We have been so busy over the last month we failed to post photos from our big party! Here is the press release and some photos from the event.
Gaines Group Architects moves firm headquarters to renovated historic Harrisonburg train station.
The Gaines Group, PLC, Architects is pleased to announce the relocation of its firm headquarters to the historic Chesapeake Western Railroad Depot in the heart of Harrisonburg, Virginia. This milestone marks multiple points of celebration for the firm. Over the last 37 years this business has grown from a one-person operation to a thriving two-location small architectural firm serving communities across four states including Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. In the last 15 years it has experienced a substantial increase in the number and average size of projects and has doubled the size of the firm. This year Raymond Gaines and Charles Hendricks were joined by Paul Tassell, Adrienne Stronge, Deborah Smith, and James Halstead as principals, thus increasing the businesses’ resilience. The firm is celebrating sixnewhires who bring a diverse set of talents to the organization. Providing architectural services for a project base that includes custom residential, multi-family residential, industrial, educational, commercial, renovation, child care, and more has allowed the firm to continue to grow in spite of the COVID pandemic.
Charles attributes the firm’s growth to its focus on design that creates a better future for all. He says, “Our focus is to find ways to build a stronger community for everyone. We do this through our projects, designing sustainable solutions into every project. We use design strategies that are durable, energy-efficient, and healthy that not only benefit our client, but the community as a whole. We also seek out organizations in our communities that we can partner with and support through volunteer efforts to further this goal. From our work on boards and commissions, to giving our time and skills, we want our legacy to be one of caring for others, the environment, and our collective future.“
We’ve had a lot to celebrate recently, from a ribbon cutting to graduations to many new people joining our team to a new arrival soon joining the family of one of our team members. This has given our offices chances to celebrate and get to know each other in this transition time of our company. Thank you to everyone who has celebrated these milestones and changes with us.
Below is a glimpse into some of these celebrations.
On Friday, June 2nd, we had a large party at the Chesapeake Western Depot that combined our ribbon cutting ceremony with our monthly First Friday celebration, this time featuring three artists (Veronica, Asha, and the Clymer & Kurtz band)!
Photos of speeches and the Clymer & Kurtz band by Tony DiStefano
At the ceremony, Deborah Smith, Mayor Deanna Reed, Charles Hendricks, Raymond Gaines, and Rockingham County Circuit Court Clerk Chaz Haywood spoke about the importance of community. It really was a community event, and we felt the love and support. Thank you to everyone who came out to join us in this celebration!
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Yesterday we celebrated our team members and their accomplishments: new family additions, graduation from three universities (UVA, JMU, and Liberty), and welcoming the hiring of six new staff members in the past year!
Team Lunch
Site visit to 5|Row Apartments, a project that Paul, Ray, and Adrienne are working on, to see up-close what the process looks like.
We are so excited for all of the additions to the team and perspectives and skills that they bring. There’s surely a lot to celebrate.
On #InternationalWomensDay we highlight the women of Gaines Group Architects! Adrienne, Deborah, Carla, Mariya, and Asha are all integral team members that bring diversity, skill, and knowledge to each and every project we work on in the office. We appreciate them every day, but especially today on International Women’s Day we take the opportunity to celebrate them and all of the knowledge and skills that they bring to Gaines Group and the community.
Adrienne is a partner in the Charlottesville office, leads our multi-family project division and is our go-to for ADA compliance questions. She balances being a mom, wife, and small business owner with taking care of our clients on some of biggest scope projects.
Deborah has one of the hardest tasks in the firm, she works directly with Charles. She is a partner in Harrisonburg and runs the Harrisonburg office. She has become the go-to for building code compliance questions in our office and is often the one that is tasked with “finishing” the projects that Charles starts. She is a dog mom, a business school graduate from EMU, and a active volunteer with the Harrisonburg Women’s Service League
Carla has been with the firm the longest of all the women in our team and does all the behind the scenes finance work, running the accounting department single handed. She is active in her church community and balances being a wife and mom to her two children.
Mariya is a new designer for our team and is learning our processes and standards. She works with Deborah and Adrienne on a variety of projects while balancing her volunteer efforts at her church.
Asha is our newest addition to the team joining us as our Harrisonburg office manager and marketing team leader. She recently graduated from EMU, is balancing between two part-time jobs, and spends her free time creating art and caring for her plants.
Hiring Architectural Associate / Design Professional
Attention Architects and Interior Designers, we are looking for community-focusedteam members to join our growing team. Gaines Group Architects, an award-winning design firm, continues to grow and we are looking for additional architectural graduates to add to our team. If you are just getting ready to graduate or 5+ years of experience and would enjoy a firm that is dedicated to design that builds stronger communities, please reach out to us. We have positions open in both Harrisonburg and Charlottesville.
The architectural designer position will serve to support the development of all types and styles of projects with a focus on healthy, energy-efficient, and durable design solutions. You will get experience in all phases of design as well as client relationship building. We collaborate on everything in our office and work as a team on all projects.
We are looking for someone dedicated to community service that loves all types and styles of architecture. We will help you along the way to learn and grow as a designer. A strong applicant will have a desire to understand building science and constructability of all project types.
We are more interested in finding the right addition to our team than in a particular skill set.
