On Architecture


ONARCHITECTURE- Pavement paradise: Water Street design winners announced! Published on Oct 11th, 2007 0 comments Last Friday, October 5, the jury selected by the Charlottesville Community Design Center to judge the winners of a contest to develop the Water Street parking lots selected their winners. In addition...
ONARCHITECTURE- You be the jury: Pick your favorite parking lot makeover! Published on Oct 4th, 2007 0 comments Will the Water Street parking lots look like this in 10 years?PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER On October 5, the Charlottesville Community Design Center will announce the winner of its Water Street design...
ONARCHITECTURE- Developing news: Jury picks winner for downtown lots Published on Sep 27th, 2007 0 comments What will this Water Street parking lot look like in 10 years?FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER Last Saturday, September 22, the Charlottesville Community Design Center allowed the public to inspect the...
ONARCHITECTURE- Scholarly debate: Will Bradbury house become history? Published on Sep 20th, 2007 0 comments Eugene Bradbury's historic Robert Compton House on Maury Avenue was designed in 1913.ALBEMARLE CHARLOTTESVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Last week, the Albemarle County Industrial Development Authority...
ONARCHITECTURE- Corner history? Developer likes it 'the way it is' Published on Sep 13th, 2007 0 comments The Corner parking lot booth– same as it ever was. But for how long? PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR One sign that the Corner hasn't lost its "antique, funky ambiance," as Corner property...
ONARCHITECTURE- Turning the Corner? Student enclave gets a developer's attention Published on Sep 6th, 2007 0 comments The Corner– same as it ever was. But for how long?PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR While development on the Downtown Mall in the last decade has made it almost unrecognizable to those who remember it in...
ONARCHITECTURE- Lynchburg's Pied Piper: Will Kuttner lure us to the Hill City? Published on Aug 30th, 2007 0 comments Singer-songwriter Lauren Hoffman (right) hangs out with the folks who recently bought Kuttner's Starlight Café in Lynchburg, Carri Sickmen, her partner, Julie Kotowski and their daughter, Ruby....
ONARCHITECTURE- Squeeze play: Planners stymie West Main developer Published on Aug 23rd, 2007 1 comments The BAR shot down plans for a CVS on the corner of West Main and McIntire three times. Now the Planning Commission has nixed rezoning plans for a nine-story tower on the site.PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR...
ONARCHITECTURE- Capshaw's right? Planners want say in coal tower project Published on Aug 16th, 2007 2 comments The coal tower property is finally going to be developed, thanks to Coran Capshaw, but what will it look like?PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR On August 14, the site plan for Coran Capshaw's 10.656-acre coal...
ONARCHITECTURE- <i>Way</i> complicated: Courthouse dust still swirling Published on Aug 9th, 2007 0 comments The Problem: On March 30, 2006 the north-east corner of the Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court building collapsed as workers dug near its foundation. PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR While the actual dust...
ONARCHITECTURE- Primping Preston: Is a roundabouted boulevard the answer? Published on Jul 26th, 2007 0 comments Could this be Preston Avenue one day?TORTI GALLAS & PARTNERS In European cities like London, Paris, and Rome, the grand boulevards with their ample sidewalks for pedestrians stand out for...
ONARCHITECTURE- Curb appeal: 'Skateblockers' slide by BAR Published on Jul 19th, 2007 0 comments
ONARCHITECTURE- Pavilion projections: An art work waiting to happen? Published on Jul 12th, 2007 0 comments
ONARCHITECTURE- What bonds can build: Monticello's new visitor center Published on Jul 5th, 2007 0 comments –> –>Designed by the Baltimore-based architecture firm Ayers-Saint-Gross– one of 22 firms Monticello invited to submit proposals– the complex is...
ONARCHITECTURE- Visionary moms? <i>DP</i> out on limbs for McGuffey Friends Published on Jun 28th, 2007 0 comments According to the Daily Progress, McGuffey Park was "overgrown, creating shielded nooks where illegal activities took place."FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER The Daily Progress sure likes what's happening...
