Va Tech WAAC Scholars Celebrated at ISTUDIO /  by Rick Schneider

What a pleasure to host the Virginia Tech WAAC Scholarship Recipients at our studio. Each year the WAAC Firm Advisory Board raises money to award scholarships to incoming students of Architecture and Planning. ISTUDIO’s three WAAC grads Sara AlKhatib, Ameya Kaulaskar, and Rick Schneider were on hand to recount their time at 1001 Prince Street and how it prepared them each for the path they’re on.

Event Theme: Italy, with Prosecco and Mediterranean bites reminiscent of our visit to Venice last Fall. The Biennale slideshow plays in the background…

Ameya Kaulaskar Joins ISTUDIO /  by Rick Schneider

Welcome Ameya Kaulaskar, the studio’s newest intern architect! Ameya just completed his MS Arch at Virginia Tech’s Washington Alexandria Architecture Center – with a concentration in urban design. He grew up in central India and earned a BArch from the University of Mumbai. This soccer player loves to watercolor and he is learning about the culinary delights of cooking with south Indian spices.

Powell Wins Gold in Brick in Architecture Awards! /  by Rick Schneider

New stair tower at rear draws inspiration from the form and function of the existing historic brick school building.

Powell Elementary School was awarded a Gold medal in the 2021 Brick in Architecture Awards. Hosted by the Brick Industry Association, the awards are the only national association to represent both manufacturers and distributors. Two different brick types were chosen to integrate the new with the old for this 90,000 sf addition/renovation. Brick details around the main entry inspired the design team to create the open-air stairwell made of brick.  

  • Precedent: Lattice brick used on historic 1929 building, provides security and privacy at bathrooms  

  • Solidity: Tower is along a public alley frequented by cars and trucks

  • Security: tower is away from the eyes of teachers, brick is secure; screening from  

The design team aimed to create a modern design that integrated seamlessly with the existing, 1959 addition but inspired by the terracotta-colored brick of the original 1929 building. 

  • Light: Lattice provides some openness for daylight  

  • Pattern: a better look for the neighborhood than a 3-story blank wall; enliven a utilitarian façade 

Fresh air is important for successful learning, so the open-air brick stair provides that air in between classes. Daylighting allows us to cut back on the energy cost of lighting an exterior stair. And the product is in harmony with the previous 1929 and 1959 wings, drawing inspiration from both.

For more see the BIA website here: 2021 Award Winners - K-12 Education (gobrick.com)

Arboretum Community Center wins two awards! /  by Rick Schneider

2021 Global Future Design Awards, 2nd Award for Institutional Architecture Concept

2021 Rethinking the Future Award, Public Building Concept

The CLT and Glu-lam structure is up at the Arboretum Recreation Center! It’s the first Mass Timber facility for the DC Department of Parks and Recreation and we’re pretty excited.
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Mass timber is just one of the ways we’re reducing embodied as well as operational carbon at Arboretum Rec. Building materials such as Cross-laminated Timber and Glu-lam can significantly reduce embodied carbon in buildings compared to emissions-intensive steel and concrete.

For more about Arboretum Community Center click here!

Principal Rick Schneider joins the AIA College of Fellows! /  by Rick Schneider

Amidst colleagues, friends and family, Principal Rick Schneider and the new fellows will walk the processional that signifies their entry into fellowship. The ceremony recognizes the Fellows for their significant contributions to architecture and society nationally, and for consistently achieving excellence in the profession.

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Rick has been practicing architecture for over 30 years. He founded ISTUDIO architects in 1999 on the principle of bringing sustainable and beautiful architecture to everyone. To this day, Rick honors this commitment in everything he does from building equitable spaces to passing on his knowledge and passions to the next generation of architects. Today we celebrate Rick's commitments to the architectural community as he enters the AIA College of Fellows.

AIA Fellows are recognized with the AIA’s highest membership honor for their exceptional work and contributions to architecture and society.

Architects who have made significant contributions to the profession and society and who exemplify architectural excellence can become a member of the AIA College of Fellows. Only 3 percent of the AIA members have this distinction.

ISTUDIO Wins Four Global Design Future Awards! /  by Rick Schneider

The Architectural Press Release’s, “Global Future Design Awards 2021 had Received 470+ Projects | 70+ Categories | 200+ Awards | 110+ Winners | 30+ Countries participated this year”

Schneider presents Climate Action Case Study with DC Preservation League /  by Rick Schneider

ISTUDIO Principal Rick Schneider presents the rehabilitation of the Powell Elementary School as a case study in climate action.

Anyone interested in how a 21st century modern addition emulates the “historic” pre-AC ventilation system of a 1929 neo-colonial building…. tune in for this presentation with the DC Preservation League!

