Peyton Boyd
Peyton Boyd has loved and enjoyed making art since junior high school. He has taken classes in painting, ceramics, printmaking and drawing, but his first love is plein air watercolor painting and drawing. However, most people are more familiar with his use of art in his chosen profession — architect.
“I have always been a proponent of design excellence. I believe in the power of architecture and the arts to elevate the quality of life of society in general and of my local community in particular. My design experience spans community facilities, campuses, exhibition spaces, performance venues, places of worship, commercial buildings and private residences. I encourage my clients to embrace sustainable design practices,” he says.
Examples of his art can be seen locally in the renovations of Barter Theatre, Abingdon, Virginia; the Birthplace of Country Music Museum and Annex, Bristol, Virginia; addition and renovation to St. Anne Catholic Church, Bristol, Virginia; Jubilee House Retreat and Conference Center, Abingdon, Virginia; and the swimming pool and spa at the Martha Washington Inn and Spa, Abingdon, Virginia.
Boyd has excelled in all levels in his field. He was chair of the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design in Richmond in the early 2000s and served in the American Institute of Architects in various positions, including past president of AIA Blue Ridge and past president of AIA Virginia.
In 2007 he was guest curator of the AIA traveling exhibit “Livable Communities for Virginia.” AIA Virginia honored him in 1998 with its Award for Distinguished Achievement, and in 2010 with the William C. Noland Medal, the statewide organization’s highest honor. In 2011 he was elected as an AIA Fellow.
Rene Rogers, curator, Birthplace of Country Music Museum says, “While those achievements are important and illustrate his expertise and the immense respect given to him by his professional peers, I believe that it is Peyton’s connection to his own community and this region that really underlines why he is deserving of this honor.”
Peyton’s former colleague Michael Haslam, who worked with him during the BCMM project, says, “Peyton’s commitment to, support of and advocacy for the arts in our region is beyond question. I’ve always been particularly impressed with how involved he manages to be at the state and national levels of AIA while maintaining his home and business in Abingdon. That’s a rare thing, I think, because so many of the big players you meet in AIA are representing much larger firms serving greater metropolitan markets. Peyton has worked hard over the course of his career to be seated at many a consequential table, to make his voice heard there, and to make his mark where the big conversations are unfolding among his most ambitious and high-minded professional peers, all while remaining grounded in his roots at home in Southwest Virginia. Locally, I’ve known Peyton to be always on the lookout for opportunities to lecture, lead tours, serve on boards, volunteer, educate, champion a cause or bolster a community effort. His Believe in Bristol involvement is just one example of the many ways Peyton has given so freely and abundantly of himself to help enrich and enliven the community spaces that make up his Mountain Empire home.”
Boyd says, “I am honored to receive the Arts Achievement Award, and I am grateful for the opportunity my career has given me to collaborate with so many creative, imaginative people. ‘Architecture is frozen music’ is a quote often attributed to the 18th-century poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I am fortunate to have traveled extensively in this country and abroad where great works of architecture can easily bring Goethe’s metaphor to mind. I hope people of all ages will feel and appreciate the joy that the music of architecture can bring to their lives.”
