Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Oversize architectural drawings remain unprocessed and unavailable to researchers. A preliminary inventory of the drawings is included in Series 4 of the finding aid.

Use Restrictions

Consult repository for information.

Preferred Citation

G. Truman Ward Collection, MSS 06-108, Virginia Room, Fairfax County Public Library

Acquisition Information

Donated by the Ward family, September 2020.

Processing Information

Chris Barbuschak, April 2021
EAD generated by Ross Landis, 2023

Historical and Biographical Information

George Truman Ward (b. July 27, 1927) and Charles Ellis Hall Jr. (b. August 29, 1931) started practicing together under the name Ward & Hall Architects in 1964, and went on to become one of Northern Virginia’s largest and most established architectural firms. Spanning a fifty-year career, their dynamic work in the region includes scores of buildings consisting of churches, schools, office buildings, corporate headquarters, banks, university campus buildings, housing developments, high-rise offices and apartments, gas stations, fire stations, shopping centers, and municipal and federal government buildings. Not only did their innovative and ambitious designs specifically have an impact on the built environment of Fairfax County, but the entire Mid-Atlantic Region.

Throughout their fifty-year history, Ward & Hall moved their offices around from several locations, but always remained in Fairfax County. The firm was one of the longest running architectural firms to have practiced in Fairfax County from 1964-2014. They initially opened their offices at 6417 Brandon Avenue in Springfield, Virginia. After the completion of their 15-story Springfield Tower at 6320 Augusta Drive in 1972, they moved their offices to Suite 1000 of that building. In 1983, they relocated to 12011 Lee Jackson Memorial Highway, Suite 300, in an office building their firm designed adjacent to Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Virginia. The firm’s last location was in Suite 125 at 14900 Conference Center Drive in Chantilly, Virginia.

Both men studied architecture and graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech); Ward in 1951, and Hall in 1954. Ward was born in Washington, D.C. and attended Petworth Elementary School. After graduating from Roosevelt High School in 1945, Ward was accepted at VPI, attended a quarter, but was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1946 serving as a parachutist in Japan. After his discharge in 1947, Ward returned to VPI on the G.I. Bill and transferred from his initial engineering studies to architecture.

G.T. Ward was elected chairman of the architecture speaker’s committee during his senior year at VPI. As chairman, Ward, already showing initiative and innovation as a young student, wrote to Frank Lloyd Wright in January 1951, inviting him to give a lecture on the campus. After negotiating with Ward, Wright agreed to travel from his Arizona home for $1,000. On May 10, 1951, Ward welcomed the 82-year old architect and his wife Olgivanna, at Roanoke Airport before Wright gave a 90-minute lecture before a crowd of 1,000 in the auditorium at Burruss Hall.

While at Tech, Ward worked as an architectural draftsman for Charles A. Pearson in Radford, and later briefly for Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern from 1951-1952. Ward went on to be an associate with Joseph Saunders and Associates in Alexandria from 1952-1957, where he worked with fellow associates William F. Vosbeck Jr., R. Randall Vosbeck, and Charles Ellis Hall Jr. William Vosbeck and G.T. Ward were the two associates responsible for the final design of the Willow Lawn Shopping Center in Richmond, Virginia which opened in 1956. In 1957, William Vosbeck left the firm and opened an office at 610 Madison Street in Alexandria, Virginia. Ward joined him that same year and the two practiced under the firm name Vosbeck & Ward Architects. Shortly thereafter, R. Randall Vosbeck joined the firm, followed by Charles Hall, and the firm became Vosbeck-Ward & Associates.

From 1957-1964, Vosbeck-Ward & Associates designed mostly churches in the Washington metropolitan region. The firm’s mid-century modern addition to the Georgia Avenue Baptist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland has been designated an historic site on the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Preservation and it is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. They also designed high-rise office buildings, administration buildings for Fairfax County Public Schools and the Fairfax County Police Department (1961), the headquarters for the Association for Childhood Education International (1961), and the Master Plan for the Fairfax County Governmental Center (1963).

By 1963, Vosbeck-Ward & Associates had grown to include 20 employees necessitating the relocation of their small offices to Alexandria’s historic Lloyd House which furthered their potential to expand. In late 1963, the four principals made the decision to amicably split into two separate firms, a somewhat easy separation as the Vosbeck brothers and G.T. Ward and Charles Hall had been working as two separate studios within the firm. In early 1964, the Vosbeck brothers formed Vosbeck-Vosbeck and Associates and continued to occupy the Lloyd House office. The firm, later renamed VVKR Partnership, went on to have a very successful career until Suter+Suter phased it out in 1988.

