Wendy Tippetts still loves urban designing in a small town

In 1987, when Wendy Tippetts relocated to form Tippetts/Weaver Architects with Gary Weaver, Lancaster city was an unpolished gem.

“It was so rich in underutilized spaces” in the 1980s, Tippetts said. “We saw things we wanted to design.”

Thirty-six years later, after such projects as the Fulton Theatre expansion and Actors Housing, the Lancaster Science Factory, the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design and Lancaster Conservancy, the imprint of Tippetts/Weaver is hard to miss.

And there’s still lots more to come, given the breadth of Lancaster’s high-quality construction, beautiful detailing and historical context.

The American Institute of Architects Pennsylvania recently named Tippetts/Weaver Architects as the recipient of the 2022 Architecture Firm Award – the first time since its inception in 2013 that it has been given to a firm with a female founder.

For 35 years, Tippetts was president of the company; she has recently moved away from that to become a special consultant with the business.

“T/Wa creates beautiful architecture for everyone, crafted with deep thought and care, constructed with materials choreographed in logical but poetic ways, that moves us in its power to reimagine the building stock of Lancaster, Pa., and the surrounding communities,” wrote Chris Dawson, one of eight architects from across the state to serve on the nomination committee.

Dialogue between old and new

As a student, Tippetts wasn’t the kind who knew exactly what she wanted to do. Her vocational story “is a little bit convoluted,” she said.

Tippetts enjoyed art in school and was extremely interested in geometry. Those two skills are ideal for an architect.

She and her mom, an artist, would also look at buildings, Tippetts said.

When she came to Lancaster from her native New England to attend Franklin & Marshall College, that solidified her decision to go into architecture.

She moved to New York City after completing graduate school in Oregon, and ended up freelancing for Lancaster city developer Ed Drogaris.

Tippetts and Weaver chose to open a practice in Lancaster because they were very interested in urban design in a small town “with a strong architectural vocabulary,” she explained.

Over the years, she also served on the city planning commission, where her feedback helped to change outdated ordinances.

Tippetts said historical buildings shouldn’t be copied but interpreted in modern form, a dialogue between the old and the new.

A new project she is very excited about is the “community hub” for helping people who are homeless, planned on the 100 block of South Prince Street.

It will be a nonconventional way of meeting this need, she said, and a learning experience for her.

The Lancaster County Redevelopment Authority’s preliminary plans for the property center on a “community hub” that would include a new shelter, permanent housing linked with social services and a center for case management services. Other amenities and services under consideration are showers, a day center and access to computers.

Surprised at recognition

Tippetts said the firm was thrilled to receive the AIA Pennsylvania award – and surprised, given that “our competition is in major metro areas.”

Many of the winners are professors engaged in highly innovative work, she said. “We’re not part of the avante garde.”

“The Architecture Firm Award recognizes a Pennsylvania firm whose passion and practice have produced notable architecture for at least a decade,” a release said. “Deserving firms have demonstrated excellence in design and leadership through any combination of the following criteria: the breadth and/or depth of their portfolio, a healthy firm culture, influence on the practice of architecture, and exemplary outcomes for clients and/or society.”

Tippetts/Weaver Architects was chosen from a pool of four nominees submitted to the committee by the nearly 3,000 members of AIA Pennsylvania. It’s not only the first firm from central Pennsylvania to have been chosen for the award but also the smallest.

Paula Wolf is a freelance writer