Powell Elementary is a prime example of a 21st century urban school – combining old and new to create vibrant, green, and healthy learning environments. Innovative Net Zero Energy features like daylighting and (the city’s first) natural ventilation are complemented by smart site and stormwater management design. Green building and sustainable site design contributed to LEED-S Gold design. In 2014, President Obama chose Powell ES as the location to announce his FY2015 Education budget. The project has been presented as a case study in civic places and has won numerous awards for design excellence + sustainable design.

The DC Preservation League, founded in 1971 as “Don’t Tear It Down,” is a non-profit membership-supported organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing Washington’s historic buildings and open spaces for future generations. As Washington’s citywide preservation advocacy organization, DCPL identifies significant buildings and neighborhoods throughout the District, monitors threats to them, and increases public awareness of historic resources.

What: Stewardship for Climate Action: Optimizing the Heritage Conservation Continuum for DC (Program 3)

When: December 8 @ 9:00 am - 12:00 pm

Where: virtual - for more info use the link above

ISTUDIO's Kingman Island Wins World Design Awards 2021 /  by Rick Schneider

Winner of World Design Awards 2021: The Kingman Island Environmental Education Center was designed as a part of a competition to intertwine with adjacent ecosystems, mimicking natural flows and exhibiting their processes for children and adults alike. This education and research center for the DC Department of Parks and Recreation will make use of passive strategies for heating/cooling/ventilating and regenerate wetlands. These “constructed wetlands” work with a “Living Machine” to demonstrate habitat restoration and natural forms of wastewater treatment and garner LEED innovative credits.

For more about the award visit Kingman Island | ISTUDIO Architects | World Design Awards 2021 – The Architecture Community

Fairfax County Park Authority selects ISTUDIO Architects /  by Rick Schneider

We're excited to announce that ISTUDIO has been chosen by the Fairfax County Park Authority as their architect for upcoming recreation and parks projects.

The FCPA manages 420 parks on more than 23,000 acres of land with 325 miles of trails, 263 athletic fields, nine RECenters, 5 nature and visitor centers, and a working grist mill at Colvin Run.

We look forward to making the FCPA Vision a reality - to inspire a passion for parks, healthy lifestyles, and stewardship. 

ISTUDIO’s Tubman Elementary Wins World Design Awards 2021 /  by Rick Schneider

Winner of World Design Awards 2021: ISTUDIO has designed a unique space for the Tubman Elementary School. The project represents a pilot program by the Office of the State Superintendent for Education aimed at teaching children how to prepare healthy meals. Along the the way students learn where their food comes from. The architecture celebrates the cycles of life: the changing seasons, the path of the sun, and the way water flows. Accessibility is built into the project with ramps, raised garden beds, and open counters to show that education is intended for all.

For more about the award visit Tubman Elementary School | ISTUDIO Architects | World Design Awards 2021 – The Architecture Community

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PANEL: Shaping the City /  by Rick Schneider

We'll be in Venice for Shaping the City, hosted by the ECC during the Venice Biennale. ISTUDIO Principal Rick Schneider will be presenting case studies in design for climate change and resilient cities as part of the Climate Change adaptation and Resilient Cities Panel. The session will take place during the afternoon Friday 15th of October at 8:30am (EST). And don't worry, it will also be accessible via Youtube Live on the European Cultural Center Italy Channel!

Click Here to Learn More & Register Here

@ecc_italy @shapingthecityforum #ShapingtheCityForum #sustainablecities #veniceitaly #paneltalk #sustainabilitypanel #sustainablearchitecture

On View: Green City, Blue City, Old City, New City /  by istudio

Green City Blue City is a ISTUDIO x WAAC collaboration. ISTUDIO architects and designers met with Virginia Tech’s WAAC (Washington-Alexandria Architect Center) students weekly to create a design for making the National Mall more resilient. Much of the national core of DC was once water; there was a bay and canals that were all filled in to build our nation’s capital. With the sea level rising and the 100-year-flood looking more like the 1-year-flood, we have to act to preserve what we all know and love as America’s Front Lawn.

Defining the Capital City

Two rivers shape Washington, DC--the Potomac and the Anacostia. One district, two states, and six counties comprise the National Capital’s urbanized region, and they all border these waterways. The monuments and memorials that define the Capital city occupy the low-lying confluence of the rivers. So too do historic cities, major utilities, transportation infrastructure, and a sizable portion of the four million people who call the area home. The region faces unprecedented challenges related to climate change, including increased flooding due to rising sea levels, storm events, and myopic urban planning. The impact to people, property, and infrastructure is almost incalculable – but where there is a problem there is also potential.