G.T. Ward and Charles Hall formed Ward & Hall Architects, and relocated their office to 6417 Brandon Avenue in Springfield, Virginia. From the beginning of their partnership in 1964, Ward & Hall specialized in designing churches, office buildings, schools, and corporate headquarters. One of Ward & Hall’s very first designs was the Columbia Pike Office Building in Baileys Crossroads, located at 5600 Columbia Pike. Upon its completion in late 1965, it held the honor of being Fairfax County’s tallest office building. Prior to its construction, the maximum height limit for buildings allowed in Fairfax County was five stories. After the county enacted commercial office high-rise zoning provisions, the Columbia Pike Office Building became Fairfax County’s first high-rise office building built to exceed five stories.

In addition to tall office-buildings, Ward & Hall designed tall apartment buildings in the 1960s, including the 15-story Mayfair Towers apartment building at 5375 Duke Street, Alexandria, Virginia (1967). In 1964, Ward & Hall drew plans for a 31-story high rise apartment building to be built in Portsmouth, Virginia on the Elizabeth River waterfront. According to the architects the complex was to be “the tallest building planned for the Commonwealth and probably the tallest on the East Coast between Atlanta and Baltimore,” however, the building was never completed.

Ward & Hall initially embraced Modernism in their designs. This is evidenced in many of their buildings built during the 1960s including: The Providence Building, 6521 Arlington Boulevard (1964); Grace Lutheran Church, Belair, Maryland (1964); the Dr. Arthur E. Maxwell Residence, Washington, D.C. (1964); Hope United Church of Christ, Franconia, Virginia (1966); Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Springfield, Virginia (1966); and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 4650 Taney Ave. Alexandria, Virginia (1966). Other churches built in the 1960s also included Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 8922 Little River Turnpike, Fairfax, Virginia (1969) and Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Richmond, Virginia (1969).

As the firm evolved, they also embraced Brutalism in some of their designs as evidenced in the Franconia Volunteer Fire Department Station, Franconia, Virginia (1968); and Washington Plaza Baptist Church in Reston, Virginia (1968). In 1969, Ward & Hall won an award of excellence from the Metropolitan Washington Board of Trade at the Silver Anniversary Biennial Awards Program for Architecture for the firm’s Washington Plaza Baptist Church. The Washington Plaza Baptist Church was the very first church built in the newly planned community of Reston, and it has since been designated a contributing structure to the Lake Anne National Register Historic District.

Adding to the firm’s award-winning merit, multiple construction firms received awards for their work on Ward & Hall’s designs. In 1968, the Puquado Stone Company received a Craftsmanship Award from the Washington Building Congress for their stonework on Ward & Hall’s Riverside Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., completed in February 1968 (demolished in February 2017). In 1969, the Edsall Corporation, won a Northern Virginia Builder Association award of merit based on “excellence of construction with outstanding workmanship” for the construction of Ward & Hall’s Humble Oil Service Center gas station which opened in September 1968 in Springfield, Virginia.

In 1971, the firm changed its name to Ward & Hall & Associates, AIA. Around this time, Ward & Hall began embracing Miesian architecture and employed the use of glass curtain walls in their designs. This is evident in their buildings erected at the Washington Science Center complex in Rockville, Maryland: the Washington Science Center Executive Office Building (1969); the Wilco Building (1971); Washington Science Center Building Seven (1972); and the C.D.C. Building (1975).

In 1972, Ward & Hall completed the 12-story glass curtain wall Springfield Tower Office Building at 6320 Augusta Drive, Springfield, Virginia. The client requested that the building be designed so that it “would be a landmark and represent the community as a gateway to Northern Virginia.” The architects successfully achieved this requirement, and over fifty years later, the building continues to be a landmark to motorists driving on the Springfield Interchange. In September 1974, the Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded Ward & Hall an Honor Award for this building.

In 1978, Ward & Hall & Associates won the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects Design Award for their Crescent Plaza office building in Falls Church, at 7700 Leesburg Pike (1975). The four-story concentric glass-walled building also won an award from Fairfax County for excellence in land conservation in 1976.

