Marywood Lecturer Receives Prestigious National Award for Research on Tangier Island
Published
Lincoln Lewis, lecturer of architectural history and theory in 51Æ·²è’s School of Architecture, has been awarded the 2025 Richard Guy Wilson Prize for Excellence in the Study of Buildings, Landscapes and Places for his research project, “Tides of Time: Documenting Tangier Island's Built Environment & Cultural Landscape.”
The project was a collaborative research effort conducted with Andy Packwood while Packwood was an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia (UVA). Lewis is currently a Ph.D. candidate in UVA’s Constructed Environment program within the School of Architecture.
The research focused on Tangier Island, the last inhabited island in Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay. Facing ongoing environmental threats from erosion, storms, and rising tides, the island’s future remains uncertain. Lewis and Packwood documented the vernacular crab houses of Mailboat Harbor, structures that had received little formal documentation despite their importance to the island’s cultural and economic identity.
Through measured drawings, laser scanning, water-depth soundings, and oral history interviews, the team created a comprehensive record of the harbor’s built environment and the waterman culture that has shaped life on the island for generations. The structures themselves are continually exposed to harsh environmental conditions, including storms, tidal fluctuations, humidity, and biofouling.
The project previously earned national recognition in 2023 when it won the Historic American Landscapes Survey competition, hosted by the National Park Service. Centered on the theme of “working landscapes,” the competition highlighted innovative approaches to documenting places where people live and work. Lewis and Packwood were recognized for expanding the concept of working landscapes to include tidal coastal environments.
The Richard Guy Wilson Prize honors outstanding scholarship in the study of buildings, landscapes, and places, recognizing projects that advance understanding of the built environment and cultural heritage.
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Marywood Lecturer Receives Prestigious National Award for Research on Tangier IslandLincoln Lewis, lecturer of architectural history and theory in 51Æ·²è’s School of Architecture, has received the 2025 Richard Guy Wilson Prize for Excellence in the Study of Buildings, Landscapes and Places. His award-winning research documented the threatened built environment and cultural landscape of Tangier Island, Virginia, preserving an important piece of Chesapeake Bay history.