Send your resume and portfolio to Charles@thegainesgroup.com
Tasks you may do on a typical day:
Construction Documents
Rendering
Client meetings
Job site visits
Field Verification
Required Qualifications:
Architectural or Interior Design degree from an accredited university
Familiarity with AutoCAD, Revit, Adobe, and Sketch-up
Reliable, self-motivated, independent, adaptable, and versatile with an enthusiastic collaborative spirit.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), and Acrobat.
Excellent critical thinking skills with exacting attention to detail.
An ability to manage multiple priorities and diverse responsibilities.
Strong verbal, written, and visual communication skills.
Strong interpersonal skills.
Preferred Qualifications:
Knowledge of construction documents and the design and construction processes.
With 36 years of experience in Virginia, this award-winning architecture and interior design firm works hard to deliver excellent service at an affordable price. With offices in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg, Gaines Group Architects can serve design needs anywhere in Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, or North Carolina. Constantly looking for the best answer, we work tirelessly to stay on top of the latest trends and best practices in the construction industry. We believe strongly in being in service to our community and the right person for this position will share that passion.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: Based on Experience
Send your resume and portfolio to Charles@thegainesgroup.com
On The Road Collaborative students with Asha and Charles
The Gaines Group has had a long-standing partnership with On The Road Collaborative and we could not be more excited to be a part of it again this year! On the Road Collaborative (OTRC) is an organization that gives middle and high-school students educational and hands-on opportunities outside of school, and their commitment to the youth and community, both in the future and in the here and now, is inspiring.
Throughout the years, we have participated in many opportunities with students, including a class on architecture as a career option to Skyline middle-schoolers that was led by Deborah and Charles in 2016 and a sustainable farm house tour in partnership with Eric Beck with Beck Builders. This year, Deborah is teaching another class about architecture called Design Hive to middle-schoolers from Skyline Middle School.
In this class, they’ll be learning about what architecture is and how it affects our communities and day to day lives. They’ll also learn the process of becoming an architect and what an architect does by going through the design process and understanding the thoughts and decisions that go into designing a building.
This week, we hosted these students at the Depot, our office building. Here Charles gave a tour to talk about the rich history of the building that used to be a railroad station. He showed them the many items, sketches, and photos that we have preserved here, as well as details of structural preservation: sections of floor that are different colors, charred doorframes, and old windows without panes. The students enjoyed interacting with the window especially, as you can see below.
Looking through the old pane-less window. Touring the structure outside.
Deborah is also structuring the class so that in the second half of the session, students will get a taste of what a college architecture studio class might be like. Students will work to create a neighborhood of houses designed by them. This neighborhood project is based on a similar project that her studio worked on during her time at Virginia Tech. They’ll draw out plans of their houses and then make cardboard models to see the neighborhood in 3D. We can’t wait to see what they create!
Design is everywhere, and whether or not each participating student decides to go into an architectural or design field, we hope that the experience enriches their understanding of how design impacts their daily lives. Awareness of this can be applicable to any field, and we’re grateful to OTRC for giving us this opportunity to meet these bright students from the community and pass on some of this knowledge. Check out their website to see how you can get more involved with OTRC!
What do you want to be when you grow up? What a huge question that we ask students to answer at a point in their lives when they are just working on figuring out who they are at that moment.
Hosting high school students in our office has become a regular occurrence over the years. We believe that mentorship is not only a key component to the future of our industry, but simply put is the right thing to do. We want to help students figure out the right path to take before college, to answer the question What do you want to be when you grow up? Or at least what do you not want to be when you grow up. We have had students from a wide variety of high schools around the valley join us with some going on to architectural school and some finding out through their time in our office that architecture was not the right path for them. This year we hosted a student, Ryan, from Eastern Mennonite High School.(past job shadow blogs here, here,here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here)
Here is his story:
The question, ‘what do you plan to do after graduation?’ is really hard for a high school student to grasp as the scope of opportunities and jobs available to them is unknown. So for my junior year, I signed up for an internship at Gaines Group Architects. This is a 12-week internship (job shadow) where for about an hour and a half each day before heading to school I had a chance to be in their architectural office to see, hear, observe, and learn.
While most people would assume an architect’s job would be to design immediately on computers, Charles directed me through the thought process and the restrictions real life can play on a project. We looked online for a plot of land for sale and brainstormed our ‘client’ and their requirements. These things would play into my clients’ budget and restrictions on how I could design the house. For anything I wanted to design, I needed to justify value for the design decision.
I was given the goal of making a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1300 square foot house. This right off the bat was extremely difficult because a lot of the standard living sizes for several rooms would require more square feet than I was provided. Charles used this to help me realize that sometimes, customers might come in with unrealistic goals and it is our job to find the best compromise for them. This house is for a younger family with 2 kids so it needs to be large enough for the family but also big enough that they could resell it if/when they are ready to upgrade.
I learned several of the basic principles for designing a house from sketching to spending the first couple of weeks just designing and reiterating the house on paper. I learned how to draw different wall thicknesses and how to think reasonably space. By the end of the first month, I had completed a paper sketch of the house for my ‘client’ that was 1614 square ft.
I have always loved designing and creating new things with my hands or on online design programs, and drawing the house on paper was my favorite part of the process. The next step was for me to learn another design software, Trimble Sketchup.
Trimble Sketchup is an online CAD software that allowed me to design the entire home on my Chromebook. This process is what I spent the last 9-10 weeks of the internship working on. I learned, experimented, and then implemented new and different building techniques into the house. I was able to import furniture and utilities to create a complete 3D model of what the house might look like if it was built in real life.
