater good. “We find that the overwhelming majority of the current generation is extremely interested in nontraditional paths and particularly interested in nonprofit service,” says Keith. The courses the couple teaches at Virginia Tech include Designing Practice. “The premise of the course is that there is no one way to practice architecture.” Creativity, they say, is the way to solve problems.
with each other,” says Chester. Adult children don’t live close to their parents in the way they did in previous generations, so “the church has become the extended family.” Other needs include solving navigation problems in a “maze of small disorganized corridors.” And churches are responding to cultural tendencies: “[They] have come to the realization that the younger generation is comfortable in a Starbucks,”
says Hughes, “learning in a distancebased format.” The request? A coffee shop in the building where parishioners can watch a service broadcast online from elsewhere in the building. As for residential — “gone are the days of the ‘McMansion.’ Clients have realized that they don’t need a larger house; the house they already own can be adapted to their needs.” University-area apartment build-
Hughes Associates Architects and Engineers Roanoke Founded: 1976 in Salem “Our office building represents our philosophy that creativity and ingenuity can help to transform buildings,” says architect Martha Chester, president of Hughes Associates. “It was a burned-out gas station with a former community grocery store attached to the back.” Hughes projects span health care, higher education, commercial and industrial. In 2012, the firm saw the highest percentage of billing increase in the area of religious structures. “Churches often want larger areas to meet and greet … sanctuaries that have a contemporary shape where they feel they connect visually
Interactive Design Group welcomes Corvesta, Inc. to its new facility.
Interactive Design Group 301 6th Street, SW, Roanoke, VA 24016 6 540.342.7534 www.idgarchitecture.com m ROANOKE BUSINESS
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