2022: Year in Review
2022 was another year of milestones and measurable growth here at MV+A! As we look to the new year with a renewed optimism, we wanted to take time out to celebrate the accomplishments of our entire Team!
People
2022 was a particularly eventful year for the MV+A team. We welcomed two new Partners: Brian Szymanski and Neville Fernandes. Both Brian and Neville bring an impressive mix of planning, design, and deep, niche knowledge and experience to MV+A’s mutually informing areas of expertise—urban planning, architecture, and retail planning. Each has established a solid track record in cultivating and maintaining critical relationships—from clients, and fellow project team members, to the full range of affiliated project stakeholders. Their promotion to Principal is symbolic of MV+A’s vision for growing the firm and expanding opportunities for all of our staff.
Other promotions included Kyle Mincey to Senior Associate and Carole Twitmyer to Associate. Kyle recently celebrated 20-years with MV+A, over the course of which he has spearheaded many of the firm’s niche, grocery retail projects. Carole has been instrumental in advancing MV+A’s efforts within the ‘missing middle’ multifamily housing market.
Additionally, we added 11 new staff members to our team:
June Wong | Senior Project Architect
Kevin Wegner | Director of Marketing
Megan Johnson | Senior Architectural Designer
Rachel Jessup | Project Architect
Priyashi Galiawala | Architectural Designer
Tyler Kalagayan | Project Architect
Dan Gilheney | Senior Architectural Designer
Shalena Dupree | Architectural Designer
Prova Zaman-Haque | Project Architect
Matthew Walker | Architectural Project Administrator
Abbey Courtney | Project Manager
Practice
2022 was a year where MV+A saw some considerable increases in our geographic reach. To the north we are working on projects in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey. To the south, we are working on projects in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. To the West we are working on projects in California, Arizona, and Colorado. Of course, our presence across the mid-Atlantic remains strong with multiple projects here in the DMV and Pennsylvania.
Map: US States Where MV+A is Working or Has Completed Projects
As MV+A continues to grow as an organization, we have committed to expanding and renovating our DC office space in an effort to keep up with an evolving, hybrid workplace culture. The new space has been designed to optimize collaboration while providing a vibrant, and enjoyable environment for our entire staff with expanded conference, break-out, and other amenity spaces. Construction will begin on the new space next month.
Additionally, our new MV+A website is scheduled to soft-launch in December with the official launch scheduled for January. Beyond a host of cosmetic changes, the site has been designed to accommodate our increasing inventory of motion and video content with an emphasis on mobile-first design.
With our current inventory of active and recently completed projects, MV+A continues to evolve as an industry leader for complex, mixed-use projects, delivering ‘industry-first’ projects requiring the highest level of expertise for a diverse group of clients.
Projects
This year saw the completion of several noteworthy ‘signature’ projects for MV+A.
Liberty East
Our largest mixed-use, Class A commercial office building to date, located in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Commonly referred as Pittsburgh’s ‘second downtown’, the area has become the heart of Pittsburgh’s technology and university ecosystem as well as a center of culture and lifestyle. With a flagship Whole Foods Market anchoring the ground floor, Liberty East is well positioned as a market leader in the ongoing transformation of this unique community.
Faraday Park
As part of a larger transit-oriented development, Faraday Park offers an optimal balance of mixed-use, multifamily, and townhouses—all with a thoughtful mix of indoor and outdoor amenities spaces that foster community place-making. With a varying mix of surrounding building types, MV+A made every effort possible to plan a development that was sensitive to scale, materiality, and the creation of a pedestrian experience that would reinforce and promote walk-ability and a readily identifiable sense of place and community.
Pilot House
This Riverdale Park Station multifamily residential project has become a significant presence at the heart of this MV+A master planned development. At 500,000+ SF, the building massing has been painstakingly modulated and detailed to appropriately respond to the varying characters of the surrounding neighborhood streets. As part of a transit-oriented development, the streetscapes have been fashioned in the spirit of the surrounding ‘street car suburbs’ of Riverdale and College Park.
Whole Foods Markets
2022 also saw the completion of two new, exemplary Whole Foods Market projects. The first in Towson, MD, anchoring MV+A-designed The York, a student-focused, mixed-use residential project—completed in 2021. The second anchors our Liberty East mixed-use building in Pittsburgh. With three new projects currently in the works, our decades-long relationship with Whole Foods Market continues to inform our core experience as retail planning professionals.
Retail Highlights
While the lion’s share of our retail projects are a mix of large-format and inline storefront retail, we still have many clients who come to us with established properties in need of renovation or repositioning. Such retail projects completed in 2022 include Broaddale Village in Falls Church, VA and Kenwood Station in Bethesda, MD.
Other major retail projects currently in construction include Westbard in Bethesda, MD and White Oak Town Center in White Oak, MD.
Left: Broaddale Village in Falls Church, VA; Right: Kenwood Station in Bethesda, MD
Top Row: Westbard Center in Bethesda, MD; Bottom Row: White Oak Town Center
Next Up: 2023
As we head into 2023, MV+A has over 1,000 units in multifamily housing projects in or nearing the construction phase. Some of these projects include robust retail programs while others are strictly residential. Additionally, we have two major masterplans that have be approved for development, for which MV+A is currently in the design development stage.
The breadth and complexity of each of these projects speaks volumes to MV+A’s ability to effectively manage and consistently deliver high quality, mixed-use multifamily projects.
Clockwise from Upper Left: Broad + Washington in Falls Chruch, VA; The Elliott in Arlington, VA; Kennett Square Lofts in Kennett Square, PA; and McMillan Parcel 4 in Washington, DC.
Left: Mt. Vernon Gateway, Fairfax, VA; Right: Virginia Village in Leesburg, VA