Longboard’s inaugural Architectural Excellence Awards celebrated multitudes of exciting and innovative projects. The Van Dorn Plaza situated in Alexandria, Virginia, is one of the projects that won the AEA award in the Unique Install category. Submitted by the installer, A+N Construction LLC, the project zoomed into their exemplary work on the tough install. “It’s an honor to be recognized for this work,” commented Stephen Leach, Senior Project Manager, at A+N.

Van Dorn is the result of the successful collaboration between owner EDENS‘ developmental vision, architect firm Nahra Design Group, and of course, A+N’s installation brilliance. Together, they transformed the aging 1970s shopping plaza into a space that exudes “elegant simplicity,” as Ryan Lorey, Vice President, Development at EDENS, puts it. 

“Van Dorn is a property we’ve owned for about 20 years or so and it was kind of due for a facelift,” said Lorey. The design brief that was locked in for this project, led by Nahra Design Group, was built around the idea of elegant simplicity. “We like to use wood for its warmth and the Longboard is a great opportunity to achieve that natural warmth and aesthetic of wood, but with longevity and durability,” he explains.

A+N Construction LLC was not new to installing Longboard. Arya Ebrahimi founded the company a decade ago, specializing in facade installation. “Facade installation is a niche that we enjoy and seem to do well in,” says Arya. “We’ve worked with Longboard for many years and we’ve really had a good track record. It’s been a very collaborative relationship as we’ve been specified on their projects and we’ve specified them on projects,” says Arya. 

Much of the process for Van Dorn had actually been done before on an earlier EDENs property, Burtonville Crossing, where A+N had already worked through many of the technical details that would later be used at Van Dorn. When Edens brought A+N onto Van Dorn Plaza, it was with full confidence in what the team could deliver, even on a building that was a considerably harder job than usual.

Burtonsville Crossing, Burtonsville, Maryland.
Installed by A+N

“What a lot of other trades don’t understand is how perfectly straight an aluminum extrusion is,” explains Stephen. On a building layered with decades of stucco, patching, and previous renovations, the challenges were significant. The uneven nature of the substrate meant that pursuing flatness was a continuous challenge, even on wall sections that had been fully stripped down. Forcing the Longboard profiles onto these irregular surfaces would cause the material to twist, which would, in turn, compromise the look of the Link & Lock system. 

“We got creative with how we installed shims behind it to keep it looking flat,” says Stephen. Carefully placed shims behind each plank built out a consistently flat plane across the entire facade. Every trellis, ceiling feature, and vertical batten presented their own alignment challenges, all executed using the same Link & Lock profiles. “It’s a very versatile material. Obviously we use the same profiles for all of those different features,” states Arya.

Van Dorn, before and after renovation.

To lock the profiles together cleanly without damaging the substrate, A+N used non-marking flooring hammers and quick-grip vice clamps_, a method refined over years of working with the system. Shimming also introduced new fastening considerations, including additional fasteners beyond the standard pattern were often needed to keep everything in place over time, preventing the slow twist that can occur if the details aren’t thought through carefully.

The most technically distinctive aspect of the Van Dorn install was a non-standard external bracket connection detail, developed in direct collaboration with Longboard’s technical team during the shop drawing process. Edens had a specific vision for how the trellis structure should look, the warmth and visual language of real timber framing, with brackets that appeared genuinely structural. 

Engineering that keeps the aluminum in mind, while fully accounting for thermal expansion and contraction, required working through the detail iteratively until it met both briefs. The result was a custom connection using structural steel tabs and bolts that makes aluminum look like timber, but performs like aluminum.

The renovation, featuring contemporary aluminum cladding on a 1970s shopping plaza, has achieved a look that is both classic and modern. The result is timeless, and very well deserving of an Architectural Excellence Award.