Tag Archives: High Rise

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.

First National Bank Building

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First National 2


Alfred Bossom
825-827 East Main St
1913

The First National Bank was founded eight days after Lee’s surrender in Appomattox, when all Richmond banks’ charters had been revoked by the Federal Government. It merged with the National Exchange Bank and, after surviving the financial crisis of the 1890s, needed a new office building, for which Alfred Bossom was hired.

Bossom was an English architect responsible for stately banks and hotels across the nation, and was with the firm on Clinton and Russell when asked to design the building. Bossom’s other commissions in the city include the Monroe Terrace Apartments, the Prestwould Apartments, and the Mutual and Virginia Trust Buildings (in collaboration with Carneal and Johnson), adjacent to the First National Bank Building, forming a prominent early 20th Century financial core on Main Street.

Like the much of the rest of Bossom’s work, the First National Bank Building is proud neoclassicism with crisp detailing. The exterior exhibits clearly the three sections attributable to most neoclassicist works, especially taller ones: base, shaft, and capital; a symbolic continuation of the proportions found on the 50 foot tall fluted Corinthian columns at the foot of the bank. Neoclassicism was a common style of banks and other institutions who wanted to evoke the order and authority of great civilizations in history.

The structure can claim to be the first skyscraper in Richmond, and held the title of tallest building until it was surpassed by the Central National Bank Building 17 years later. Since its birth it has undergone a fair amount of change; the larger original cornice was replaced in the 1970s in an effort to modernize the structure’s appearance, and while the building avoided a transformation into condominiums in the 1980s, it was converted into apartments in late 2012. Under Commonwealth Architects, the building underwent a $30 million renovation. The renovation relied on historic tax credits, with key features of the building, like the marble detailing and ceiling vaults in the first floor former bank space, kept intact.

The new life of the building adds much-needed residences to the area, joining the nearby John Marshall as recently converted, high-profile historic apartments. It is encouraging to see the First National Bank Building, so iconic in Richmond’s past, assume an active and important role in the city’s contemporary downtown.

M.F.A.

Dominion Place

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Dominion Place 6


Architect:  Pietro Belluschi Inc. with Jung / Brannen Associates
Date: 1978
Address: 1025 W. Grace Street

A stoic brutalist slab, the 12 story Dominion Place rises out of the leafy Fan District near the corner of Ryland Avenue and Grace Street. It is the closest Richmond has come to Unité d’Habitation, Le Corbusier’s famous housing tower in Marseille, France. Concrete and glass are the materials, though some brick is used at the base and to delineate the central stair tower. The building features a communal roof terrace.  The asymmetrical facade and rhythmically changing horizontal window bands may make the building feel radical comparative to the older surrounding neighborhood. However, its effect on the community is nearly identical to the adjacent Gresham Court apartment tower.

Dominion Place shares many functional similarities with its historic neighbor on West Franklin Street. Both are much higher than the most of the surrounding neighborhood, both house a large number of people, and both are set back from the street. While plantings fill both buildings’ setback space, a little more street interaction would have been welcome. A key difference between the buildings is their inhabitants. Dominion Place was designed specifically for seniors and those with disabilities. The subsidised rent is relative to income rather than market rate.

Overall, the building is a constructive part of the Fan District. It may have some design shortcomings but there are few buildings that do not. Dominion Place adds texture, diversity, and 250 much needed units to the neighborhood.

D.OK.

The John Marshall

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John Marshall 1


Architect: Marcellus Wright
Dates: 1929
Address: 101 N. 5th Street

Erected in 1929, the Hotel John Marshall immediately became an establishment in the city. It’s imposing entrances, grand ballrooms, and bombastic skyline signage were icons of Richmond’s then vibrant Grace Street corridor. The area was home to boutiques, restaurants, and department stores that attracted visitors from across the state and beyond. With 443 rooms, multiple retail and restaurant spaces, and massive ballrooms and meeting spaces, it was Richmond’s largest hotel by far.

The building was designed by Marcellus Wright and named for Richmonder and Chief Justice John Marshall (often referred to as the father of our nation’s judicial system). The architect combined elements of neoclassicism, art deco, and Moorish revival detailing into a unique expression. The building follows the standard formula for traditional American skyscrapers; a base and shaft surmounted by an ornate pinnacle. The base is essentially a paired down neo-classic facade in stone as are the ballrooms it contains. The verticality of the shaft section and the minor setback at its end provide the deco element. The Moorish influenced romanticism is applied thickly to the upper story in ornamental form which trickles down to enclose a smaller number of window bays below. The eclectic elements are not totally in harmony, but then neither is the grid of metal and light bulbs set on the roof.

Starting in the 1950‘s, downtown Richmond began to decay and the hotel lost its market. The Hotel John Marshall had once served as home away from home for countless shoppers coming from as far as North Carolina to walk the retail mecca that was East Grace street. As strip malls and shopping plazas depleted Richmond’s retail core the urban fabric itself was being torn by highways. The grand hotel which had once been a center for our city’s society was forced to shut down in 1988 after years of waning financial success.

After years of neglect the building was purchased by Dominion Realty Partners to be repurposed as luxury apartments. A complete interior renovation and stabilization of the facade was done transforming the hotel into a apartment building with 238 units, 2 ballrooms, and 20,000 of retail space. The building opened in late 2011.

D.OK.

