# DC Design Forum - Volume 01 Complete text content of https://dcdesignforum.com, published in plain text because the homepage is a self-unpacking JavaScript bundle and returns no readable markup to crawlers that do not execute scripts. This file is the canonical readable version of the page. Build: M9 Event date: Thursday, October 22, 2026 --- ## At a glance - Date: Thursday, October 22, 2026 - Hours: 1:00 - 5:00 PM (sessions 1:00-3:00, showcases 3:00-3:30, reception 3:30-5:00) - Venue: Walk Your Plans DC, Fairfax, Virginia - Seats: 50 only (hard cap) - Cost: Complimentary - Registration: https://dcdesignforum.com/#register - Host contact: Henry Jones, hjones@residentialelevators.com, +1 646-825-1328 --- ## Hero **One afternoon. Every plan at full scale.** On Thursday, October 22, fifty of the region's architects, designers and specification professionals spend an afternoon inside the only studio in the DMV that projects drawings at 1:1. Two sessions worth the drive. Plans underfoot at actual size. Cocktails at three. No cost, no pitch deck, no badge scanners. --- ## About **An annual tradition, now in the Nation's Capital.** Every market has a room where the real conversation happens. In the DMV, it has not had a date on the calendar. The DC Design Forum is that date, a season-marking afternoon for the architects, designers and specification professionals working across Northern Virginia, Maryland and the District. The intention is deliberately narrow: a working venue, two sessions on the details that actually cost you money, and a reception where the people who build this region can be in one room without an agenda. Fifty seats, because a hundred is a conference and a conference is not this. --- ## Program **Built around the specification problems that cost you a change order.** Two hours, two topics, presented by the people who manufacture the product and get the call when it does not fit. Two short sponsor showcases after, then the room stays for cocktails. ### Session 01 - 1:00 - 2:00 PM **Custom Residential Elevators: Code, Design & Integration** Presented by Henry Jones, Residential Elevators Integrating private elevators into custom residences from schematic design forward, what to set early, what to leave flexible, and where the field always pushes back. - Hoistway sizing and machine-room configurations - Virginia, Maryland and DC code paths, ASME A17.1 - Finish coordination across cab, gates and trim - Specification mistakes that drive change orders You leave with: the dimensions to lock at schematic so the shaft never moves after framing. ### Session 02 - 2:00 - 3:00 PM **Interior Doors in an Elevator Project: Specification, Coordination & Install** Presented by Dave Jones, TruStile What has to be considered when ordering interior doors for residential applications, and how every one of those decisions changes when the project includes an elevator. Sizing, jamb depth, door prep and trim, walked end to end from spec to install. - Solid-wood vs. MDF construction and panel vocabulary - Sizing, jamb depth and door prep for residential applications - Trim options and coordination across spec, order and install - Door pairings with elevator applications, clearances and swings You leave with: a door schedule that survives contact with the elevator contractor. ### Showcase - 3:00 - 3:15 PM **California Closets** How early collaboration aligns client expectations, sets a realistic budget and gets selections made before they turn into revisions. Where a storage partner belongs in the sequence, working as an extension of the project team rather than a trade that arrives late, and what that changes for the drawings and the schedule. ### Showcase - 3:15 - 3:30 PM **Classic Cottages** How a custom home comes together across Alexandria, Arlington, McLean, Falls Church and Vienna, from lot through final walkthrough. What a builder needs settled at design, where an infill site quietly rewrites the plan, and how builder and architect stay aligned while the drawings are still moving. ### Reception - 3:30 PM until 5:00 PM **The part everyone actually stays for, plus cocktails and hors d'oeuvres** At the first volume this ran two hours past the last slide. A small group of architects, builders and designers, most of them mid-project somewhere across the DMV, talking in a studio with full-scale plans still lit on the floor. There is no equivalent networking room in this market, because there is no equivalent room. - Catering: hors d'oeuvres and full bar - Attire: business casual - Format: open, no remarks - Open to: all registered guests --- ## Venue **Walk Your Plans DC** - Fairfax, Virginia The forum is hosted in the only studio in the Capital region purpose-built for full-scale architectural walkthroughs. Drawings are projected at 1:1 onto the studio floor and elevation wall. Architects, builders and their clients walk the plan at actual size before a single piece of dirt moves. For the forum the studio doubles as the venue. Sessions in the early afternoon, reception in the same space, plans lit on the floor throughout. There is no other room in the DMV that does this, which is most of the reason to come. --- ## Recap of the previous volume **This format already worked. The right room showed up.** June 12, 2026, Santa Rosa Beach. Forty-plus builders, architects, designers and real-estate professionals spent the afternoon walking full-scale plans, talking specification and staying through the reception. Same hosts, same format, same intent. Washington is next. This is the whole pitch. A working studio, tables set for two sessions, and a room of practising architects who stayed for the drinks. Washington gets the same afternoon on October 22, with fifty seats instead of forty. --- ## Hosts **Walk Your Plans DC** - https://www.walkyourplansdc.com The Capital region's full-scale architectural projection studio, serving DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland. Built to let designers, builders and homeowners walk a floor plan at 1:1 before construction begins. **Residential Elevators** - https://residentialelevators.com America's only fully in-house residential elevator company. Sales, design, manufacture, installation and service under one roof. Family-owned, thirty years in the field. --- ## Sponsors **The firms making Volume 01 possible.** Volume 01 is underwritten by manufacturers and suppliers who work this market every day. Their teams present the sessions, staff the reception and answer specification questions in the room, which is the only reason it is free to you. | Partner | Role | Website | | --- | --- | --- | | Residential Elevators | Presenting co-host | https://residentialelevators.com | | Walk Your Plans DC | Venue co-host | https://www.walkyourplansdc.com | | TruStile Doors | Presenting sponsor | https://www.trustile.com | | California Closets | Session sponsor | https://www.californiaclosets.com | | Classic Cottages | Session sponsor | https://www.ccottages.com/ | Sponsorship for Volume 02 opens after October 22. Inquiries: hjones@residentialelevators.com --- ## Registration **Volume 01. Reserve your seat.** Seating is capped at fifty so the afternoon stays a conversation rather than an audience. Both sessions are set. Leave your details and we will confirm your seat by email along with the full run of show. No cost and no sales follow-up. We email you twice. Register at https://dcdesignforum.com/#register --- ## Contact **Questions, sponsorship, or a session idea?** Both sessions for Volume 01 are set. If your firm has a specification topic worth an hour in front of the region's architects, or you would like to sponsor a future volume, this is the fastest way to reach us. - Host: Henry Jones, Residential Elevators - Email: hjones@residentialelevators.com - Venue phone: +1 646-825-1328 --- ## Footer An annual design forum for the architects and design professionals shaping the Capital region's residential future. Co-hosts: Walk Your Plans DC, Residential Elevators Sponsors: TruStile Doors, California Closets, Classic Cottages (c) 2026 DC Design Forum - An Annual Capital Design Forum Volume 01 - October 22, 2026 - Walk Your Plans DC, Fairfax VA