Category: Architecture
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Restored DTM Chairs Discovered in City Storage
A recent C-ville Weekly article seemed to suggest that if we wanted more chairs like the ones on the DTM the City would have to order new ones: C-Ville Weekly: “…According to [City spokesperson Brian] Wheeler, if the community wanted to add more wooden chairs to the mall, or even “a different type of bench…
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Mall Crossings: problems caused by ‘design limbo’
In the debate about the mall vehicle crossings, I see a lot of people taking about the fact that other pedestrian malls across the country have vehicle crossings, like Peal Street in Boulder, Colorado or Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace, as if they were the same as ours….but its worth mentioning that these and other remaining…
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DTM 2030: Will Charlottesville’s Pedestrian Mall Survive in the Long Run?
Hold on now! We all love our DTM, but allow me to indulge in some hypotheticals… It’s been interesting to note that many of the reasons that business owners on the mall have for insisting that the crossings at 4th and 2nd street remain open to traffic — less congestion around the mall, easy access…
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Saying Goodbye: Main Street Arena Architect Reflects on its Demolition
Local restoration architect Henry J. Browne, now in his 80s, has been stopping in for coffee at the restaurant at the Omni Hotel this past week, not necessarily for the coffee, but for the view it provides of the building across the way that he designed over 20 years ago, and which is about to…
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SPRINT PAVILION TO UNDERGO CONSTRUCTION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, October 22, 2018 SPRINT PAVILION TO UNDERGO CONSTRUCTION Replacement of original fabric roof to start November 1st (Charlottesville) The Sprint Pavilion will be undergoing construction this winter to replace the original fabric roof. This work will involve shutting off pedestrian access thru the venue during the construction period from the first…
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Dewberry’s Rat Hotel: Could the Charlottesville eyesore cause serious injury?
The infamous Rat Hotel in Boston was a deteriorating, crappy dive back in the 1970s and 80s, but at least it hosted bands like the Cars, Talking Heads, the B-52s, The Ramones, and The Police. Our deteriorating, crappy Rat Hotel just hosts rats. According to sources who work close to Atlanta-based developer John Dewberry’s “Landmark”…
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Responding to A12: DTM public art prize draws entries from around the world
After the events of August 12 last year, Bushman Dreyfus Architects sought to address the idea of monuments and memorials in contemporary civic life by creating the BDA Prize design and ideas competition, inviting architects, artists, and designers to come up with works of public art or architecture that would address some of the many…
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Up to Pasture: local artist has vision to turn Landmark into vertical farm
Turning the abandoned and blighted Landmark Hotel into a vertical urban garden may sound like a fanciful, farfetched idea, but at least local artist Russell Richards has an idea. The same can’t be said for the City or the hotel’s various owners, who have offered only empty promises. “I suspect the Landmark is never going…
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Ephemeral mural: Indian mural to remain, but obscured by new hotel
The iconic mural of two Indian chiefs that graces the side wall of the Afghan Grand Market on West Main Street will remain as a new Marriott Residence Inn goes up beside it, but it will be largely obscured from view, say City officials. The mural was commissioned by former Random Row Books in 2011 and…
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BREAKING NEWS: Construction on “Landmark” could begin this summer
It’s been over six years since former “Landmark” hotel property owner Halsey Minor broke ground on the planned boutique hotel for the DTM, and nearly two years since Atlanta-based developer John Dewberry bought the property for $6.25 million at auction, promising at the time to finish construction on the project once a similar hotel project…
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