In the mid-1970s, Ward & Hall added designing shopping centers to their portfolio. They planned a handful of shopping centers in Prince William County, Virginia: Lake Ridge Shopping Center, Woodbridge (1974); Forestdale Shopping Center, Dale City (1975); and Glendale Shopping Center, Woodbridge (1975). Also during this decade, Ward & Hall designed two distinct main offices for banks. The National Bank of Fairfax Main Office located at 8990 Burke Lake Road, Burke, Virginia (1972); and the Main Office for First & Merchants Bank of Prince William, Dale City, Virginia located at 4191 Dale Boulevard, Woodbridge, Virginia (1975). The National Bank of Fairfax Main Office was listed on the Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites in 2019.

The firm continued designing churches including Leesburg Baptist Church, Leesburg, Virginia (1971); Parkwood Baptist Church, West Springfield, Virginia (1975); Clinton Baptist Church, Clinton, Maryland (1976); as well as other projects such as the massive all-brick fifteen-story apartment complex called The Brittany in Arlington, Virginia (1975); Amber Meadows Professional Building, 198 Thomas Johnson Drive, Frederick, Maryland (1977); Pinecrest Office Building, 6601 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, Virginia (1977); Communications Workers of America Mercury Building, Washington, D.C. (1978); and the Bethesda Marriott Hotel, 5151 Pooks Hill Road, Bethesda, Maryland (1978), a rare and unique example of a Washington metropolitan region heroic concrete high-rise hotel.

In the summer of 1982, the firm moved their office of 40 employees from the Springfield Tower Office Building to Suite 300 of another building they designed: The Fair Oaks Office Building at 12011 Lee Jackson Memorial Highway, Fairfax, Virginia. Upon completion of the new move, they formally changed the name of their firm to Ward/Hall Associates AIA, Architects, Planners and Associated Engineers. Ward/Hall’s design of the Fair Oaks Office Building and their offices made the cover of the March/April 1984 Virginia Record magazine, the Journal of the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects.

Beginning in the 1980s, most of Ward/Hall’s designs shifted to Post Modernism. The firm embraced geometric shapes like parallelograms, implemented the usage of glass blocks in interiors and exteriors, and incorporated arches into a number of their buildings. Energy conservation also became a prime consideration for their designs. The usage of glass blocks appears in the interior of their offices in the Fair Oaks Office Building (1982); Engineering Science Inc. Office Building, Oakton, Virginia (1982); Sovran Bank Pentagon Branch, Arlington, Virginia (1985); and Building #1 of the Westwood Corporate Center in Tysons Corner, Virginia which won a 1985 Fairfax County Exceptional Design Merit Award.

In the early 1980s, Ward/Hall also designed a bank for Standard Federal Savings & Loan Association at 11140 New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring, Maryland. The bank liked the design so much, they copied it for five other branches. The original bank branch on New Hampshire Avenue has since been permanently altered beyond recognition.

Starting in the 1980s and on through the 2000s, Ward/Hall began designing school buildings for Fairfax County Public Schools: Newington Forrest Elementary School (1983); Armstrong Elementary School (1986); Sully Station Elementary School (1986); and Union Mill Elementary School (1986). The Virginia and Metro Washington Chapters of Associated Builders & Contractors awarded L.F. Jennings, Inc. for their construction work on the Union Mill Elementary School with the Best Large Institutional Award as part of its 6th Annual Merit Shop Construction Awards Competition. Another Ward/Hall building, the 50 West Corporate Center Building Number 1 in Fairfax, Virginia, won the Best Medium Commercial Award in the same competition. Ward/Hall also won a 1985 design award from the Northern Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for their Rockville City Hall Addition in Rockville, Maryland.

Other buildings that Ward/Hall designed in the 1980s include the Mount Vernon Governmental Center, 2511 Parkers Lane, Alexandria, Virginia (1981); a low-income housing development in Richmond, Virginia called Essex Village Apartments (1981); One Maryland Corporate Center, Lanham, Maryland (1983); Virginia Power Northern Division Headquarters, Fairfax, Virginia (1986); the art deco-influenced Bethesda Gateway Building, Bethesda, Maryland (1986); Atrium at Station Square, 1010 Wayne Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland (1987); Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative Gainesville District complex in Gainesville, Virginia (1988); and the 15-story One Washingtonian Center, 9801 Washingtonian Boulevard, Gaithersburg, Maryland (1989). Ward/Hall’s Presidential Corporate Center & Marketing Pavilion built in Upper Marlboro, Maryland won a 1988 Award for Excellence in Architecture from the Northern Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

What is likely their most well-known design is the Center for Innovative Technology, an inverted glass pyramid designed by Ward/Hall in a joint venture with Arquitectonica International Corporation of Miami. Completed in 1989, Ward/Hall received the Virginia AIA Award for Excellence in Architecture and the 1990 Fairfax County Exceptional Design Award of Merit for this building.

