Washington CC Wins Design Awards, Names New Leaders

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 7/10/2006

The 3-year-old Washington (D.C.) Convention Center has some new laurels and name plates to hang on its doors.

Beverly Perry has become Washington Convention Center Authority chairwoman, responsible for increasing the convention center's business. She was previously Pepco Holdings' senior vice president of governmental affairs and public policy. The Authority also named Reba Pittman Walker WCCA chief executive officer and general manager. She had been acting general manager of the center for the last six months and began her career there as an events coordinator in the early 1980s.

Meanwhile, the center and the three firms that make up its design team — Thompson Ventulett, Stainback & Associates; Devrouax & Purnell Architects and Planners; and Mariani Architects Engineers — received both the Urban Land Institute Award of Excellence and the American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Architecture.

The ULI Award of Excellence and the AIA Honor Award for Architecture represent the architecture industry's highest honors in land use and design, said Andy McClain, principal of TVSA. The ULI award recognizes innovative urban land use; AIA, the promotion of high culture and creativity.

Convention center officials reported that it was the only building in the country to receive both awards. Walker said this offered "proof that the Washington Convention Center's design, construction and management will benefit the nation's capital and the Natl. Capital Region for years to come."

In 2005 alone, she added, attendees at the WCC pumped nearly $500 million into the city's economy.

Walker plans to use her two decades of convention-industry experience to set a direction and tone for the organization "that establishes us as the preeminent tradeshow and convention facility in the United States. Everything I do as general manager will be focused on giving our customers the nation's premier tradeshow venue," she said.