Robert Gurney Architect

Projects

New project

The vast majority of houses constructed today are anemic replications of 

beloved houses built in a bygone era.  Synthetic reproductions of time 

honored materials and thoughtless design process predominates.  Wooded 

sites with rolling topography are leveled and rendered treeless.  Molded 

styrene, plastics with embossed wood grain, and foam covered with resin 

reduce materials to flat, superficial images.  Vinyl windows with artificial 

muntin bars are employed with no regard for orientation. This greatly 

compromises our sensual gratification and ecological awareness. 

Once exposed to natural forces these houses will deteriorate rapidly and 

require great and unnecessary expense to repair or replace. Environmental 

illness and unfavorable response to synthetic materials, carcinogenic 

adhesives and suspect plastics will reinforce the notion that we respond to 

natural materials physically as well as psychologically.  Our office believes 

that architecture must break from unnatural and unhealthy imitation.

The office of Robert M. Gurney, FAIA is dedicated to the design of modern, 

meticulously detailed and thoughtfully ordered residential and commercial 

projects that are sensitive to site, program and budget.  Materials are 

employed with honesty, integrity and ecological awareness. Interior spaces 

are active and intricate, tranquil and minimal. Regardless of project size or 

budget, our office is committed to producing buildings and spaces that strive 

for design excellence.

Whether working in complex historical districts or on a vacant site, the design 

process involves an understanding of site specific issues of location, 

landscape, history, availability of materials and construction methods, while 

including considerable client interaction.  

Design solutions arrive through the thoughtful manipulation of light, color, 

texture, form and geometry, culminating in architecture that is simultaneously 

complex and distilled. An understanding of current technology, attention to 

detail, and awareness of location, landscape and history, lead to design 

solutions that respect historical, topographical and regional context, without 

being revivalist.  

The office of Robert M. Gurney, FAIA has created a body of work that has 

won more than two hundred sixty local, regional and national design awards, 

including two National AIA Honor awards, six National AIA Housing Awards, 

three American Architecture Awards and three national AIA Small Project 

Awards.  The office’s work has been published in numerous local, national 

and international magazines, books and periodicals, and is the subject of a 

monograph, “Modern Order: Houses by Robert Gurney”. 

 Accomplishments in design are complemented by involvement in service 

activities to the profession and to students of Architecture.  Robert Gurney 

has served as a member of the AIA Northern Virginia Chapter Board of 

Directors, Design Committee, Schools Connection Committee and the 

Virginia Society State Design Committee and is currently a member of the 

VSAIA Honors Committee.  Robert Gurney was elevated to the College of 

Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 2002.

Address
20016 Washington Dc
United States
robertgurneyarchitect.com