K. Edward Lay
VITA:
K. EDWARD
LAY Cary
D. Langhorne Professor Emeritus of Architecture University
of Virginia
KEdwardLay@virginia.edu 434-973-6151
Web:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~kl2u/ Faculty Web: www.arch.virginia.edu/people/directory/k-edward-lay-0
UVA
Papers:
http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/uvasc/vivadoc.pl?file=viu03696.xml
CD Building Images: http://search.lib.virginia.edu/?f[digital_collection_facet][]=Architecture+of+Jefferson+Country
K. Edward Lay, Cary D. Langhorne Professor Emeritus of Architecture at
the University of Virginia, has Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Architecture
with a graduate minor in Philosophy.
From 1967 to 2000 he has taught in Architectural Design, Architectural
History, and Historic Preservation at the University of Virginia, where he was
Assistant/Associate Dean for Administrative and Student Affairs for nine years,
was Director of Undergraduate Programs in Architecture for two years, and
Acting Dean one semester. Each semester, since Fall
2000, he has taught two popular courses, "Historic Virginia Buildings,"
through the university's School of Continuing and Professional Studies.
Prior to beginning college teaching in 1963, he practiced as an
architect in Pennsylvania for several years, being registered in several states
and with a NCARB certification. As a
private consultant in historic preservation, a 1981 team project in Georgia
resulted in honor awards by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and
the American Society of Landscape Architects.
He was also a consultant for preservation research on the 1791 Cape
Henry Lighthouse.
He has been Visiting Professor to Heriot-Watt
University of Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland, has taught in the
University of Virginia's summer abroad program in Vicenza (Italy) for three years, has taught at the Campbell
Center for Historic Preservation in Illinois, and for two summers was
Supervisory Architect for both the Historic American Engineering Record and the
Historic American Buildings Survey of the National Park Service for recording
America's Industrial Heritage Projects in Pennsylvania, and presently is the
preservation consultant with the National Park Service for Historic Green
Springs, America's first rural preservation district.
As an authority on American architecture and in particular Virginia
architecture, Mr. Lay's publications include monographs such as "European
Antecedents of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Germanic and Scots-Irish
Architecture in America" in Pennsylvania
Folklife journal (1982), Historic Preservation Guide for Charlottesville (1980),
"Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy" (1989) on Jefferson's master
builders in the Magazine of Albemarle
County History, "The American Renaissance at UVA" (1993) and
"Jefferson's Master Builders" ( 1991) in UVA Alumni News, "History of the Architecture School"
(1988-89) and "Dinsmore and Neilson" (1991)
in UVA Colonnades, and as co-author of "Architectural
Surveys Associated with Early Road Systems" in the Association for Preservation Technology Bulletin (1980), and
"Castle Hill: The Walker Family Estate" in the Magazine of Albemarle County History
(1994). His books include A Virginia Family And Its Plantation Houses
(1987, 1989 second printing) and The
Architecture of Jefferson Country (2000, 2002 second printing) both by the
University Press of Virginia and both recipients of book awards, and the second book's
accompanying CD-Rom was released in 2001.
Upcoming are his The History of
the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia and his 14
audio-visual lectures Architecture in
Virginia. Articles include the dust cover for Early Virginia Courthouses , the forward for The Classic Hewn-Log House, and contributions to The Dictionary of Virginia Biography. His many book citations include Hugh Howard's
Thomas Jefferson Architect 2003,
Bryan Clark Green's The Architecture of
Thomas R. Blackburn 2006, and Kathryn Masson's Hunt Country Style, 2008.
