When Stephen T. Ayers graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in architecture in 1985, he joined the military, with dreams of receiving an overseas assignment. But while serving as an officer in the 6510th Civil Engineering Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County, Calif., Ayers received orders to move, but to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska—not once, but twice. After the first order, Ayers asked for and received a six-month reprieve before being ordered to Elmendorf again. Rather than report to the chilly Alaskan outpost, Ayers resigned his commission. But he did fulfill his foreign dreams by working for Voice of America, eventually becoming the international broadcaster’s European construction manager. For that post, he was stationed in sunny Greece.

But Ayers, 57, didn’t land what turned out to be his dream job until returning stateside in 1996 to work for the Architect of the Capitol (AOC). Ayers worked his way up to serve as the acting AOC in 2007. Three years later, President Barack Obama nominated Ayers for the permanent post and the Senate confirmed him as the AOC—only the 11th person to hold the position, which was established in 1793. In 2018, Ayers stepped down. “As an architect, and a public architect,” he says, “it just doesn’t get any better than that.” Ayers called serving as the “steward and caretaker” of the Capitol complex “a great opportunity.”

Besides overseeing high-profile projects such as the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, restoration of the U.S. Capitol Dome and renovation of the Cannon House Office Building, Ayers also worked on the Audio-Visual Conservation at the Library of Congress Packard Campus. Located in Culpeper, Va., the project provides underground storage for the entire audio-visual collection on 90 miles of shelving in a former underground Federal Reserve cash storage and computer operations facility.

Ayers also reduced carbon emissions, increased energy efficiency and implemented sustainable design practices at the Capitol complex. His team also designed and constructed a cogeneration system at the Capitol Power Plant. For these and other accomplishments over his long career, ENR MidAtlantic has named Ayers its Legacy Award winner.

艾尔斯（Ayers）领导着一家拥有7.3亿美元预算和2300名员工的代理商，负责在国会大厦校园内维护和保存超过1740万平方英尺的设施和580英亩的地面。其中包括美国最高法院，国会图书馆，历史悠久的房屋和参议院办公楼，国会大厦本身，美国植物园以及成千上万的艺术品和树木作品。美国国家建筑学院秘书长韦恩·A·克鲁（Wayne A.18luck官网Crew补充说：“斯蒂芬是最完美的专业人士，为他参与的每个组织增添了价值。”

Those organizations have been many. Ayers has served as chairman of the Board for the National Institute of Building Sciences, the Construction Users Roundtable and the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA).

In 2018, he was the national conference chair for the National Academy of Construction, where he currently serves on the strategic planning committee. Ayers also was a member of the American Architectural Foundation’s Board of Regents from 2015 to 2017. He recently led a blue ribbon panel for the Smithsonian Institution to review the condition of its facilities and facility-management processes.

Ayers has also won the Construction Industry Institute’s Carroll H. Dunn Award of Excellence and the American Institute of Architects’ Thomas Jefferson Award. In introducing Ayers as the Legacy Award winner at a Nov. 5 lunch in Baltimore, Bruce D’Agostino—retired president and CEO of the CMAA and ENR MidAtlantic’s 2017 Legacy Award winner—said, “Throughout his career, Stephen’s focus has been to advance the architecture, construction and engineering professions for the greater good of the industry and to make a positive impact on the built environment.”

国会大厦安全

Although Ayers joined the AOC’s office a year after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, he estimated he spent only 5% of his time working on security infrastructure during his first five years on the job. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, however, Ayers recalls, security-related issues absorbed approximately 30% of his working hours.

在9/11之后的一周，艾尔斯（Ayers）在哈特参议院办公大楼（Hart参议院办公大楼）回应了紧急情况，那里的信件包含炭疽孢子的信件已邮寄给两名民主党参议员。

The letters were among multiple mailings of anthrax in that period after 9/11. In all, five people died—including two workers at a U.S. Postal Service facility in Washington, D.C.—and 17 others were sickened. A few hours after he arrived at the Hart Building, Ayers had his clothes confiscated and was put on medication to counteract potential anthrax exposure.

Ayers helped move the senators’ offices out of the building overnight and into leased office space, where they stayed for the next seven months while Ayers worked with military experts to remediate the anthrax.