ONARCHITECTURE- Trouble in paradise? Latino workers on the Woodlands go unpaid</span> Published on Jun 21st, 2007 0 comments The $60 million 300-unit Woodlands development on Sunset Avenue extended will be a "resort-style" condo community for students. PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIRsmall> When it's finished, the $60...
ONARCHITECTURE- Worth weeping for? McGuffey trees fall for 'water play wall' Published on Jun 14th, 2007 0 comments Site superintendent Steve Long presides over the renovation of McGuffey Park, which will include a round basketball court and a "weeping" water wall. PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER While a group...
ONARCHITECTURE- Too much, too late? Behind UVA's $2 million Blue Ridge demo Published on Jun 7th, 2007 0 comments UVA will save the Lyman Mansion and eight other buildings on the old Blue Ridge Sanatorium site, but want to demo 23 others. After a decade of what one of its own professors considers reckless...
ONARCHITECTURE- Twilight zoning: BZA procedure trumps reality Published on May 31st, 2007 7 comments November 30, 1999: Lucile Branham Watson's ashes are scattered in the pasture behind the Timberlake-Branham house by her daughter, Jane Leitch. "We absolutely thought that the entire seven acres...
ONARCHITECTURE- Intelligent design: Will robots take over architecture? Published on May 24th, 2007 6 comments Look out George Jetson: It's the Super Gallaxy II, a high-rise apartment complex that's constantly in motion and responds to the needs of its inhabitants. Photo Courtesy Jason Johnson and Nataly...
ONARCHITECTURE- Wall scrawl: Cox lays down his toilet brush Published on May 17th, 2007 1 comments
ONARCHITECTURE- Little big park: McGuffey renovation gets underway Published on May 10th, 2007 2 comments The City says the new McGuffey design will turn the site into a "world class children's park."PHOTO COURTESY SITEWORKS On Friday, May 11 the City will finally break ground on the a $...
ONARCHITECTURE- 'Baghdad' on Afton: Three down, five to go. Published on May 3rd, 2007 0 comments Until the '70s, when US 250 was the only road over Afton Mountain, the collection of stores, restaurants, and lodgings on the site, as well as the Rockfish Gap Tourist Information Center, were...
ONARCHITECTURE- Taking by typo? BZA reviews Woolen Mills dust-up Published on Apr 26th, 2007 0 comments On April 19, the Board of Zoning Appeals' small conference room in the basement of City Hall resembled a court room, as lawyers, BZA members, and disgruntled neighbors argued over a recent city...
ONARCHITECTURE- Seeing past TJ: Exhibit challenges TJ's influence Published on Apr 19th, 2007 2 comments When you think of the word "architecture" in Charlottesville, what do you see? Admit it: you see red brick, white trim, and columned porticos. But don't feel bad. Our most famous native son's...
ONARCHITECTURE- Constitutional dust-up: Can you read the writing on the wall? Published on Apr 12th, 2007 0 comments Early one morning last week, with the sun just beginning to rise over the Pavilion, Charlottesville resident Kevin Cox was preparing to make Constitutional history (as far as we know) by being the...
ONARCHITECTURE- Pre-fab-ulous? Builder does it the Swedish way Published on Apr 5th, 2007 0 comments The architectural dream of churning out factory-built houses the way Henry Ford churned out Model-Ts is nothing new. In fact, the curator of Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses, a...
ONARCHITECTURE- Parking prize: Downtown design contest raises eyebrows Published on Mar 29th, 2007 0 comments How does the City get to tell a private group how to develop its land? Well, it's been trying to chart the land between the Downtown Mall and South Street for at least a decade. And last July, a...
ONARCHITECTURE- Zoning snafu: Will error in Woolen Mills scrap PUD? Published on Mar 22nd, 2007 0 comments When developer and scrap yard owner Preston Coiner proposed a planned use development (PUD) on his property behind the Mary Williams Senior Center at 1512 E. Market Street last year, not only...
ONARCHITECTURE- Point pilgrimage: Gulf city comes seeking knowledge Published on Mar 15th, 2007 0 comments Our local politicians and city officials routinely face big challenges when they take office– how to promote responsible growth, propose budgets, maintain the City's infrastructure, listen to...