Sonja Shields, AIA, is a senior project manager for the Washington, D.C. office of HGA, architect of record for the Arthur J. Altmeyer Social Security Administration Building in Woodlawn, Maryland, a modernization project. Creating a 21st century workplace wasn’t just about upgrading a 1960 building originally designed by Baltimore architect Richard Ayers, says Shields. It was about adapting a workplace to last another six decades. In 2022, AIA Virginia recognized the Altmeyer Building with an Award of Honor in the architecture category for the modernization’s sensitivities to both environmental imperatives as well as social sustainability concepts that are redefining a much broader conversation nationwide about what it means to work in an office. Here she talks about HGA’s approach and its partnership with the project’s design firm, Snow Kreilich Architects.
More »