Experience

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SELECT PROJECT EXPERIENCE

  • The Greenbrier Resort
  • Greenbrier Sporting Club
  • White Sulphur Springs, WV
  • Within the lush landscape of The Greenbrier’s 6,500 acres of mountains, meadows, and streams, several hundred homesites of distinct neighborhoods create a unique community of rich architectural style, investment opportunity, and aesthetic value. The Architectural Review Board insures that all residential planning and design follow a strict range of design standards prior to approval of construction. The guidelines present homes of thoughtful elegance and distinction typical of The Greenbrier Resort.

Since the inception of The Greenbrier Sporting Club, Mr. Oates has worked directly with owners providing full service site planning and landscape architecture for the single-family residences. Beginning with the site evaluation, the building location reveals opportunities of the land and program of the home. Extending the living space to the landscape allows for nuances of form and function: upper terraces with lighted fountains, entry stone walls of intricate plantings, mountain viewsheds of seasonal interest, creating an environment of comfort, beauty, and intrinsic value.

  • Dancing Point Estate
  • Charles City, VA
  • Amid the broad river landscape of the James, this once private family retreat is to be transformed into a “center of contemplative thought”- where both individuals and corporate groups can assemble for extended conferences and dynamic gatherings. The master plan proposes enhancement to the overall use and circulation with distinct nodes and aesthetic. Small cabins connect by path or boardwalk- each with distinct style and landscape character. Programmatic elements include a paddock with trail system, wetland kayak trail, hiking, sculpture set within ornamental gardens, and the central residence as the center for common interaction. The unique qualities of this landscape are celebrated by deliberate view-sheds, contemplative walks, indigenous material, and sustainable practices.
  • Massey Cancer Center Healing Garden
  • Medical College of Virginia - VCU
  • Richmond, VA
  • The recognition of the benefits of Healing Gardens in health care facilities is widely acknowledged and documented. Along with offering healthcare and research, Massey Cancer Center is committed to providing the benefits of a Healing Garden to its’ patients, visitors, staff, and volunteers. The creation of the Healing Garden is in direct response to the desire to offer a restorative space within the medical facility. The goal of the Healing Garden is to provide a natural environment that fosters stress reduction and enhances a sense of well-being.

Mr. Oates, in association with EDAW, lead the charette session with the Massey Cancer Garden Committee. Throughout the 2-day process, schematic design supports the thorough investigation of garden in relation to physical and emotional healing. Concepts of water, smell, texture, and sight transcend the environment and provide a haven of relief while nurturing the soul.

  • United States Patent + Trademark Office Campus
  • Alexandria, VA
  • Comprising of a 25-acre federal campus in the heart of the Carlyle Development, the Patent + Trademark Office Complex (“PTO”) is part of an evolving mixed-use brownfield project on the site of the former CSX railyard in historic Alexandria, Virginia. This campus incorporates five adjacent office buildings totaling over 2.5 million SF. The master plan is reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson’s design for the Academical VIllage at the University of Virginia. As in Jefferson’s design, which is centered on the democratic space of the lawn, the interconnected buildings of the PTO campus surround the large open space of the public Dulany Gardens.

Mr. Oates, in association with EDAW + SOM Architects, led the team for the campus planning and design. This campus is composed of three separate but connected pieces - Dulany Gardens, the largest and most centrally located, is an urban park offering nearby residents, PTO employees, and the general public a range of spaces for passive recreation. A broad lawn, with shade trees and lush garden plantings, a central fountain, seating, and accent lighting combine to provide a diversity of experience on multiple levels. Dulany Gardens is framed by four mid-rise office buildings terminating the southern vista. Tucked between these buildings and in contrast to the axially oriented Dulany Gardens, the Concourse Gardens take a more organic form and celebrate the seasons with vibrant combinations of color, form, and texture, while supporting an outdoor cafe and on-site daycare center. The campus is unified by a streetscape designed accordingly to the City of Alexandria prescribed standards including brick patterns, shade trees, and coordinated furnishings.

  • CapOne | West Creek Campus - Phase One
  • Goochland, VA
  • Capital One’s success as a leading information technology company necessitated approximately 10,000 new hires in the Richmond market over a 4-year period. Approximately 2-million SF of office space was needed to house new staff, with delivery of the first building phase by late 2001.

Mr. Oates, in association with EDAW, coordinated a multi-disciplinary team in the administration of the construction development of the first building phase. The master plan for the selected site responds to Capital One’s corporate goal and cultural considerations, as well as the site’s ecological characteristics. The new facilities are organized along ridgelines overlooking Broad Branch Creek and its’ tributaries. A high priority was the preservation and recreation of habitat linkage systems. The program manifest sustainable landscape practices of innovative design and construction techniques including unique employee amenities in sports facilities, nature and exercise trails, and outdoor office collaborative spaces.

