Funky connector to fall

A covered pedestrian bridge linking two towering Jefferson Park Avenue medical office buildings owned by UVA will be torn down to improve access to the 11th Street Parking Garage and the children's hospital building planned nearby. Citing its obsolescence as well as approvals by art and historic review boards, the UVA Board of Visitors authorized the demolition November 17, during a meeting at which three Alderman Road freshman housing complexes–- Lile, Dunnington, and Tuttle House–- were also officially doomed. The unusual orange-and-black connecting structure was shown on the cover of the June 3, 2004 issue of the Hook to illustrate a story about the changing face of West Main Street. The Blake Center, the name of the building at left, is also eventually doomed, according to UVA medical center spokesperson Peter Jump, who says that bridge demolition will start in "early December."