To address these impacts will take more than design and planning – especially political will, cross-sector collaboration, and coalition-building. Architects and planners bring a unique approach to tackling the complex issues: design thinking. five projects in the region represent the range of possibilities within this framework. Individually they are case studies in resilient design, biophilic principles, and sustainable planning. Together they frame a vision for the Nation’s Capital that is resilient and sustainable, equitable and inclusive.

Reframing Resilience - Five projects in the Nation’s Capital

The cities of the future will be blue-green—recognizing that water is precious and that biodiversity is essential. All waters are not the same though. The different waters of this capital city telegraph our social and cultural values and biases: the Potomac, once the division of Union and Confederate states; the Anacostia, mistreated and marginalized in the economically disadvantaged east side of DC; the Tidal Basin, an engineering effort to fight the river’s nature, ringed by commemorative icons; the deceptive serenity of the Reflecting Pool, requiring constant energy and maintenance.

We need to reframe our relationship to the cycles of nature. Water connects these 5 projects, as they reshape the complex ecosystems at the rivers’ edges, 2 unbuilt proposals bracket the city on its west and east sides. Third Century Mall Vision Plan (unbuilt) asks what a civic landscape could be if our respect for the environment were given equal status as our national values and achievements on the National Mall… Kingman Island Environmental Education Center (unbuilt) asks what a civic landscape could be if local values and aspirations for a healthier city, public, and environment are the priorities, on the Anacostia anchoring the east end of the symbolic axis…

Reframing our relationship with each other, and with the elements of air, earth, sun, and water are three built works: Marvin Gaye Recreation Center + Trail—Named for its neighborhood native son, this building breathes… Powell Elementary School—An expansion and renovation, this build teaches… Tubman Elementary School—With extensive community input on the redesign of its courtyard, this building nourishes…

Drawing on historical maps, data visualization, diagrams, photographs, and renderings, this exhibit will show that these five projects together illustrate the technical, social, and cultural aspects of resilience, defined as the ability to rebound from shocks and stresses. Put more simply, these projects demonstrate the power of design to perform, nurture, and inspire.

This project is on display until November 2021 at ECC Venice Biennale - Time Space Existence

Partners: DGS (Department of General Services)

Sponsors: ATAS International, Inc., KI Furniture, SGH (Simpson Gumpertz & Heger)

Press Release: Schneider Elevated to College of Fellows /  by Rick Schneider

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ISTUDIO Architects is pleased to announce that founder and principal Rick Harlan Schneider has been elevated to the College of Fellows of The American Institute of Architects (AIA). The honor, given to a small group each year, recognizes his significant contributions to the profession of architecture and to society.


“Rick is the embodiment of practice transformation that includes a more holistic definition of design excellence and civic engagement.”
- Kira Gould, AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE)


A nationally recognized advocate, educator, and innovator, Rick leads communities to a more resilient future with bold work that emulates the regenerative cycles of nature. Following a simple credo of “Do, Teach, Celebrate” he demonstrates that architecture can provide tools for learning and occasions to enjoy the cycles of life. Built environments from Northern Virginia to West Africa echo nature with rain harvesting, teaching gardens, daylighting, and natural ventilation.


Rick inspires a generation of architecture and planning students from the internationally-renowned school of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech who go on to practice green. In programs with the National Building Museum and New York’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, he has engaged hundreds of secondary school students.


A pioneer of the movement toward sustainability, Rick builds capacity and mainstreams green design with the AIA COTE and the US Green Building Council. Rick developed a vision of Washington DC as a city of the future which was presented to the US Congress and featured through the History Channel and Washington Post. He embraces civic engagement to address climate change, efforts which have helped the nation’s capital go green. The Mayor of Washington DC honored his work in 2020 with a District Sustainability Award.


“…a model architect – a rare combination of committed practitioner, design talent, and leader within the profession, community, and the academy… a credit to our profession.”
- David Haresign, FAIA


ISTUDIO Architects is a mission-driven practice dedicated to creating artful, sustainable communities. Design shapes our cities and towns physically, culturally, and emotionally. For over 20 years, we at ISTUDIO have dedicated ourselves to the issues of design, architecture, and urbanism. We have collaborated with clients and communities around the globe to increase access to beautiful places and spaces — where we live, work, learn, play, and dream."

Welcome Kavya /  by Rick Schneider

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We’re growing! Introducing Kavya Veda Sarma - ISTUDIO team member Vivek Sarma's first child born on March 6th! Her name refers to poetry, literature, and the Hindu scriptures. She gets bigger by the day!

On the Boards: Van Ness Elementary School /  by Rick Schneider

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At Van Ness Elementary School the learning happens outside as well as inside.