He has been Chair of both Charlottesville's Board of Architectural
Review and Historic Landmarks Commission, served on the Albemarle County
Historic Preservation Committee, has been on the board of trustees of the
Thomas Jefferson Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia
Antiquities, Preservation Piedmont, the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library,
the Center for Palladian Studies in America, Battersea, the Pioneer America
Society (Vernacular Architecture), Camp Holiday Trails (for handicapped
children), Camp Faith (for underpriviledged
children), and the Cottages at Jefferson Heights and was Vice President of both
the Victorian Society in Virginia and the Albemarle Charlottesville (VA)
Historical Society. Life memberships
include the University of Virginia, Penn
State University and Kansas State University alumni associations; Albemarle Charlottesville
Historical Society; and The Perry Historians. Additional affiliations included
the Colonnade Club, Masonic Order, SAR, Society of War of 1812, and many
university, historical, architectural history, and historic preservation
organizations, such as the SAH, SESAH, APT, and AIA. He has been on national awards juries, such
as on the National Trust's Great American Homes jury
for three years and the Preservation Awards for the NC American Institute of
Architects.
A 1999 recipient of a Penn State Alumni
Achievement Award, he is also a 1996 recipient of the UVA Alumni Association's
Distinguished Professor Award for excellence in teaching and university
leadership. Mr. Lay is a member of
Omicron Delta Kappa, National University Leadership Honorary; Tau Sigma Delta,
Arts and Architecture National Scholastic Honorary; and the Raven Society of
the University of Virginia. He has received honor awards for Historic
Preservation efforts from the Mayor of Charlottesville, for "Outstanding
Achievement in Historic Preservation" from the Thomas Jefferson Chapter of
the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, and from the
Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects for his commitment to
architectural education and research. Perhaps his most unique award was by the
students in the School of Architecture in 1988 when they celebrated "Ed
Lay Day" for which T-shirts with his caricature were made. He was listed in Who's Who in Virginia, and a faculty profile featured him in the
1999 University of Virginia yearbook.
Mr. Lay has had grants from the American
Philosophical Society and Sesquicentennial Associateships
through the Center for Advanced Studies at the University for research on
Architecture in Albemarle County, for a study of antecedents of Ulster Scot and
German vernacular architecture in America, and for research on Jefferson's
master builders and regional architects.
Grants have included ones from the German Academic Exchange Service for
study in Europe, two University of Virginia Faculty Research Fellowships to
study regional architecture, and Navy-Marine Corps grants to develop
collapsible, kinetic structures, and University of Virginia Dean's Forum
Grants, Albemarle County Historical Society Grant, Perry Foundation Grant, C.
Venable Minor Expendable Gift Fund Grant, Charlottesville/Albemarle County
Foundation Grant, and Thomas Jefferson Chapter of the Association for the
Preservation of Virginia Antiquities Grant for publication of a book and
CD-Rom.
Mr. Lay is a frequent lecturer on American Architecture, specializing in
Virginia. His popular "Virginia
Architecture" summer seminar, attended by persons throughout America,
completed its eleventh season in 2001.
Often conducting architectural tours and talks of Virginia buildings, he
has recently done so for such organizations as the Prince of Wales Institute in
Architecture, the Classical America Society, the Institute of Classical
Architecture, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Decorative Arts
Trust, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, the Smithsonian, the
Preservation Alliance of Virginia, the Robert King Carter Reunion, the Irish
Cultural Society, the Virginia Conservation Association, and the Wichita Art
Museum. He has been an advisor and
participated in PBS and H&G TV programs.
In addition to donating thousands of documents, photographs and slides
to the university's Special Collections, he has originated three courses
resulting in bound volumes also deposited there: Architectural Surveys Series, thirty-six
volumes containing over 600 buildings; Measured Drawings Series, over 100
volumes containing over 900 drawings; and Architecture In Virginia Series, over
190 volumes.
Mr. Lay's students have won many national
competitions under his direction: the
Peterson Prize by the Historic American Buildings Survey: First Place twice,
Third Place three times, and eighteen Honorable Mentions; the ACSA Design Plus
Energy Competition: First Place twice;
and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Correction
Architecture Competition: First Place and four citations.
Send E-Mail to K. EdwardLay.
Last Modified: 7 January 2013