Richmond Glass Building Update

According to this, the developer Justin French wants to make the Richmond Glass building into student housing for Virginia Commonwealth University. I understand the logic since the building is in the perfect location, just a block from the other two freshman dorms. However, I think it's a waste of what was once (and can be again) a gorgeous building. Using the refurbished Richmond Dairy Apartments, a few blocks away at Marshall as an example, the quality of the building can go down depending on the tenants.


201 West Marshall Street by 100wordminimum

I checked out the Richmond Dairy Apartments years ago when I first moved back and they were quite a disappointment. The apartments themselves looked great; high ceilings, and interesting loft layouts, despite the horrendous choice of wall-to-wall carpet* for apartments that were being marketed to beginning college students. I'm not denigrating all college students, hey, I'm still one! But freshman students, straight from living at home? Puh-lease! That carpet was marked for death at the get-go!

However, because they had decided on college students as desired tenants, the doors of the apartments were already littered with posters and personal notes. Yes, posters like you would see on dorm walls but these were outside in the public hallways! I clearly remember this as being the practice when I was in the Rhodes Hall dorm back in 1987, but even then the school supplied cork bulletin boards for this purpose. At Richmond Dairy, people were just stapling and using thumb tacks and tape on the actual doors. As I was touring the building, the employee who walked me around didn't even mention it, choosing instead to ignore the mess. That was all I needed to see that this was not the place for me (or any other adult) to live in.

So, I say to the developers working on the Richmond Glass Building, please rethink the final use of this building!

Image: from 100wordminimum's Flickr set

*I am sure they have regretted that BIG time by now.