Every square foot of this tight urban site was planned to provide inspirational places for learning. The vision for this LEED-S Gold school incorporates a new wing, rehabilitation of a historic field house, and a repurposed health care building. The master plan maintains the central oval green space – with planted stormwater rain gardens and places to play. Interior spaces are daylit and finished with healthy materials. One feature is the rooftop garden and classroom reached by a stair and canopy wrapped in copper-colored perforated metal.

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A new addition to this mid-century modern school is clad in metal and perforated to provide screening for an exterior stair to the roof. Exterior stairs like this promote activity and help connect students with the outdoors. An ADA accessible route via the elevator is paired with raised garden beds to provide equitable access for all.

The Rooftop Garden has ADA-accessible raised garden beds and a compost bin - an opportunity for students to learn where our food comes from. An Outdoor Classroom has a tool shed wrapped in white marker board to provide a teaching wall. A Canopy with copper rain chains and a rainwater storage bin is a built in demonstration of the cycle of water.

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On the Boards: Arboretum Recreation Center /  by Rick Schneider

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Stepped, planted patios integrate outdoor gathering spaces with artful storm water management.

A bronze perforated metal screen wall is a nod to the original mid century modern facility with the added bonus of controlling glare and heat gain.

Net Zero Energy strategies like daylighting, and natural ventilation create a comfortable interior environment with less energy demand on the rooftop solar array.

DC DPR’s first cross-laminated timber gym will help to achieve the mayor’s goal for a carbon-neutral and resilient city.

The original building with the folded plate roof was built under the Mission 66 program, a ten-year program by the US National Park Service that was intended to dramatically expand Park Service visitor services. It now serves the neighborhood as a DC DPR facility.

Notes from an Awards Juror on the AIA Framework /  by Rick Schneider

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The AIA is redefining what we refer to as great design in this age of climate action. With the Framework for Design Excellence design awards are not just a beauty contest. To be sure, it’s both a challenge and an opportunity: a challenge for architects to embrace the principles we’ve known since we were in school and an opportunity to tell the stories already embedded in our work.

I recently had the pleasure of discussing the topic with my friend Greg Mella, the OG in LEED platinum design, in a presentation for the AIA|DC. We recounted how we applied the ten Framework principles in a recent jury for the San Diego chapter AIA. Here are some of my own notes:

10 ways to win - The Framework principles cover a range of issues, not just sustainability but also design for resilience, economy, and equity. Not barriers, they are ten very clear directions for architects in design as well as in awards submission mode.

10 ways to learn – Each principle provides an opportunity to learn more about what we’re designing… how much energy does the building use? Site v. Source EUI? How well does it serve the occupants? Is it an efficient use of space? These questions become part of the feedback loop for a good design process.

The framework is not a new set of criteria for design excellence as much as it is a new way of looking at what still matters. Great architecture is still found in form + function, materiality, the use of light, and the artful ways we solve for program. Seen through this new lens they may become climatically responsive design, rapidly renewable resources, daylighting, and long life/loose fit.

The new framework is not easy, but then neither is design excellence in the practice of architecture. There is a reason we call it practice.

ISTUDIO Collaborates with Virginia Tech Students to Re-Imagine a More Sustainable D.C. /  by Rick Schneider

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In this age of climate action our studio is working with a team of students from the Virginia Tech Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center to re-imagine green space, blue infrastructure, living memorials, and the human ecosystem. 

Green City Blue City / Old City New City takes a holistic look at Washington D.C., the monumental city, and asks what we wish to memorialize in the next Century.  

Adapt. Mitigate. Regenerate. 

washington-alexandria architecture center · school of architecture + design · Virginia Tech (vt.edu) 

ISTUDIO Projects Win AIA Baltimore Excellence in Design Awards /  by Rick Schneider

ISTUDIO Architects is pleased to announce that three of it’s projects won the 2020 AIA Baltimore Excellence in Design Awards.

Powell Elementary School won Award for Excellence in Environmentally Sustainable Design; Tubman Elementary School won Award for Excellence in Design; and Marvin Gaye Recreation Center won Award for Excellence in Design, Honorable Mention.

Thank you AIA Baltimore and the Baltimore Architecture Foundation for these prestigious awards.

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In the jury’s words, “ It was quick to point out Powell Elementary’s design intention as a laboratory of learning. The building embodies progressive sustainability strategies and passes that knowledge on to the next generation.”

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In the jury’s words, “Tubman’s Good design provides a foundation for unforeseen added benefits … The result is more than the sum of its parts—architecture that inspires us to do, teach and celebrate.”

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In the jury’s words, “ Inspiring, progressive, and with expansive attitude towards resiliency.”