Category Archives: Current

Mixed Use Mid-Rise on Shafer and Grace Streets

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Shafer & Grace Mid-Rise

Image courtesy of http://www.loopnet.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2014 is expected to bring yet another mid-rise project to Grace Street in the Lower Fan District. The building currently on the site, a one story brick retail structure, will be demolished beginning as early as this month. 

The 11 story, 170,000 square foot building will contain 152 apartments and a 3,400 square feet retail space situated on the corner of Grace and Shafer Streets. ShaferGrace LLC is developing the 22 million dollar project with Walter Parks serving as architect. Once completed, the structure will be one of three on the corner to be completed within the last 3 years.

Parks is also designing a 7 story mixed-use building for VCU on the same block, set to be completed at around the same time.

D.OK.

Current: A New Building for McGuire Woods

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Image courtesy of the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Image courtesy of the Richmond Times-Dispatch

McGuire Woods, a law firm headquartered in downtown Richmond with 19 offices worldwide, has recently announced a new Headquarters building is to be constructed. The building’s site is a full block south of cary between 8th and 9th streets. It will be somewhere from 15 to 20 stories tall.

This block is currently occupied by surface parking and is considered by many to be one of the most significant rifts in the financial districts urban fabric. The construction of the building will close the mid block automobile cut through from 8th street to the Manchester bridge.

In addition to office space, 520 parking spaces and 10,000 square feet of ground level retail space will be included in the building. Pending city approval, it is expected to break ground this spring and open in 2015.

D.OK.

Current: In Memory of Ulrich Franzen

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Noted architect Ulrich Franzen died on October 6th at the age of 91. He was born in Dusseldorf Germany but emigrated to the United States when he was 15. Franzen attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he met architects such as Philip Johnson, Paul Rudolph, and I.M. Pei who he worked for following graduation. Soon thereafter, he established Ulrich Franzen and Associates. Richmond is fortunate enough to be home to two works designed by Franzen.

The First Unitarian Universalist Church is one. Located near the Carillon in the leafy Byrd Park neighborhood, the structure is a single story composed of broad rectangular piers supporting a low slung roof. Walls are either floor to ceiling glass or concrete block with angled clerestory strips providing atmospheric lighting. The distinctive massing of the church relates to his residential work.

Franzen’s other mark on Richmond is a building on Philip Morris’ campus. Easily seen from I-95 south of Richmond, the materials are a warm chocolate brick and black reflective curtain wall. Franzen is well known for designing Philip Morris’ former headquarters, a 28 story tower in Midtown Manhattan.

From residences to offices to university buildings, each of Franzen’s projects had a different sensibility making it difficult to label him. On the whole, he could be most accurately characterized as a Brutalist which might explain the waning of his popularity in recent years. While his works in Richmond are not his most well known, Ulrich Franzen had an impact on the city and, indeed, architecture itself over the course of his career.

D.OK.

Image of Franzen courtesy of the Houston Chronicle, image of Franzen’s Philip Morris Tower courtesy of rediff.com

Current: Steven Holl Architects: Forking Time

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The Virginia Center for Architecture is currently hosting ‘Forking Time,’ an exhibition by Steven Holl Architects focusing on the design for the new Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA). Holl, last year’s American Institute for Architects Gold Medal winner, is considered by some to be the nation’s leading architect. Projects such as Kansas City’s Nelson Atkins Museum, the “Horizontal Skyscraper” in Shenzhen, China, and Simmons Hall at M.I.T. are among his most famous works.

Based in New York and Beijing, the firm tackles projects all around the world. Steven Holl and senior partner Chris McVoy have designed the new ICA  which is slated for completion in 2015. The exhibition, originally displayed at the Meulensteen Gallery in New York City, opened in Richmond on September 13th and will be on view until October 18th.

The heart of the exhibition is 30 some small study models culminating in a large model of the completed, or nearly completed, design of the ICA. Earlier iterations are formal exercises; various sculptural pieces with varying degrees of abstraction. It is the early models that are perhaps the show’s highlight. The intimate scale of the work and the generally high level of craft in the models make them visually appealing; Indian miniature painting comes to mind.

Each model is accompanied by one of Holl’s signature water colors. The progression of the models and paintings is easy to follow, later pieces being just shades off of the final design. A few exceptions include a pair of models a third of the way through this progression. One features a group of dark, stone-like fused elements, the other looks like a cube eroded from the inside. Holl is thought, by some, to be an architect who works in distinct modes. In these models we can see a design approach more reminiscent of his M.I.T. dorm or Chengdu’s “Sliced Porosity Block” as opposed to the final design which is more closely related to his Nelson Atkins addition or the Surf Museum in Biarritz, France.

Aside from these objects, the exhibition includes a bit of wall text and a screen displaying some computer renderings. Some wall mounted plans or sections could have been useful, but it is difficult to criticize the handsome minimalism of the exhibit.

If you have not yet seen the exhibit, it is well worth the visit. After all, it is not often that world renowned architects show work in our city, much less work on a major local project.

D.OK.

ArchitectureRichmond writer Edwin Slipek’s recent review of the show in Style Magazine:
The Architect’s Mind: How did Steven Holl create Richmond’s new Institute of Contemporary Art?

