Going Down: 220 South Street
by Dave McNair
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Despite developer Oliver Kuttner’s offer to buy and move the building next door, the Blue Moon Fund plans to demolish some rare affordable housing downtown to make room for a conference center. A demo permit was filed with the city today. Last year, a representative of the Fund, which counts supporting new approaches to urban development to “improve the human condition” as one of its initiatives, justified the demo by saying the existing building was energy inefficient and that the Fund didn’t want to “perpetuate that kind of construction.”
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good for them. not every home needs to be saved, not everything old is an antique
Aren’t there plenty of empty existing structures downtown that could be turned into a conference center?
I find it hard to believe the loss of affordable housing is worth it.
Isn’t it gone already?
Wasn’t this apartment building erected in the eighties or nineties?
“Plans to demolish”? Actually, it was reduced to kindling several weeks ago. The only thing left on the site now is wood chips.
I was a tenant there for a spell; it was affordable (relative to Charlottesville’s above-average rental rates) but had a number of disadvantages. Foremost was its proximity to the railroad tracks - the house shook when the trains passed by, which was often.
And while I agree with the Blue Moon Fund that energy efficiency was an issue, retrofitting to improve the insulation would be a lot more environmentally friendly than demolition. By not at least trying to re-use some of the building materials they are “perpetuating” our disposable society. Wag of the finger, Blue Moon Fund!
The Blue Moon Fund doesn’t care what what anyone thinks. You might as well be wagging your finger at the side of a mountain. That building lacked the bling-bling they wanted. They want a show-off project, and that place was far too humble. It will take a much larger building to contain all that hot air and high-fiving.
Of course, if they practiced what they preach, then they would have either improved the existing building or built somewhere else, and not added additional scrap to the landfill.
The Fund does good work, but the superior holier-than-thou attitude of many of those involved is laughable.
Being a disposable society creates jobs and putting non toxic crap in a landfill. covering it with dirt and planting trees doesn’t hurt the environment.
I doubt if anyone would characterize the Blue Moon Fund as a significant provider of employment. The question is why would they try to convert a two-story apartment building to a conference center?
didn’t the Monticello Conference Center (or whatever that warehouse down the hill from the Fire Station was called) close for lack of bookings just recently?
The fact that they are trying to put a green spin on it is a joke.
That conference center was a private enterprise. With the clout that the Blue Moon Fund has on city council, I’m sure it won’t be huring for tax money. It’s pet project, the Charlottesville Community Design Center, receives a lot of funds each year.
[...] A comic actor and husband of former Charlottesvillian Savitri Durkee is running for mayor of New York against Michael Bloomberg. The Reverend Billy of The Church of Stop Shopping, an anti-consumerism organization, takes his anti-consumerism on a quest toward Gracie Mansion, according to the New York Times. (0) Going Down: 220 South Street [...]