The firm designed other buildings throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including the 8570 Executive Park Avenue Office Building for Fairfax Water, Fairfax, Virginia (1997); several buildings on Virginia Tech’s campus including the Merryman Athletic Center, Blacksburg, Virginia (1998); and Colonel’s Ridge in Westfield’s Corporate Park in Chantilly, Virginia (2006). Ward/Hall Associates also designed four freestanding bank branches and renovated eight existing branches for Suntrust Bank in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.

In the 1990s, Ward/Hall designed two award winning fire stations: Arlington County Fire Station One (1991) which won an award from the International Association of Fire Chiefs; and the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Station #16 and Clifton Meeting Hall which won the 1994 Fairfax County Exceptional Design Award of Merit. In 1992, the firm designed Buzz Aldrin Elementary School in Reston, Virginia which won an Honorable Mention Award from the Fairfax County Exceptional Design Awards jury.

In 1993, G. Truman Ward became a Fellow at the American Institute of Architects, a rare honor. Five years later, Ward received the 1998 William C. Noland Medal, the highest honor an architect can receive from the Virginia AIA. By 2008, Ward had retired, but continued to own half of the architectural firm with Charles Hall. After fifty years, the firm quietly disbanded in 2014. G. Truman Ward passed away in his Marshall, Virginia home on June 27, 2020 at age 92.

Scope and Content

The G. Truman Ward Collection spans the years 1958-2005, and contains photo albums, photographs, magazines, architectural drawings and blueprints, a scrapbook, an unpublished autobiography, and other ephemera relating to G.T. Ward’s professional career as an architect. Subjects include projects completed by Vosbeck-Ward & Associates and Ward/Hall Associates AIA, Architects, Planners and Associated Engineers, the latter which was based in Fairfax County, Virginia from 1964-2014.

Series 1: Professional, 1961-2005, Boxes 1-2 and Oversize Drawer

This series contains a miscellaneous collection of materials relating to G.T. Ward's career as an architect. Included are a framed architecture license, unpublished autobiography, a "Virginia Record" magazine excerpt featuring Ward/Hall's Northern Division Headquarters building for Virginia Power, and a Christmas card and poster from the Ward/Hall office. Also included is a portfolio for Ward-Hale Design Associates, Inc., a firm run by Ward’s daughter, Donna Ward.

Series 2: Photo Albums, 1961-1984, Boxes 1-2

Included in this series are G.T. Ward’s personal photo albums of buildings his firms Vosbeck & Ward and Ward/Hall designed. Also included is a personal scrapbook containing newspaper clippings and photographs of Lake Montclair, a planned community in Dumfries, Virginia that Ward/Hall was involved with in 1969. Both G.T. Ward and Charles Hall owned 22.5 % of the Lake Montclair venture.

Photo Album #1 features a list of Ward & Hall religious projects, some correspondence, and photographs of American Lutheran Church; Bethel Lutheran Church (Belbrook, Ohio); Clinton Baptist Church; Fairfax Station Square Shopping Center; First Assembly of God Church; First Baptist Church of Annandale; First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C.; First United Presbyterian Church (Dale City, Va.); Gloria Dei Lutheran Church; Grace Lutheran Church; Hope Lutheran Church; Hope United Church of Christ; Lake Ridge Baptist Church; Lake Ridge Baptist Church Educational Building Addition; Leesburg Baptist Church; Montrose Baptist Church Educational Building Addition; Montrose Baptist Church Proposed Auditorium; Naval Air Station Keflavik Family Housing (Iceland); Parkwood Baptist Church; Personnel of Ward & Hall & Associates, AIA; Potomac Baptist Church; Prince of Peace Lutheran Church; Redeemer Lutheran Church; Riverside Baptist Church (Washington, D.C.); Severna Park Baptist Church; St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church; Temple Hills Baptist Church; Temple Hills Baptist Church; Virginia Hills Baptist Church; Washington Plaza Baptist Church; Westmoreland Baptist Church; and unidentified church buildings.

