By Brian Trompeter
From expanding a vintage Sears home to preserving the Old Schoolhouse and ensuring various commercial buildings fit well with Great Falls’ rural aesthetic, architect Robert Mobley made a lasting impact on the community.
“As a local architect, he was a master of adaptive reuse and historic preservation,” said Bill Canis, former president of the Great Falls Citizens Association (GFCA). “Robert Mobley helped shape Great Falls into the attractive community it is today.”
Mobley, 85, died of a stroke March 29 after being involved in a minor traffic accident the previous week, his family said.
Services were held May 17 at Wolf Trap Farm Park. Mobley designed seven projects at Wolf Trap over his career, starting with a handicapped-accessible entrance and culminating with its Center for Education, his proudest achievement.
His intention with that facility was to create a “timeless design that fit smoothly into its setting,” his family said. “He bid against teams from larger firms, winning the job with the simple promise to dedicate his life to personally making every detail perfect.”
Robert Wilson Mobley was born in Washington, D.C. in 1938 and lived in a wide variety of locales before attending Annandale High School, where in 1956 he was a member of its first graduating class.
Mobley decided to become an architect after viewing drawings his brother Tony was doing for his architecture classes. Mobley earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Virginia Tech in 1964 and completed a “Human Behavior and Housing Design” course at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 1977. His role model was Frank Lloyd Wright.
Mobley began his career working at architectural offices around Washington, D.C., but started his own practice in Fairfax County in 1969 so he could pursue his own design style, his family said.
He designed a wide variety of projects in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, New Mexico, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington state – condominiums, subdivisions luxury homes, banks, office townhouses and small shopping centers.
Mobley was among a group of experts on whom GFCA leaders relied for advice regarding development projects that were not being done by-right and hence subject to public debate.
In several instances, such as the new TD Bank building at Georgetown Pike and Walker Road and the CVS store on Seneca Road, Mobley’s counsel led those buildings to have architectural features that helped them blend in with Great Falls’ rural character, Canis said.
Mobley played a key role in converting the Old Schoolhouse in Great Falls back to its original appearance and use after decades as a residence, bank and post office. He also expanded a 1930s house bought from a Sears catalog, which now is called Grey Gables.
“He did not just build McMansions,” Canis said. “He walked to a different tune.”
McLean resident and fellow architect John Colby was a friend and admirer of Mobley’s for decades. Mobley helped guide the restoration of L’Auberge Chez François after a fire at the Great Falls restaurant, and had many faithful customers on the Eastern Shore, Colby said in his eulogy.
“He had legions of admirers – clients and builders alike – who appreciated his warm heart and innate design sensibility,” Colby said.
Mobley also served for three decades on the Fairfax County and Herndon architectural review boards.
“He was determined that the present and the future should coexist gracefully with the past, applying humanistic standards that would ennoble life in often unnoticeable but critical ways for the citizens of Northern Virginia,” his family said.
Mobley married former high-school classmate Carolyn Gapen in 1961. The union produce three sons and five grandchildren.
Mobley’s wife died in 1995 and he married Lynn Peterson in 2001.
Mobley toward the end of his life suffered from peripheral neuropathy. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the foundation at www.foundationforpn.org.
