Christopher Newport Hall at Christopher Newport University, designed by Glavé & Holmes in a modern neo-classical style (Photo by Ashley Oaks-Clary)
Glavé & Holmes Architecture’s new coffee-table book, “Elevating the Human Spirit: The Architecture of Glavé & Holmes,” commemorates more than five decades of the firm’s transformational projects. The retrospective covers high-profile architectural projects from the Richmond-based firm’s vast portfolio, including The Valentine, the Fabergé and Russian Decorative Arts galleries at VMFA, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, and Richmond CenterStage.
“I wanted to do something to commemorate this historic milestone and honor the people who laid the foundation of the firm,” says H. Randolph “Randy” Holmes Jr., the current president and senior partner of Glavé & Holmes Architecture.
At the time Jim Glavé founded the firm, focusing on traditional architecture, the consensus was that he was taking a calculated risk against conventional wisdom. It was the mid-1960s, and architects and architecture schools were focused on modern architecture and statement buildings. Traditional architecture was considered passe.
“Jim was a visionary,” Holmes says. “He understood that there will always be a role for traditional architecture. That the public identifies and draws comfort from familiar, historical character design, and [he] focused the firm on traditional and, especially, classic design to fill that niche.”
Glavé, who died in 2005, challenged his associates to expand their proficiency in the language of classical architecture, as well as their understanding of its principles. “It’s not about copying traditional architecture,” Holmes says. “It’s about using the same vocabulary and putting it together in a new way.” Today, more than 60 architects serve the firm’s clients through seven studios.
“Elevating the Human Spirit: The Architecture of Glavé & Holmes” ($65) is available on amazon.com.