The Architect of the Capitol has hired a chief operating officer to handle its day-to-day management.

Richard McSeveney, who most recently supervised 5,000 military and civilian personnel for the Army at Fort McNair, will be responsible for strategic planning, performance management, worker safety and service quality.

“Dick brings a wealth of experience to the COO position from a facilities-management, program-operation and customer-service perspective,” Architect Alan Hantman said in a statement. “I look forward to working with him as a key part of our team to strengthen our organization as we further the AOC’s mission and goals.”

The COO position, also known as deputy architect, was created in the fiscal 2003 legislative branch appropriations bill after a long push by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), ranking member of the Appropriations subcommittee on the legislative branch. Durbin has long criticized the AOC for lack of long-term planning and ineffectual management, pointing out that a trained architect is not necessarily the best suited to run the organization charged with the Capitol’s buildings and grounds.

McSeveney has been on the job since the end of July. The position was originally supposed to be filled by late spring, but the AOC was granted a 90-day extension until August.

Most recently, McSeveney served as deputy to the commander for installation support at Fort McNair — located on the tip of Southwest Washington that juts into the Potomac River — overseeing a $280 million budget. He also designed and implemented management strategies to link projects and activities to the command’s strategic plan — something Congressional oversight committees have wanted the AOC to do much better.

He also spent nine years at the Defense Department as director of the Treaty Implementation Plan Agency, where he managed the implementation of the Panama Canal Treaty. Prior to that, McSeveney was deputy director of facilities and services at the Marine Corps headquarters where he was responsible for all installations worldwide. He also worked at the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters and served as senior project engineer at Fort Belvoir, Va. In addition to his civilian service, McSeveney served in the Army in Vietnam and left as a captain in 1975.

McSeveney has a master’s in business administration from Boston University and a bachelor’s in industrial/construction management from Colorado State University. He’s also a certified plant engineer and a registered professional engineer.