As Bellingham and Whatcom County's future takes shape, Zervas Group is working to create a place that is not just sustained, but enriched through more spaces and places that celebrate compelling design, environmental responsibility & civic contribution.Zervas Group Architects has been integral to Bellingham's growth and development since 1961, when Jim Zervas established his practice alongside the handful of architects working in a town whose population of 34, 000 hadn't changed much since the 1930s. With a decade of experience behind him, including an apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright, Zervas devoted the early years of his practice to residential architecture in projects that embodied his principles of aesthetic, environmental and civic responsibility.In 1970, his firm landed its first educational job - an addition to the gym and athletic fields at Western Washington College, which led to a project for the areas newest large employer, a recreational facility for the ARCO refinery at Cherry Point. That same year, Zervas Group was asked to develop a plan to expand the Bellingham International Airport and, two years after that, the firm was working on the new Whatcom Counseling and Psychiatric Clinic and a remodel of Whatcom Middle School when the City of Bellingham commissioned the firm to develop plans for its new civic center. By the mid-seventies, the firm was at work on a major addition to Sunnyland School, while designing two of the areas most significant new resort developments: Snowater condominiums near Mt. Baker and Jacobs Landing at the popular Birch Bay Resort. Western Optical, now the Coop Connections facility, was also built at this time.During this time, Zervas began earning a reputation for his work as a community builder. As the first Chairman of the Whatcom County Parks Board in 1965, he led efforts to fund the first parks in what is now an award-winning system. As a driving force behind the purchase and subsequent restoration of the historic Mt. Baker Theater in the mid-1980s, he was instrumental in saving an important piece of Bellingham's heritage and, perhaps more importantly, enriching the community's cultural future. In 1992 he helped form the Regional Urban Design Assistance Team, bringing experts together to provide a vision for Bellingham's future that continues its work today.As the firm has grown, partners who share Jims dedication have added depth and breadth to the practice. Today, Zervas Group is a regional design leader led by four principals - Terry Brown, Sharon Robinson, Mike Smith and Jim Zervas - whose diverse backgrounds converge in a vision of a design and community that builds on the values Jim established in 1961.Bellingham is now home to 75, 000 people and the hub of a rapidly growing county - the word is out about our areas high quality of life. The community faces difficult but exciting issues surrounding growth that Zervas Group is well positioned to address, with the resources, experience and judgment that come with forty-five years of award-winning practice. As Bellingham and Whatcom County's future takes shape, Zervas Group is working to create a place that is not just sustained, but enriched through more spaces and places that celebrate compelling design, environmental responsibility and civic contribution.
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