Ron Lipford: Inside The Firm
Arel Architects Has Been In Business For Over 30 Years, Part Of Several Major Projects Around The County
By Tiffany Young
Build it and they will come! Before it’s built, Arel Architects Inc., comes in and offers clients a broad range of professional design and engineering and construction management services to help complete their brick and mortar project. Since 1991, Arel Architects Inc., led by Ronald D. Lipford, has been providing services in Washington, DC and Prince George’s County, MD.
While traditional architecture firms can be vastly different regarding services offered and design specialization, Arel Architects Inc., stands apart from their competitors in a diverse range of services, values-based leadership, and staff. Under Lipford’s leadership and vision, Arel has established a reputation in the industry as a firm that offers owners custom solutions to any and all construction challenges. This model has kept the business going and expanded their footprint in Prince George’s County, MD for three decades.
The Office of Central Services, which administers centralized support services for the county government, including facilities operation and management, contract, is an Arel client. One of the mission critical services offered is capital construction. The office provides modernizing, expansion and building infrastructure improvement services to the county. Lipford’s services through Arel aided the county with the design of a new fire station in Capitol Heights, MD.
“In addition, two others have been built, one is in Springdale and the other in Brandywine. The [fire] station on Shady Glen Road in Capitol Heights was the fourth model,” Lipford says. The community was instrumental in creating the Shady Glen Road fire station location. Lipford said, [they] helped to solicit funds. “The design we came up with tied into The Barrel Vault. “That’s an element that comes from the Glen Dale station. and other locations are all unique to Shady Glen. We believe it gives them an identity that is new to the county.”
Lipford has more than 30 years’ experience in design, project management, scheduling, and inspections. His project experience includes commercial, high rise, educational, religious institutions, hospital, healthcare, public safety (police stations, fire stations), museums and special use buildings.
Public safety and wellness facilities are top priority at Arel. Toward that end, clients include the University of Maryland, Prince George's Hospital Center in Largo and the upcoming Health and Human Services building in Capitol Heights. Lipford says there are a number of office buildings being established near Central Ave. “It’s that type of intention directive for planning,” he said.
Lipford has also performed scheduling, inspections and construction management/administration services on more than $75 million in projects and has provided instruction in the basics of project development from an A/E design perspective for numerous non-profit and municipal agencies.
Next for the Hampton University graduate is gaining more clients and having more mixed used development.
“People will work on the ground floor and then take an elevator up to their apartment. That’s what we will start to see here. Building permits with new zoning are now being applied,” he says.
Read more about Lipford and Arel projects in the FALL/WINTER 2022 edition. Click here.
