Layer's Walking Tour @A24

One of the best parts of the AIA's annual convention are the walking tours! We hope everyone had a great time and learned a lot at ET105!

Every year there is a diverse offering of tours to choose from. Many even offer Continuing Education credit! This year, Layer Founder Zach Soflin was invited to lead a walking tour with a twist: participants would be on a scavenger hunt for existing conditions!

The Route & Tour Format

We all met at 9 am before it got too hot. D.C. can be a swamp in June, so we planned a 1.7-mile route with plenty of stops for drinks and AC! At each stop, participants would learn about a different type of survey while logging existing conditions.

View the Tour's 6 Stops

View the tour's 6 stops

Additional Background on Preservation & Adaptive Reuse

For additional background on preservation and adaptive reuse, one of our Layer users co-led the tour!

Learn More about Julia Manglitz

Learn More

Julia Manglitz, AIA, APT RP, is a preservation architect with Quinn Evans' Washington, DC, office and serves as Vice President of the Association for Preservation Technology International. With over 25 years of experience assessing existing and historic buildings, Julia has planned documentation and condition surveys for projects of all sizes to support repair and restoration design. Her experience ranges from one-and two-person survey teams for small vernacular structures to large multi-disciplinary teams for federal government projects and state capitals in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Washington D.C. is an easy place to find a variety of architectural styles, building techniques, and existing conditions to discuss.

By 1 PM, everyone was exhausted. Thanks again to everyone who joined!

Tour Learnings & Highlights

Learn more about what participants logged and learned along the way below!

Pavement Survey

See Observations

Our first stop was outdoors. We looked for pavement deficiencies with a focus on accessibility features such as ramps and sidewalks. In about 15 minutes, the team was able to identify almost 100 areas along with photo evidence and notes.

Furniture, Fixtures, & Equipment

View the Furniture

After the longest part of our walk, we stopped for a coffee break and to learn best practices for surveying FF&E. During our break, we identified, catalogued, and tagged 57 individual pieces.

Window & Metal Survey Tips

See Observations

We stopped at 1025 F Street to examine a rarity in modern construction: a wrought iron facade. Julia gave the group tips on surveying windows and metal facades. Along the way, we noted 56 observations.

Masonry Surveys

View Logged Conditions

Ford's Theatre is most famous as the assassination place of Abraham Lincoln. Beyond the history, it's an example of adaptive reuse. Most people don't know, but the theatre was originally a Baptist church! Like many colonial churches, it was constructed in brick. We learned about typical brick deterioration patterns and logged 58 separate issues.

Room Surveys

View Rooms

Room Surveys are important for any architect who works on renovations or expansions (so 99% of them). It's important to know what's there before you start planning what will be there. We broke up for our penultimate stop to tackle 5 floors of this massive library. Here's what we noted.

Accessibility Survey

View Accessibility Features

In keeping with the theme of this year's conference, our last survey was for accessibility features. For an architect, it's important to go beyond just access. It's essential that everyone feels included and welcome in our public spaces. That means including accessibility features for people beyond the physically disabled!

Thanks again to everyone who joined, and a special thanks to Julia Manglitz!