Press Room: ATL Home Builders Association Gold Awards
Lew Oliver's Designs Sweep ATL Home Builders Association Gold Awards
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Atlanta, GA: The work of Atlanta-based designer Lew Oliver swept the gold awards at the 25th anniversary Professionalism Awards of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association in eight different categories in the $370,000-599,000 range for builders doing over one-hundred homes per year. He adds the new awards to a long roster of national and international awards he has won for his work, including the New American Home for the National Association of Homebuilders and Westin’s Best in Brand worldwide.
The Georgia native hopes his work will contribute to a new City Beautiful movement that will result in a complete transformation of the built environment in Atlanta, the state, and the region. “I want to bring the highest quality design to the maximum number of people," he says. “Great design should be available to everyone. Buildings should stand the test of time, enrich the environment, and provide people with beauty and meaning in their lives. What we need now is a resurrection of the great American neighborhood, a revitalized mythology of place."
Oliver is a leading advocate of the movement known as “New Urbanism," which is based on the ideals of quality design, authentic materials, environmental sensitivity, and fine craftsmanship. The focus, according to Oliver, is not only on individual houses but entire communities, which are walkable, highly livable, and pedestrian-friendly. The process, he says, is consumer-driven. Most homeowners today are interested in buying not just an individual house but an entire world. The trend is increasingly away from suburban sprawl and toward “immersive environments" along the line of the great legacy communities that were created across America during the first half of the twentieth century.
Oliver’s homes are among the most sought-after in the business, and are known for their elegance, livability, and cutting-edge floor plans. His work has aptly been described as a fusion of classicism and vernacularism with great attention paid to form, detail, and proportion. “Lew Oliver is the fastest person of great talent that I know," says Andres Duany, founding co-principal of the influential firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk and widely recognized as the leader of New Urbanism. “His eye is among the most incisive I’ve ever seen," concurs Steve Mouzon, President of the New Urban Guild. “Most architects can do no better than a cartoon of traditional architecture. Lew’s work is emphatically the real thing."
Oliver has had a hand in many of the major New Urbanist towns and neighborhoods across the U.S., including Rosemary Beach, Celebration, Lost Rabbit, and I’on. He is town architect of Vickery, Serenbe, Clark’s Grove, Norcross Downtown, and Woodstock Downtown, and is involved with the creation and design of McDaniel Glenn, Briar Rose, and Glenwood Park, as well as several city blocks in downtown Marietta and historic Roswell, where he served for many years on the Historic Preservation Commission.