Modern Architect Spotlight: David Jameson
Award-winning residential architect based in Bethesda, Maryland.
Article first published in Potomac River Living.
David Jameson started his own firm in 1998 and has been an adjunct faculty member at both Catholic University and Virginia Tech. Jameson has been a guest critic at Yale University, Columbia University, the University of Texas, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Virginia.
Some of Jameson’s most recent awards for residential design include an American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Honor Award for Interior Architecture; an AIA National Honor Award for Small Projects; an International Architecture Award; an American Architecture Award; and Awards of Excellence from the AIA’s DC, Maryland and Virginia chapters.
What was your firm's first built project?
The firm’s first project was a 200 square foot garage in the alley behind a Capitol Hill row house. Though it was tiny, the project had numerous design pressures that shaped not only its form but also its tectonics.
Of course no contractor was interested in a $25,000 garage project in a tight alley with little space to work, so I ended up building the project myself with five subcontractors: a mason for the brickwork, concrete, and bluestone, a roofer for the curving flat seam copper wall and roof, a woodworking shop for the mahogany doors and framing, a metal shop for the custom door handles, security grills, chairs, and exposed steel channels, and an electrician.
The idea of distilling the design of the project into a few key components became a thread that has continually woven its way through our work. Ongoing relationships with craftsmen and embedding them into our design process has continued within projects both locally and across the country, aiding in the successful execution of the concepts.
How would you describe identifiable or signature qualities of your work, and are they intentionally unique?
After architecture school I was fortunate to work for several years with the inimitable Hugh Newell Jacobsen, whose archetypal "Monopoly Houses" graced the pages of Architectural Digest and other shelter magazines. When I founded my own studio, it was with the conviction that each project should have its own voice and story, rather than an identifiable style, and include both spatial experiences and conceptual ideologies.
We believe houses should be habitable art; places that inspire you each day and you yearn to come home to.
Working in the Nation's Capital undoubtedly presents unique architectural challenges and rewards. In this regard, describe a project you're particularly proud of.
Working in and around the Nation's Capital is rewarding from the lens that there is great diversity in the building typologies we work with daily. In the same day we might work on a historic row house, a single family suburban house, an equestrian estate, an ADU in DC, and a mixed use building. The Manifold House in Clarendon was a particularly interesting project as it bridges the scale between the commercial district and its multi-story buildings to the historic bungalows of Lyon Village while weaving the client’s love of tinkering with vintage scooters into the home, which he describes as a kaleidoscope of space and light.
Please share about any particular client or client-driven project criteria that deeply inspired you, and if/how that inspiration has influenced your subsequent work.
We are blessed to have had the late great Sam Gilliam and his wife Annie Gawlak as not only clients but dear friends. Sam and I talked for years almost every day about many subjects including art, tennis, and the ability of Architecture to touch one's mind, eye, and soul. While we certainly work hard to perfect the programmatic components of projects, we work even harder to create beautiful spaces that bring joy to the inhabitants.