Virginia Center for Architecture:
http://www.virginiaarchitecture.org/vca_index.html

Steven Holl Architects:
http://www.stevenholl.com/index.php

Current: Medical College of Virginia’s New Children’s Pavilion

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Ground has been broken on the new building for the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. The project, situated on a block bounded by Broad, Marshall, 10th and 11th Streets, is slated for completion in 2015 and comes with a price tag of $168 million. The intent of the development centers around addressing the fragmented nature of pediatric care in the region as well as accommodating parking needs downtown.

Not much in the way of architectural information has been made available, aside from a few intriguing renderings courtesy of the architectural mega-firm HKS Architects, who is responsible for countless American hotels, stadiums, offices and hospitals. Contemporary computer graphics have a tendency to sensationalize actuality in favor of a flashier image, giving this project a surreal quality, as of now. However, the undeniable modernism of the building will be a statement in Richmond’s architectural landscape in keeping with the most recent MCV addition a block east on Marshall. While the project will become clearer with time, the finished product will be nothing short of a major upgrade to the unimaginative neo-traditionalism envisioned for the building in 2005.

The two primary benefactors of the project are the children of Richmond and our downtown’s urban fabric and for both it is long overdue. The new pavilion will eradicate an embarrassing blemish of surface parking immediately adjacent to City Hall and expand MCV’s already dense downtown campus instead of sprawling out onto an ill-fitting parcel. While the building will consume an entire city block for hospital and parking uses (demolishing the existing Children’s Pavilion), it appears to have many elements of a street-friendly presence, including possible retailers and community spaces on the highly transparent ground floor.

The New Children’s Pavilion will without a doubt bolster the standing not only of the already prestigious MCV but of the city in general. As a citizen base, we frequently endure the ups and downs of VCU development in the area. Fortunately, it looks as if this will be a high point.

M.F.A.

Current: Grace and Belvidere Apartments

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Image courtesy of BOB architecture.

A new 10-story apartment building is proposed for the north-west corner of Grace and Belvidere streets. Currently, the site is occupied by a BP gas station. In 2015, the block will be also be home to VCU’s new Institute for Contemporary Arts designed by noted architect Steven Holl. The apartments, designed by Richmond’s BOB Architecture, will feature ground floor retail in the form of a convenience store and a new gas station sited off of the street corner.

Check back for updates as they are available.

D.OK.

 

Current: First Freedom Center

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A major new development is headed for Richmond in the form of the First Freedom Center and Hotel. The building, which was approved by city council on Monday (the 23rd), will be built on the corner of 14th and Cary Street in Shockoe Slip. This site is now used as surface parking but it was once home to the State’s Capitol building where the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was signed into law.

The building will include a Courtyard Marriott and an extended stay Residence Inn which, together, will total 210 rooms. In addition, the First Freedom Center will occupy some of the building’s first floor. A monument to the important legislation passed on the site will occupy the corner while a the two wing hotel will take up the remaining space, leaving a plaza facing Cary Street. The building will permanently close a block-long section of Virginia Street, a historic cobblestone street that predates Richmond’s gridded city plan. Baskervill is the project’s architect; construction is set to begin in early 2013.

Check back for more coverage as this project develops.

D.OK.

Current: Hargreaves Plan for River Development

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In mid 2011, the Cambridge office of the internationally renowned firm Hargreaves Associates was awarded a $490,000 commission from the city for a (re)development of Richmond’s Riverfront. The firm has already undertaken successful riverfront plans for cities including San Francisco, Louisville, Houston and others. This month, the final draft of the Riverfront Plan was unveiled.

The target area includes the portion of the river from the Robert E Lee Bridge to the Henrico County line and Ancarrow’s Landing. Intending to build off the framework of the 2009 Downtown Master Plan, the plan focuses on accessibility and recreational uses. The plan is ambitious, calling for a wide range of improvements, including more public art, bike paths, completion of the capital trail, rowing clubs, revamping of watercraft sports, and cultural venues. Accessibility is also a common point of the proposal, through developing new pedestrian bridges and various completions of old trails to Belle Isle, Browns Island and Mayo Island. Other designated areas of focus are Chapel Island, Manchester, Tobacco Row, Ancarrow’s Landing, and the Tredegar Green. A prevailing technique used in many locations along the river are terraces, easing the level of descent from recreation to the water’s edge. The proposals are comprehensive, covering ecology, land acquisition, possible roadway change and future urban development.

Despite the wide aims of the plan, Hargreaves emphasizes that it will function as “a single, unified, cohesive system,” and that benefits from subsequent riverfront investment will spread to other neighborhoods of the city. To break up the magnitude of Hargreaves’ vision, the plan is divided into three priorities. The first, headlined by improvements to Mayo Island and Brown’s Island, is estimated at 35.4 million dollars.

Mayor Dwight Jones acknowledged that “The Richmond Region exists because of the critical role the James River played in our history” and acknowledged the importance of this plan with a $5 million addition to the Capital budget in 2013 and 2014.

Unlike countless past riverfront development strategies gone unrealized, the energy brought about by Hargreaves’ plan will hopefully lead to implementation. Before releasing the final plan, the firm completed a series of three popularly attended town meetings to discuss and edit their strategies. You can find all of their presentations online here:

http://www.richmondgov.com/PlanningAndDevelopmentReview/PlansAndDocuments.aspx

M.F.A.
Photos courtesy of Hargreaves Associates.