Marie Butler Leven Preserve Restoration

Bowers Design Build has always believed in supporting concerns important to our clients and the communities where they live. That is why when we were asked to help restore the Marie Butler Leven Preserve, a native arboretum project in the McLean section of Fairfax County, we were honored to assist.

The Marie Butler Leven Preserve property was bequeathed to the FAIRFAX COUNTY PARK AUTHORITY (FCPA) in the early 1970s, upon the express condition, that said property be used, in its entirety, exclusively as an arboretum and nature preserve, and that it be operated for the benefit of the general public as an educational and demonstration facility. Overtime, despite FCPA efforts, the home on the 17-acre property became the victim of vandalism and fell into disrepair. In 2004, FCPA and the Earth Sangha, a volunteer-based ecological restoration organization, developed an agreement to transform the Preserve into an extensive collection of plants native to the greater Washington, DC region.

In 2016, with the support and guidance of Dranesville District Supervisor John W. Foust, the Earth Sangha and the FCPA entered into an agreement with Bowers Design Build to renovate the old Leven House on the Preserve grounds. The Earth Sangha has signed a 10-years lease to use the house in order to better assist with the management of the grounds. The preservation of the house concluded in June 2017 and it is now used as an educational center for local school children to learn about native plants.

We are very proud of our role in restoring this home so that it could be inhabitable and once again serve the community as it was originally intended.