Personal Statement

Since 1967, K. Edward Lay has taught Architectural Design, Architectural History, and Historic Preservation, and was Associate Dean and Director of Undergraduate Programs in Architecture. He continues to teach American architectural history through the university’s Continuing and Professional Studies. Mr. Lay was Supervisory Architect for both HAER and HABS of the NPS and does private consulting which has resulted in honor awards by the National Trust and ASLA. He is the recipient of UVA’s Distinguished Professor Award and Penn State’s Achievement Award and received honors for preservation efforts from the Mayor, the AIA, and the APVA.

Mr. Lay has taught at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh Scotland, in UVA’s summer abroad program in Italy, and at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation in Illinois. He has served on several national awards juries and is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa honorary, Tau Sigma Delta honorary, and the Raven Society.

Mr. Lay has had research grants from the American Philosophical Society, the German Academic Exchange Service, Navy-Marine Corps, Sesquicentennial Associateships through the Center for Advanced Studies, and two University of Virginia Faculty Research Fellowships. Other grants have included ones from the Dean’s Forum, Albemarle County Historical Society, Perry Foundation, C. Venable Minor Expendable Gift Fund, Charlottesville/Albemarle County Foundation, and Thomas Jefferson Chapter of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

His publications include many articles and books such as his The Architecture of Jefferson Country: Charlottesville and Albemarle Country, Virginia (2000 and its accompanying CD-Rom 2001)) and coauthored A Virginia Family and Its Plantation Houses (1987). All were published by University Press of Virginia, are in their second printings, and received book awards.

He has been Chair of both Charlottesville’s Board of Architectural Review and Historic Landmarks Commission and served on the Albemarle County Historic Preservation Committee. His memberships on boards of trustees include the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, the Center for Palladian Studies in America, Battersea, the Thomas Jefferson Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, Preservation Piedmont, the Pioneer America Society, Camp Holiday Trails, Camp Faith, and the Cottages at Jefferson Heights and was Vice President of both the Victorian Society in Virginia and the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society.

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, seminars, and lectures on Virginia buildings, he has recently done so for such organizations as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Decorative Arts Trust, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, the Smithsonian, Prince of Wales Institute in Architecture, the Classical America Society, the Institute of Classical Architecture, 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 over 300 bound volumes in the Small Special Collections Library.

Publications:

• A Virginia Family and Its Plantation Houses by K. Edward Lay, with Elizabeth Langhorne and Will Rieley. 1987 ACHS Book Award.
• The Architecture of Jefferson Country University of Virginia Press, 2000ACHS Book Award.
• The Architecture of Jefferson Country CD-Rom, UVA Digital Media Lab, 2001.