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L
ord Aeck Sargent—a six-office
professional design practice
headquartered in Georgia—
will celebrate its 75th anniversary
next year. What started as one
architect designing small houses
is now a large, multi-disciplinary
design practice. Architecture,
Planning, Interiors, Preservation,
Conservation, Sustainable Design,
Environmental Graphics and
Landscape Architecture are all
building-related services the
company provides - with only
engineering brought in through
affiliations. And while the firm has
worked in a half dozen countries
and two thirds of the U.S., the lion’s
share of its volume comes from the
Southeast.
Lord Aeck Sargent was recently
awarded two important
commissions in one week that
on the spectrum of architectural
practice couldn’t be more opposite.
One involves the design of a new,
net positive energy and water
“regenerative” academic building
on the Georgia Tech campus with
no lesser mission than to change
how buildings are designed and
built in our Southern climate. The
other entails some historically
sensitive surgical rehabilitation at
the Fox Theatre—Atlanta’s famous
1929 National Landmark. The only
apparent common denominators
between these two challenging
assignments: both will be complex
and both will require a team of
experts led by an experienced hand.
No stranger to Gwinnett, Lord Aeck
Sargent has worked in the County
for decades, completing some well-
known commissions:
•
The Gwinnett Environmental &
Heritage Center
is an important
resource supporting K-12 and higher
education students while interpreting
how water has affected the county
history.
•
Georgia Gwinnett College’s
$25
million student center was designed
and built on a fast-tracked basis
under Chamber President Dr. Dan
Kaufman’s leadership while he
served as GGC’s chief executive.
•
Suwanee’s iconic Town Center
was master planned by a team of
professionals, now at Lord Aeck
Sargent, who have served the city
for a decade. Additionally, this team
helped program Suwanee’s new city
hall, explore development scenarios
for historic Old Town and led the
development of its comprehensive
plan.
• The rehabilitation of
Freeman’s
Mill
, built on the Alcovy River in the
late 19th century, entailed delicately
raising the entire structure out of
the floodplain. This Georgia Trust
award-winning project restored the
mill’s moving parts to allow future
interpretation of traditional milling
processes that were part of
Gwinnett’s agricultural heritage.
Currently, Lord Aeck Sargent is
working with the city of Peachtree
Corners on three signature planning
and design efforts including a
Downtown Plan, Holcomb Bridge
Corridor Plan and a Citywide
Greenway Trail Master Plan. Select-
ed for a Task Order contract with
Gwinnett County, the firm is also
now engaged in a half dozen varied
assignments including a new senior
center for Centerville, a new public
library in Duluth and interior design
services for Chairman’s Club
member Philadelphia College of
Osteopathic Medicine.
According to Tony Aeck,
one of the firm’s senior
principals: “With Lord
Aeck Sargent’s broad
range of design-related
professional service
offerings, Gwinnett County
is an ideal place for us
to work. I am personally
interested in doing more
here as it is one of the
fastest growing counties
in Georgia and will pro-
vide opportunities to do
great architecture.”
STRATEGY
By Tony Aeck, Senior Principal, Lord Aeck Sargent
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EXECUTIVE