Is Richmond Renting To Clowns Now?

Then (1982)
109 East Grace Street

In Architecture in Downtown Richmond I found an old picture of the latest building, 109 East Grace Street, in my neighborhood to get a makeover. This building's makeover; going on just around the corner, is not a favorite of mine. In fact, I'm pretty upset about it. Checking the archives I was also able to see what it looked like in 1996.

Then (1996)

Yes, very non-descript. In fact, when they started working on it, I couldn't even remember what it looked like. I could remember the Great Graphic poster shop and Perly's diner, but not the building between them. Now I can see why.

Here are some recent photos I took to show what it looks like now:

Now! (2009)

Yeah, it seems like circus clowns are apparently moving into my neighborhood! (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) But this place now has two shades of blue, black, white, gray, orange, and yellow paint on it! A few weeks ago, when they started, this was all in white and looked quite lovely with the sculpted arch medallions, the two curved windows, and the glass blocks. In fact, the bottom half still looks nice. However, when more paint arrived they did this:

?!

Oh, how I hope this is just a gimmick so that the building gets noticed. Because.... believe it or not, these places are available to lease from Thalhimer but I still can't find it on their site? Yes, this is what they did to it before getting a tenant! Do they need to watch some Discovery Channel or HGTV shows and get some tips on making a property enticing or what?

Images: Black & White from VDHR, color images by myself

Richmond Makeovers - A Time-Honored Practice

Sometimes, even after almost two years, I find books at work that I've never seen before. Most of the time, I suspect it's because a co-worker has taken the book to their desk and never officially "checked" it out. Bad employees, bad!

Well, here are two great resources for historic pictures of my neighborhood; Architecture in Downtown Richmond by Robert P. Winthrop and the oversize gem, Broad Street Old and Historic District: Richmond, Virginia, both were compiled and published by the Historic Richmond Foundation and are out of print.

The magic of the oversize one is that is has panoramic shots of city blocks as they looked in the 1920s and then again in photographs from 1986. The most amazing thing about that is that you get to see wonderfully ornate (Edwardian Baroque?) building facades that were covered up in later years with "modern" facades in order to look contemporary. These are now the buildings most in danger because people think they are boring and plain. If only they knew?! Oh, to do an updated version of this book today!

Example: 13-17 East Broad Street, the Charles Stores, Co.

Original

As Remodeled

Demolished

The building went from Victorian brick to Art Deco stucco to...a parking lot.

Images property of the Valentine Museum Collection

More Simple Gifts

Just a few days after posting a request for info on that serene little church in Ithaca, NY, I have seen two other buildings that have a similar aesthetic, a sorta Shaker feel with vertical board-and-batten siding. This beauty, located in Sag Harbor, New York was featured in the March 2007 issue of the now defunct Cottage Living. It was designed and built by the owners to complement the 1793 Shaker house that already existed on the property.

This modern design, the Seaside Chapel, was the April 2007 cover image of Clem Labine's Traditional Building magazine. The chapel’s design is by Merrill, Pastor & Colgan Architects as part of their work with Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk on their New Urbanist plan for a traditional resort town of Windsor, Fl. Lovely.

Pick A Pocket Neighborhood

Erin Cottage

A year ago, I wrote a post mentioning Ross Chapin Architects and their designs for small homes used in planned "pocket neighborhoods." These neighborhoods were the idea of architect Ross Chapin and Jim Soules, founder of The Cottage Company*. Jim's definition of a pocket neighborhood is "a group of homes that face and relate to one another around a landscaped common area..."

This month, the April issue of Cottage Living magazine features them, their designs, and the history of their first project together, the Third Street Cottages neighborhood in Puget Sound, Seattle created in 1995.

*Definitely check out the Cottage Company link, they now have a 180 degree video tour of their model home on the main page. Yum!

More from the Gulf Coast

• Habitat for Humanity is building homes in the area according to the regional style. Good, because here in Virginia the only Habitat homes I have ever seen are 2-story townhouse types. They have built over 1,300 homes in the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina and every month they start 50 more homes.

• Mississippi may not get the big press on rebuilding but I think they have the best overall plan. You can check out everything you need to know, right here through their Patternbook for Gulf Coast Neighborhoods. This patternbook also explains the four styles of Gulf Coast designs and shows examples of Acadian/Creole, Victorian, Classical, and Arts and Crafts buildings.

• Mississippi is also embracing New Urbanism, which wants to use city zoning to recreate our country’s small-town beginnings. Places where homes looked out on one another, homes were near enough to the street to seem engaging, and people used their porches to chat with neighbors. These places were also walkable with accessibility to transit; communities with real downtown at the center. In some places, this is so hard to visualize so it might be easier to use television shows as examples: Mayberry, Stars Hollow, Walnut Grove, Pleasantville, etc.
  
• Check out the specifics of New Urbanism and Smart Growth (a reaction against sprawl) at the Congress for the New Urbanism, NewUrbanism.org, Smart Growth America, and Coalition for Smarter Growth.
• Here are the other designs that were developed during the Mississippi Renewal Forum in 2005.