作为AOC，艾尔斯的职责包括在国会大厦警察委员会中任职，在那里他花了大量时间在安全和贵族保护，身体安全，警务，行动和情报上的时间上，”艾尔斯说。“他们在建筑学校中不教您这种东西，但这很重要。”

Ayers helped design security measures that maintained the Capitol’s iconic architecture. “There’s not a fence around the Capitol today because people like me and others try to find alternative solutions,” he says.

艾尔斯（Ayers）拒绝详细说明特定的替代安全措施，但他说他帮助设计了卧底和统一警察的周围。他还帮助设计和构建了国会大厦游客中心，以便几乎每个进入国会大厦综合大楼的人都从一定程度上远离建筑物本身就可以做到这一点。

艾尔斯说，在9月11日的袭击期间和之后，在压力下表现有助于他为他的代理机构的最高工作做好准备，负责世界上一些最具标志性的建筑物。但是他说，没有什么可以为他准备在国会前作证的“重力”做好准备。艾尔斯说：“我花了很多时间为自己做准备，准备做到这一点，并练习和执行它。”

Effectively communicating with and building relationships with members of Congress “is vital to success,” Ayers says. That’s no surprise, because one of the AOC’s most important jobs is convincing Congress to fund bread-and-butter operational maintenance work needed to “stave off major renovations” at the Capitol, he says.

Ayers says the key to working in a political environment is to work and communicate in a political style. “You have to be able to sell your programs in a way that they can understand, appreciate and value,” he says. Those were among the best words of wisdom Ayers says he received from his predecessors.

If he gets the opportunity, Ayers says he will impart the same advice to J. Brett Blanton, who was sworn in as the 12th AOC on Jan. 16. Ayers says he’d also like to tell Blanton—the former deputy vice president for engineering at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority—to appreciate the AOC staff. “Value them and what they bring to the table and treat them with respect and they in turn will do a great job for you,” he says.

Sustainable Future

Among Ayers’ proudest accomplishments is achieving congressionally set energy-efficiency goals. Those 2007 requirements called on the AOC to reduce its energy consumption by 30% over eight years. That was a daunting task because the AOC-maintained buildings are used around the clock and weren’t designed to accommodate modern technologies.

Ayers and his team met the goal in part by implementing energy data and advanced control systems to improve efficiency. Ayres and his team also improved the ability to generate and deliver chilled water and steam in the Capitol Power Plant. Serving the Capitol since 1910, the facility, which was transitioning to natural gas, was the only coal-burning power plant in the District of Columbia before Ayers’ team converted it to rely mostly on natural gas in 2009. Coal remains a backup energy source.

But, more significantly, the AOC reduced the need to burn coal as a backup fuel source when it completed a 7.5-megawatt cogeneration facility in 2018. Using natural gas in a combustion turbine, the system more efficiently generates electricity, chilled water and heat for steam for the 23 facilities on Capitol Hill. According to the AOC’s office, the cogeneration plant reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 6.5% and hazardous air pollutants by 18%. “That’s an incredibly efficient system that saved us a lot of money,” Ayers says.

As the cogen plant neared completion, Ayers considered completing his own tenure as AOC before his 10-year appointment expired. Then, in June 2017, about 15 months shy of his retirement eligibility age of 56, Ayers fell off a ladder while trimming trees in his yard.

他打破了两条腿和脚踝and shattered a heel. Bedridden for several weeks after surgery, Ayers eventually used a wheelchair and didn’t walk without crutches or a cane until about October 2017. He says while the accident “played into his decision” to ultimately step down as AOC in November 2018, it also “put life into perspective for me” to find ways to “lead a more meaningful life and be more engaged with my family.”

Despite needing another operation, Ayers recently took up mountain biking and is an avid golfer. “I’ve got a great excuse now for all of my golf buddies that I broke both legs, ‘What’s your excuse?’” he says.

作为“半决赛”顾问，Ayers现在担任MOCA Systems董事会成员，致力于该公司服务和软件产品部门的战略增长。他还是工程基础设施和建构环境委员会（BICE）国家学院的成员。

此外，Ayers是美国建筑师学院的顾问和项目主管。他正在通过研究，设计和翻新其总部大楼的华盛顿特区的研究，设计新利luck和翻新。Haresign Architects称Ayers为AIA总部项目的“理想顾问”，“他的经验体现了AIA在融合技术，可持续性，保存，可自适应使用空间来满足当代需求和示例性设计的各个方面。”

艾尔斯（Ayers）说，他最终会少工作，但他总是“在大火中熨烫”。