  • Northrup Grumman | Commonwealth Enterprise Solutions Center
  • Meadowville Technology Park
  • Chesterfield County, VA
  • Since the inception of the project, Mr. Oates has directed the landscape design and documentation of this 28-acre site within Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield County, Virginia. As a Tier 3 level secure campus, the design for the landscape includes a variety of layout and structural deterrents that provides the necessary protection against threats of destruction while lending an aesthetic appeal to the campus. Serpentine walls and elevated terraces frame the front and rear entrances and provide multi-use pedestrian parks and work space while ensuring a safe environment for the employee and the visitor.

Mr. Oates’ landscape planning and design was part of the full A/E services provided by McKinney & Company for the 191,500 SF Data Center that will house the consolidated information technological services of the Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA). The project is being accomplished through a public-private partnership between Northrup Grumman and the Commonwealth using guidelines of the Public-Private Education Facilities and the Infrastructure Act of 2002 (PPEA). The current Data Center was completed in June 2007 and employees 600 people. A companion backup facility of 101,000SF has also been completed for Northrup grumman in Russell County, Virginia and employs 300 people.

  • BioTech 8
  • Virginia Biotechnology Research Park
  • Richmond, Virginia
  • This urban landscape has been redeveloped to include numerous public and private spaces including: a pedestrian street corridor in accordance to stringent design guidelines of the Biotechnology Research Park; ornamental “gateways” of flowering trees and “ribbons” of perennials at roadway entry nodes, an interior linear park of trees, flowering shrubs, decorative paving patterns, culminating with a wall of water as the terminus to the garden.

As director of design, Mr. Oates, in association with McKinney & Company, been instrumental in the development of the site program and supporting detail design for this urban park. Rich material selection of indigenous stone, plant material, and the use of water as artifice transforms this once deteriorating urban neighborhood into a research park environment of a renewed spirit of place.

  • Virginia Living Museum
  • Newport News, VA
  • In support of the new museum expansion, Mr. Oates, in association with McKinney & Company, directed the master planning for a series of outdoor “rooms”, each in different character and use. The program includes a central gathering space to provide the visitor and the staff the opportunity for museum related activities, public use for rentals, and the expansion of an outdoor terrace to compliment the newly completed museum restaurant. The “lawn” will serve to connect the new museum with the older educational facility, introduce a new water play exhibit and allow for educational/ entertainment events in the amphitheater, located on axis to the lawn, and nestled down the hillside within the outdoor animal exhibits.
  • Maymont Foundation
  • Richmond, VA
  • Mr. Oates was awarded the commission for the master planning and site design for the expansion of the animal exhibits throughout Maymont, the 110-acre Victorian estate located in the City of Richmond. The program includes careful attention to historical context, zoological design, and interpretative environments.

Master planning, in association with EDAW, included the improvement of seven different animal exhibits, expansion of parking and storage facilities, and maintenance of site amenities including elevated wetland boardwalks, a walk-through aviary and raptor exhibit, several new gathering spaces and overlooks, and accessible paths throughout the site.

Further design development of the deer/ bison and raptor areas reveals the use of wire netting, vegetation, and existing contours to disguise the boundaries between the visitor and the exhibit. The experience challenges the perceived role of the observer typically found in traditional animal exhibits - now the roles are reversed and the observer becomes the “observed” by the animals themselves. Materials, including recycled lumber and painted netting, are proposed to minimize environmental interference, maximize tree preservation, and integrate the new exhibits with the existing landscape of Maymont.

  • EDUCATION
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • Master of Landscape Architecture
  • 1990
  • Harvard University
  • Graduate School of Design
  • Landscape Architecture Certificate
  • 1985
  • Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Bachelor of Arts
  • 1984

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • Publication
  • "Timeless Home Design at Greenbrier Sporting Club"
  • http://www.gvquarterly.com/summer-15/timeless-home-design-at-greenbrier-sporting-club/
  • Greenbrier Valley Quarterly - Summer 2015
  • Landscape Masterplan for a Mountain Estate at The Greenbrier Resort/ Greenbrier Sporting Club completed in Fall 2014. Elegant limestone walls, steps, and natural stone boulders frame the estate with supporting plant material of a variety of form, texture and flower making this a landscape of multiple opportunities during the day and night - a full season experience.
  • Intenational Design Confeence
  • Workshop Leader - "Borrowed City"
  • Tasmeem Art + Design Conference 2013
  • VCUarts - Qatar
  • Doha, Qatar
  • March 2013
  • Adjunct Professor | VCUarts
  • Department of Interior Design
  • 2012 - 2013
  • Instructor | University of Richmond
  • Site Design + Final Comprehensive Studio - School of Continuing Studies
  • ASLA Annual Meeting 2011
  • Rising Knowledge Vision Leadership
  • “Designing for Security in the Public Realm”
  • Virginia Tech University
  • VectorWorks - Landmark/ Renderworks
  • AutoCAD
  • Photoshop
  • Illustrator
  • InDesign
  • iMAC
  • Windows
  • Prismacolor
  • Watercolor
  • Pen + Ink
  • Graphite
  • PROFESSIONAL REGISTRATION
  • Licensed Landscape Architect
  • Commonwealth of Virginia
  • 1994

CLARB Certified

  • AFFLIATIONS
  • American Society of Landscape Architects