Commonwealth Architects : Richmond Virginia Adaptive Reuse, Historic Preservation Urban Development

Commonwealth Architects maintains a staff of 50, including architects, designers, preservationists, and planners. We specialize in commercial and urban development, including new construction, historic structures, and appropriate new infill construction within historic districts. The focus of our practice is development, revitalization and rehabilitation. Commonwealth believes that adapting and re-using historic, urban architecture is not just good business, it creates good communities. We commit ourselves to the concept of community and strive to help maintain a built environment that both supports the needs of the present and can endure to become the treasured buildings of our children. We seek to bring people and vitality back to the city center, and by doing so, benefit the community with economically and environmentally sustainable solutions to development.

Since 1999, the firm has completed numerous adaptive reuse and rehabilitation projects, including the conversion of a long abandoned 1920’s car dealership into office and commercial space at 1840 West Broad Street in Richmond, and the rehabilitation and reuse of former hospitals, warehouses, department stores, and high schools into downtown residential spaces which remain in great demand. Common to each of these projects is our uncompromising dedication to rehabilitation guidelines and our creative design solutions which deliver modern living and working spaces that take advantage of the historic settings and never detract from the architectural character of the original structures.

We are proud to have been honored with national and local awards for preservation and historic architecture, but are more proud to have brought sensible development back to our community through rehabilitation and adaptive reuse. The legacy we seek to leave is one of responsibility and responsiveness.

Commonwealth Architects has a history of successful Historic Investment Tax Credit and New Market Tax Credit projects for developers, private owners, and institutional clients. We are proud to have saved millions of dollars for our clients on a wide variety of adaptive reuse projects across the state.