Barbara Hawthorn has created and directed award-winning residential and commercial projects throughout the United States for over 35 years. Her firm has been named one of the region’s best in numerous publications. Her firm’s innovative designs have been featured on Home & Garden Television (HGTV), and in national and regional newspapers, magazines, and designer show houses.
While growing up in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Paris, Barbara traveled to major European and Far Eastern cities, developing her appreciation for architecture and the decorative arts. During her summers in high school, she worked for her father’s engineering firm, which pioneered the energy-savings application of cogeneration to commercial facilities. She also was involved in the development of New York’s Roosevelt Island, an urban center on the East River that included car-free zones and easy access to mass transit.
Barbara graduated from the Fieldston School and Vassar College with Phi Beta Kappa honors. She went on to receive a prestigious Ford Foundation Fellowship and earn a Masters of Public Policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dedicated to advancing educational opportunities for children, Barbara serves on the Executive Committee of the Women’s Leadership Group for The Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, where she received the 2018 Fearless Woman Award. She is Chair of the Board of the McLean Project for the Arts; she is on the board of GoodWeave International; on the Advisory Board of In A Perfect World; a CARE International Global Leader; a member of the Meridian Global Leader Council; and the Phillips Collection has designated her as one of their “Ambassadors.”