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Part of Glavé & Holmes' work on the Virginia Historical Society (Photo by Virginia Hamrick)
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The Weinstein Center at the University of Richmond (Photo by Virginia Hamrick)
Architects Jim Glavé and Bill Newman in 1965 flipped a coin on the sunporch of the Ellen Glasgow House at One West Main to choose whose name would go first for their new firm. Glavé won the toss. The two had left the firm of Marcellus Wright Jr., a rigid modernist uninterested in historic preservation, but who nonetheless maintained offices in the nearby 1815 Crozet House.
The distinctive results of the Glavé and Newman partnership and their successors are presented in an overview through Jan. 14 at The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design in “Glavé & Holmes: 50 Years of Design.”
In 1968, Glavé and Newman were joined by Samuel (Pete) Anderson, and the firm built a reputation for innovation in what is now called “adaptive reuse,” from 1975’s rehabilitation of the 1869 iron fronts on East Main Street to additions and renovations at the Virginia Historical Society in 1991, 2001 and 2006.
Glavé oversaw a 1977 renovation of The Valentine museum, but his open plan wasn’t fully realized until the firm returned in 2013-14. Glavé died in 2005, and the firm continued with Randy Holmes as president and owner. Glavé & Holmes’ work extends throughout the state and south to the 2007 Mississippi Museum of Art.
Also on view through Jan. 7 are concept prints, drawings and watercolors of architect and designer Carlton Abbott. His career, spanning more than half a century and 90 award-winning structures, embraces modern design but with actual pens on paper, not computers.
The stately Branch House itself is also worth experiencing — if Bruce Wayne had a place in Richmond, this would be it — designed for financier John Kerr Branch in 1918-19 by Washington, D.C., architect John Russell Pope. Pope’s vision simultaneously guided the realization of Broad Street Station (now the Science Museum of Virginia), and also D.C.’s Jefferson Memorial and the West Wing of the National Gallery of Art.
“Glavé & Holmes: 50 Years of Design.” at the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design will run until Jan. 14. Free ($5 suggested donation). 2501 Monument Ave. 804-644-3041, ext. 151, branchmuseum.org.
