E. Bradford Tazewell

His Handiwork is Norfolk's Skyline

     Last April, executives at Summit Advertising announced they would
scrap their original plans to develop a $5 million office building in
downtown Norfolk.  A revised strategy brought aboard new partners,
streamlined costs and called for new architects.
     It's not often that the architectural firm of Williams, Tazewell
and Cooke & Associates Inc. gets dropped from a project in such a
manner.  The firm regularly lands hefty projects for high-powered
customers.
     But E. Bradford Tazewell III, one of the firm's founders and
principles, didn't have to lose any sleep over it.
     In the past year, the drafting boards for the firm's 48-member
staff have been crowded with designs for $115 million worth of
construction.
     And the results of their handiwork dominate Norfolk's skyline:
Scope Cultural and Convention Center, Chrysler Hall, the office
buildings of Virginia National Bank and Mutual Federsl Savings and Loan.
     The firm is now handling two downtown Norfolk construction
projects, the Sovran III building, a 20-story office building under
construction on Main Street, and the red granite Town Point Center, an 
11-story office tower on Boush Street.
     Developing that kind of business, according to Tazewell, is in part
due to the firm's longevity in the market.  When it opened its doors in
1954, only a handful of other arthitects posed any competition.
     But Tazewell's connections, derived from a lifetime of association
with civic leaders he grew up with, didn't hurt.  When he mentions
activities of his friends in casual conversation, the names that come up
include Thomas Wilcox, president of the Norfolk law firm Wilcox and
Savage, and a member of the board of United Bankshares Inc., and former
United Virginia Bank chairmen M. Lee Payne.
     Those types of relationships, said Tazewell, influence the way 
business is done in Hampton Roads.
     "There is very definitely an establishment in Virginia," he
said.  "there are a lot of old family ties.  Old establishment
connections.   It's hard to describe.  The people who went to the
University of Virginia and other places feel comfortable with the people
they've known and gone to school with.
     "I think Virginia is one of the plaves wehere you encounter the
people whto have the same old friends that they grew up with.  I go out
with the same guys that I went out with 40 years ago.  You feel
comfortable with those folks."
     But do those family ties and establishment connections translate
info business?
     Said Tazewell:  "I would say so.  If I need some legal services I
call up a guy I went to high school with...  Only a fool would not take
advantage iof the contats that you just grew up with."
     Tazewell's family tree sprouted former Virginis senator and
governor Littleton Waller Tazewell, who is the architects great-great
grandfather.  But Tazewell seemed more interested in discussing the
firm's growth from a two-man operation thsn talking about his family
ties.
     When Tazewell began his career 32 years ago, Norfolk's skyline was
a low-slung canopy, topped by the old 11-story Royster building at
Granby Street znd City Hall Avenue.
     Tazewell, who studied architecture at the University of
Pennsylvania, and partner James L. Williams Jr. earned $3,000 each in
their first year of business.  They employed only a part-time secretary
on the same building where they do business today with 11 registered
architects.
     They rented office space from Tazewell's father, who designed
pricey Colonial residences for waterfront property.
     The younger Tazewell's first jobs were less impressive.  "You
started out adding porches to friend's father's houses or garages," he
said.  You start with small-scale residential things.
     "Competition was much more informal, less aggressive.  Architects
by and large were just picked.  It was usually somebody's friend.  It
was much more who you know."
     Now the firm designs office buildings, hospitals and university
buildings, including a few for his alma mater, the Uniiversity of
Virginia.   And it has a client list with names like Sovran Financial
Corp., Norfolk Southern Corp., Landmark Communications Inc. and
developers Gerald S. Divaris and Robinson, Wetmore & Ellis.
     Today, Tazewell concentrates his efforts on the design end of the
business, while his partner, Williams, is known for handling the
business end of the operation.
     The firm's contemporary-style offices at 710 W. 21st St. have
served as a graduate school for many area architects.  Tazewell
estimates that at least 20 of his employees have left to start their own
businesses.
     "We're probably often in a position whwre we can't provide them
(young architects) the growth position they merit, so they motor on.
We've wound up putting a lot of firms in business."
     Some youngest architects interviewed said that Williams, Tazewell
and Cooke, like other firms in the area, has followed a conservative
approach to design -- the same concern that, in part, prompted Summit
Advertising executives to choose a different architectural firm.
     But thos architects noted that risktaking is not the formula for
success here.
     Tazewell concedes that his firm is not on the cutting edge of
architectural design.  But "people don't want to be way out there," he
said.  Norfolk snd Virginia by nd large are on the conservative side."
Too, he says, Norfolk is not a part of the state that harbors extensive,
generations-old wealth, sometimes a prerequisite to building an
environment friendly to architectural experimentation.
     "I think it's more important to design buildings that wear well and
look fresh 20 years later than go through a lot of structural gymnastics
to attract attention today," he said.
     I think we'vs made some successful efforts in developing the
quality of architecture.  We haven't done any pioneering.  We've done
some embroidering."
     Part of the conservatism in style eminates from Colonial
Williamsburg, 35 miles north of the architechts' office.  Tazewell had
few good words for what had been a source of inspiration for his
father's style of design.
     "You think of the 10 most important people that you know and you
ride by their houses, and you'll see that influence of Williamsburg.
And you look at their living room, and they all look like Williamsburg.
It's a cop-out in a lot of ways because it is very easy," Tazewell said.
     What isn't simple, though, is landing the big contracts today.
Despite his extensive contacts, Tazewell said, landing a substantial job
requires a lot of marketing savvy.
     "Nowadays, to get a job you've got to put on a big show.  It's a
personality contest.  The big jobs they interview five or six firms.  In
a very real sense, it's those that can catch the imagination of the
panel in a half-hour interview."
      Out-of-town architetural firms have emerged the winner in some of
those competitions.  For example, the World Trade Center, considered a
signature building in Norfolk, was designed by a Chicago firm, Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill.
     Tazewell made it clear he doesn't like that trend, saying it comes
from a "small-town mentality."
     "Many owners are attracted to people who come from nationally
recognized (firms).  The reflected importance of being involved wirh
someone perceived as important has some place in selections.  Some
people get their kicks that way."
     But Tazewell is preoccupied less these days with what firm lands
what project.
     At age 60, he is giving some thought to ensuring the firm's
longevity.  Although he said he has no plans for retirement, he added
that "it's important to bring in young blood to relate to the captains
of industry."
             Photograph of Tazewell by Jim Walker
The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Monday October 6, 1986