Prince George
County, VA

Educator heads Moseley Architects, Virginia's leading design firm for schools, government


Stewart D. Roberson is an educator at heart, even though he leads Moseley Architects in Richmond, one of the largest architectural and engineering firms in the country.

As a University of Virginia graduate, Roberson set a goal to become a school superintendent by age 35. He achieved it, heading the Falls Church public school system for five years and then serving as Hanover County superintendent for 16 years.

He never imagined a second career as the leader of Moseley Architects, which under his tutelage for the past eight years has grown its client base to 36 states and 13 countries — and now celebrates its 50th year in business. 

“I still consider myself an educator,” said Roberson, chairman, president and CEO of Moseley Architects.

“Leadership and teaching are synonymous,” he said. “To be an effective leader, you need to listen, coach, encourage and delegate. Any effective leader is an effective teacher.”

Moseley Architects is the 18th-largest architectural and engineering firm in the nation based on revenue last year of $69.9 million, according to a 2019 ranking by Engineering News Record, a trade publication. It was the No. 1 education design firm in the Mid-Atlantic in the same ranking.

The firm provides architectural and engineering design services for K-12 grades (its largest business sector), higher education, governmental offices, corrections/detention centers, senior living and multifamily sectors.

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Roberson’s plan for a second career chapter was to teach full time at the graduate level or to become a school of education dean or a president of a community college — familiar and comfortable roles.

When presented with the opportunity in 2011 to succeed Bob Mills at Moseley Architects, Roberson — who had no training in architecture or engineering — said he took weeks to process the offer.

“They completely surprised me with their overture,” he said. “I wasn’t aware there would be a vacancy nor did I apply for the position.”

“Stewart is doing a tremendous job,” said Mills, adding that he is “blown away” to hear that the once-regional firm has expanded into so many corners of the world. Mills retired as a director in 2013.

“The company continues to thrive, grow and be profitable, and it continues to serve its clients,” Mills said.

He and Roberson are “very different,” he said. “Stewart is educated, smooth and handsome and probably never said a bad word.”

Mills became a co-partner in 1988, when founder William “Bill” Ward Moseley retired and devoted his life to being an artist/painter. Moseley died July 23 in Naples, Fla., at age 89. His wife, Patricia S. Moseley, died four days later.

“Bill was a Renaissance architect,” Mills said. “He designed hotels, churches ... there wasn’t anything Bill didn’t think he could do.”

Mills and his co-partners brought focus to the firm, honing its expertise and reputation in education and government sectors.

“After several years, we were a big player in higher education in the Mid-Atlantic,” Mills said. “Our backbone always has been K-12 education.”

Mills was the front man for the firm, he said. “But I had plenty of help.”

He and his team recognized the value of sustainable design when the concept was just a whisper, he said. The firm began to focus on LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) in 2000 before certification became vogue and is now often required in government buildings.

As an early pioneer of designing LEED certified projects, Moseley Architects can claim a lot of firsts, said Lisa Demmel, director of marketing.

They include the first LEED Gold (second-highest level) elementary school in the world (Third Creek Elementary School in Iredell, N.C.), the first LEED certified collegiate facility in Virginia (Engineering & Computational Sciences building at Old Dominion University) and the first LEED federal prison in the world (Butner Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C.).

In 2009, Moseley Architects converted a 90-year-old-plus garage for large utility vehicles in Richmond Scott’s Addition into its headquarters, attaining Platinum LEED certification — the highest level from the U.S. Green Building Council.

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When health reasons prompted Mills to consider his next chapter, he turned to farming — owning, managing and mowing a 31-acre farm in Powhatan County with goats, chickens and boarded horses — and growing his beard so he could play Santa at Christmastime.

But helping find someone “to lead this band of people” came first.

Mills had known Roberson for decades on a professional basis, since the firm designed several projects for Hanover schools and they served together on educational committees and foundations.

“Stewart is good at listening, at being empathetic. Lord knows he was well-respected and well-known in the marketplace [education] where we existed,” he said. “He had options galore in the education arena, but I don’t think it satisfied his [entrepreneurial] itch.” 

Make no mistake, Roberson is still teaching. He’s a professor of practice at UVA, his alma mater, instructing at the master’s and graduate levels. He also teaches history and culture at Moseley University, the firm’s training center with dedicated internal faculty.

“I thrive on interactions,” Roberson said. “I thrive on service, and I thrive on lifting the conditions of the communities we serve.”

Roberson would bring client perspective to the firm. He also would diversify the firm beyond the public sector, which before the Great Recession (December 2007-June 2009 in the U.S.) was considered recession-proof.

“The major lesson learned was the public sector is not immune to recessions,” said Roberson, noting how the housing crisis shrunk flows of revenue to local, state and federal governments.

Prior to the Great Recession, Moseley Architects was not involved in designing senior living and multifamily housing or working with private developers.

The firm has grown organically and strategically through mergers and acquisitions, increasing its stature on a national level. It most recently merged with Marks Thomas in Baltimore, adding expertise in multifamily housing as well as having an office there.

The company’s diverse set of sectors will enable it to be strongly positioned going forward, Roberson said.

“Will we add other sectors?” Roberson said. “It depends on whether the market opportunity is right with our culture and whether it is profitable.”

The company operates 10 offices — six in Virginia, three in the Carolinas and one in Maryland. It employs 289 people, including 115 in Richmond.

Ron Crouch, an architect who works in quality control, recalled that only 18 people worked for the firm when he joined in 1978.

Architects did their drawings by hand, later switched to computers and now use three-dimensional modeling for their work.

Despite the changes, the company always focuses on providing the best service possible to clients, Crouch said.

“The culture is one of collaboration,” he said. “Even though it’s a large firm now, it is structured to feel like a smaller group, and it maintains a family feel.”

Birthdays and milestones are recognized. Halloween is a big deal. “You can imagine the large-scale creatively demonstrated by designers within all our offices as they come to work that day,” Roberson said.

“The most important asset the firm possesses is its team members,” he said. “Our primary mission in preserving our culture is making sure they come back the next day.”

The company’s mission is summed up in six words: Designing Solutions. Building Trust. Enriching Lives.

“We can measure the quality of our work through those six words,” Roberson said.

Dave Butler, deputy director of general services for Hanover County, said he has come to view Moseley as “a trusted partner.”

He has worked with the firm for about 15 years to conduct master plan space needs and analyses for courts and government buildings.

The Hanover courts building, designed by Moseley, opened in January 2017. “Our employees appreciate the fresh design and the layout to conduct business for the public,” Butler said.

Eric Jones, superintendent for Powhatan County Public Schools, said what sets Moseley Architects apart is how it goes beyond basic bricks-and-mortar to understand the needs and dreams of teachers, staff and students.

“Design starts at the aspirational stage,” Jones said.

The process involves the vision for the school and how educators want students and staff to feel when they are in school, he said. It begins long before the number of classrooms or locations of bathrooms are determined.

The firm designed Powhatan Middle School and conducted a facilities study for the school system.

“Visionary and always interested in how design affects student interest and learning,” said Steve Walts, superintendent of the Prince William County Public Schools, in describing Moseley Architects.

Prince William has opened 24 schools in the past 15 years, and the Moseley team has designed many of them, including Colgan High School and an aquatics center located on the campus for all of the high schools.

“Students and staff love the buildings that they design,” Walts said.

Richmond Times-Dispatch