The editors of ENR have chosen Stephen T. Ayers as ENR MidAtlantic’s 2019 Legacy Award winner. The award is given annually to an individual in the region who has established a solid “legacy” of lifetime service to the construction industry, their colleagues and to their community. ENR MidAtlantic includes Washington D.C., Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

Ayers was honored at the ENR MidAtlantic Best Projects awards banquet on Nov. 5 in Baltimore. He will also be profiled in the February 2020 issue of ENR MidAtlantic. 

Serving as Architect of the Capitol from 2007 to 2018, Ayers led an agency with a $730-million annual budget and 2,300 employees. He oversaw high-profile projects such as the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, restoration of the U.S. Capitol Dome, renovation of the Cannon House Office Building and a new co-generation system at the Capitol Power Plant. The Architect of the Capitol also oversees the upkeep and preservation of more than 17.4 million sq ft of facilities and 580 acres of grounds on the Capitol campus. That includes the historic House and Senate office buildings, the Capitol itself, thousands of works of art and trees.

Ayers also served as a military officer in the 6510th Civil Engineering Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base in California and as the European construction manager for the Voice of America.

Ayers joined the MOCA Systems’ board of directors after stepping down as Architect of the Capitol in November 2018. For MOCA, Ayers works on strategic growth of the firm’s services and software products division. He was also elected to serve on the National Academies of Engineering, Board of Infrastructure and Constructed Environment (BICE). He currently serves as a consultant and project executive for the American Institute of Architects. He is leading the organization through the study, design and renewal of their headquarters building in Washington, D.C. He also served as the leader of a Blue Ribbon Panel for the Smithsonian Institution to review their facilities and facility management processes.

Ayers has served as chairman of the Board for the National Institute of Building Sciences and the Construction Users Roundtable and the Construction Management Association of America.

In 2018, he was the national conference chair for the National Academy of Construction, where he currently serves on the strategic planning committee. He served as a regent on the American Architectural Foundation’s Board of Regents from 2015 to 2017. Other awards include the Carroll H. Dunn Award of Excellence from the Construction Industry Institute and the Thomas Jefferson Award from the American Institute of Architects.