Category: Development
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Famous Mural Artist Rebukes Local Weekly for Insinuating Her Work is Racist
What happens when a world famous mural artist, commissioned recently by Bono on behalf of Paint (RED) to help raise awareness in the fight against AIDS, whose was selected earlier this year to paint murals at Dr. Maya Angelou Community High School in South L.A. as part of a week-long Maya Angelou Mural Festival in…
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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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Flashback: what was it like moving to the DTM in 1980?
In 1980, local realtor Roger Voisinet published an article in the Daily Progress about his decision to live on the Downtown Mall (not something too many people considered back then) and his hopes for the urban experiment. So, did it become what he imagined it would? “Yes, the Mall did become what I imagined and…
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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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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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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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Picture This: Indian mural stands alone as Charlottesville hotel goes up
Well, work on one downtown hotel is commencing, as crews lay the ground work for the new Marriott Residence Inn on the corner of West Main and Ridge/McIntire. This mural, captured recently by Hawes Spencer, was commissioned by former Random Row Books in 2011 and painted by a group of Tandem Friends School students, a response…
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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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Saving face: The Bridge proposes an art-over for the “Landmark”
Well, its been 5 years and 351 days since the groundbreaking ceremony for the proposed “Landmark Hotel,” according to the DTM’s construction clock, and finally someone has come up with a sensible, if temporary solution to dealing with the concrete eye-sore. The Bridge Progressive Art Initiative has proposed doing a series of collaborative art projects…
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