Photo Album #2 features photographs of Ballston Baptist Church; Braddock Baptist Church Educational Building; Carrollan Woods Baptist Church; Clinton Baptist Church; Colesville Baptist Church; Duke Street Baptist Church School Addition; Emmanuel Baptist Church; First Baptist Church of Alexandria; First Baptist Church of Annandale; First Baptist Church of Annandale; First Baptist Church of Dundalk; First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg; First Baptist Church of Herndon Educational Building; Fort Foote Baptist Church Educational Addition; Glebe Baptist Church; Gloria Dei Lutheran Church; Good Samaritan Lutheran Church; Grace Baptist Church; Grace Lutheran Church; Hillandale Baptist Church Educational Addition; Hillcrest Baptist Church; Hope Lutheran Church; Hope United Church of Christ; McLean Baptist Church School Addition; Parkway Baptist Church Educational Building Addition; Prince of Peace Lutheran Church; Prince of Peace Lutheran Church; Riverside Baptist Church (Washington, D.C.); Seabrook Baptist Church; Springfield Christian Church;

Vienna Baptist Church; Virginia Hills Baptist Church; Washington Plaza Baptist Church; Woodbridge Baptist Church; and unidentified church buildings.

Photo Album #3 contains some correspondence and photographs of the Arlington-Fairfax Savings & Loan Springfield Branch; C.D.C. Building; Charles Hart Junior High School and Mayfair Mall Apartments; Dale City Office Park; Fairfax Station Square Shopping Center; First & Merchants National Bank Dale City Office; Franconia Volunteer Fire Department; Gunston Elementary School; Long & Foster Realtors and Bank of Virginia; Mount Vernon Governmental Center; National Bank of Fairfax Main Office; Naval Air Station Keflavik Family Housing (Iceland); Providence Building; Sherwood Hall Medical Center; Washington Plaza Baptist Church; Washington Science Center Building 7; Washington Science Center Wilco Building; and unidentified buildings and shopping malls.

Photo Album #4 contains some correspondence and photographs of the Amber Meadows Professional Building; Dulles International Industry and Foreign Trade Center; Franconia Volunteer Fire Department; American Institute of Family Financial Planning, Inc.; Arlington Courthouse Road Complex; Bryans Road Shopping Center; C.D.C. Building; Crescent Plaza Office Building; Dale Mall Regional Shopping Center; Fair Lanes Bowling Alley; Gunston Elementary School; Hope Lutheran Church; Joseph R. Harris Storefront; Landmark Mall; Luther Rice College & Seminary; Maryland National Bank at Montgomery Mall; Mayfair Mall Apartments; Mount Vernon Volunteer Fire Department; Parkwood Baptist Church; Prince of Peace Lutheran Church; South Four Towers; Springfield Tower; United Virginia Bank Fairfax Branch; and unidentified buildings, banks, and shopping malls.

Series 3: Center for Innovative Technology (CIT Building), 1986-1990, Boxes 1-4

Included in this series are magazines, photographs, booklets, a plaque, and memorabilia from the groundbreaking and dedication of the CIT Building in Herndon, Virginia. In 1985, Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) chose Ward/Hall in a joint venture with Arquitectonica International Corporation of Miami to design their new headquarters in Herndon. Due to its unusual design as an inverted glass pyramid, the CIT Building was regarded as a Northern Virginia landmark even before construction finished. Ward/Hall and Arquitectonica received the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects Award for Excellence in Architecture for the CIT Building as well as a 1990 Fairfax County Exceptional Design Award. The design was among one of G.T. Ward’s proudest accomplishments.

Series 4: Architectural Drawings and Blueprints [Unprocessed and Restricted], 1958-2002, Oversize Drawers

This series remains unprocessed and is currently restricted to researchers. Included is a preliminary inventory of the oversize drawings and blueprints preserved by G.T. Ward. These drawings were originally in an oversize storage cabinet that Ward had brought home from the Ward/Hall office and placed in his garage and used for other purposes. The forgotten drawings were originally rolled up and only discovered after cleaning out the cabinet. It is unknown if a more complete architectural archives of Ward/Hall still exists elsewhere.

Related Material

Photographs from this collection are digitally available on the online Fairfax County Public Library Photographic Archive.

Separated Material

None

Index Terms

• Architecture - Virginia
• Architecture - Virginia - Fairfax County
• Center for Innovative Technology (Virginia)
• Vosbeck-Ward & Associates
• Ward & Hall
• Ward & Hall & Associates
• Ward, George Truman (1927-2020)
• Ward/Hall Associates

Adjunct Descriptive Data