Barbara Hawthorn, IFDA; Barbara Hawthorn Interiors, Ltd. Portrait by Bob Narod
In 2026, Home & Design inaugurated its prestigious Icon Awards, which recognize visionary leaders who have made remarkable achievements in their fields. These annual awards honor an architect, an interior designer and a landscape professional for their accomplishments and impact on the local design community.
Barbara Hawthorn founded her innovative firm more than four decades ago with a mission to create environments that integrate architectural integrity, fine art and craftsmanship to suit the lives of her clients. Since then, she has left an indelible mark on distinguished residences, embassies, restaurants and institutional interiors. Working in styles ranging from historic to contemporary, she takes an approach that is at once timeless, sophisticated and deeply personal. Her original furniture designs can be found in The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of contemporary art. Among her most recent projects, Hawthorn directed several renovations for the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, including its executive offices, an historic brownstone and the president general’s reception room in the iconic DAR Constitution Hall.
A graduate of Vassar College and the University of California, Berkeley, Hawthorn has been widely recognized for her accomplishments in design as well as her lifelong devotion to philanthropy. She has served as board chair of the McLean Project for the Arts and has been honored with both the Fearless Woman Award from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington as well as the Professional Woman of the Year award from The National Association of Women.