James Monroe Building

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Architect: Ballou, Justice and Upton Architects
Dates: 1981
Address: 101 North 14th St

Known for its distinct scalloped concrete edges and three sections of vertical black glass on each side, the James Monroe Building stands distinctively on the eastern edge of Richmond’s skyline, overlooking Interstate 95. At 449 feet, it is the tallest building in Richmond and, for 26 years, it was the tallest in Virginia. And although the skyscraper does stand 29 stories tall, two mechanical / service floors in the middle and at the top can’t be publicly occupied, with the total building measuring 400,000 square feet, significantly less than other office buildings of that size. It is this small footprint that contributes to the building’s overall sleek and clean appearance. Designed by Ballou, Justice and Upton Architects, a twin tower was intended for the North End of the plaza before financial concerns in the early 1980s and functional inefficiency of the existing tower halted plans.

The building exists in an environment of the automobile. Floating on top of a four story parking garage, the same concrete used for its trademark corners, the skyscraper is isolated by the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike, a four-lane stretch of 14th street, and other immediately surrounding surface parking lots. The pedestrian entrance is buried under a rarely utilized pedestrian overpass, and while the building is certainly known by most Richmonders, it is almost never experienced by city goers outside of a car.

It is currently used by the Department of Education, the Virginia Community College System, and other state agencies.

M.F.A.

Opinion: Federal Reserve Bank

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Having a landmark architect design in a city has always been an exciting event and the Federal Reserve Bank is no exception. Minoru Yamasaki implemented his often rigid principles without restraint; glass, aluminum and verticality harmonize in a building both sleek and monumental. Interestingly, he refrained from incorporating any arch or cornice elements into the tower as he had done in Seattle’s IBM tower or Madrid’s Torre Picasso. Perhaps he sensed the need for a fresh and modern approach in a city sometimes as plagued by its history as it is enriched by it. The design is decidedly nonreferential.

This is as true in its approach to the site as anywhere. Rather than anchor itself to a city block on a solid base as bank towers conventionally do, the building is set on a pedestal like assemblage of legs on a lawn. Its height may fool you, but in plan the work is barely urban. Surface lots front 9th street and inaccessible grass address the rest of the block. A large fountain and parking round sit before the main Byrd Street entrance. The approach to the building is more similar to a Los Angeles mansion than a skyscraper. The building is lifted off of the ground in a pseudo-Corbusian reference to the same disastrous mid-century planning that led to the Federal Reserve’s exile across the highway.

Clearly, the building is beyond the typical bevy of complaints launched by the urban-conscious community in Richmond. One can’t simply request the elimination of surface parking and the addition of ground floor retail. Mixed use development south of the expressway along the river will be very important for activating this space and for bettering the health of a sickly downtown. However, even this will not be enough to correct the mistakes of the Federal Reserve. As beautiful as the building is, only an intelligent and thorough redesign of the entire site and its relationship to the street would result in establishing urbanity south of Kanawha plaza.

D.OK.

Our inventory article on the Federal Reserve Bank: Opinion: Federal Reserve Bank

Federal Reserve Bank

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Architect: Minoru Yamasaki
Dates: 1975-1978
Address: 701 E. Byrd Street

Perhaps the most iconic building of Richmond’s skyline is the Federal Reserve Bank Tower. The Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, 1 of 12 branches in the US, commissioned the building to be designed by Minoru Yamasaki in 1975.

The building features a largely aluminum curtain facade punctured by vertically oriented slits and an articulated corner. The design was clearly taking cues from Yamasaki’s most famous work, New York’s World Trade Center. Towers 1 and 2 were completed just 4 and 5 years earlier respectively. Unlike the Twin Towers, the structures corners contain wide window bays and angled piers at its base. The windows are bound by simple faces of aluminum rather than textured strips which create the formalist pointed arches of WTC. The striking simplicity in form and materiality give the structure a monumental presence in the city.

The building was originally to be sited where the Jefferson Hotel now stands but the site was later moved close to the river, directly across the canal from Brown’s Island Park. The project was underway at the same time as Richmond’s Downtown Expressway which slices through the southern part of urban Richmond and separates much of it from the riverfront. The Federal Reserve was unwilling to be separated in this way and so was born the idea for Kanawha Plaza, a park built over the highway to connect the bank with the center of the city.

D.OK.

Central Fidelity Bank

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Architect: John Eberson with Carneal and Johnston
Dates: 1928-1929
Address: 219 E. Broad Street

The Central Fidelity Bank building (known colloquially as the CFB) was the product of the collaboration between architect John Eberson of New York City and Richmond firm Carneal and Johnston. The result was a true expression of art deco and one of the most imposing presences on Broad street. Upon completion, the building was the tallest in Virginia and it retained this title until 1971 when it was surpassed by Richmond City Hall.

The tower is a stoic monument to the Art Deco style. It’s reserved massing includes setbacks typical of art deco buildings as well as vertical bands of masonry and windows. The building is largely rendered in brick with a more expensive material (in this case limestone) as the base. The street level features a multi-story arched entryway with a symmetrical composition of screened openings. Intricate and geometric metal work typical of art deco feature prominently in the facade and grand lobby.

While Eberson is known for his more exuberant theaters, bank buildings are typically designed to promote a sense of stability and sensibility. It is clear that he conformed to these accepted techniques when one compares this work to Richmond’s Loew’s theatre (Carpenter Center/Center Stage). Eberson designed the theatre in the same year he completed the bank tower.

One of the most interesting features of the CFB development, although not strictly the same building, was the Broad-Grace Arcade; an interior pedestrian street cutting through the 200 block of East Broad Street. So great was the demand on retail space in the Grace street corridor that the entire length of the arcade was retail. The storefronts and the floor space above them are currently empty.

The tower has gone through several owners including the Central Fidelity Bank and Wachovia. A developer from Washington D.C. purchased the property in 2007 with the intent of transforming it into a hotel but the finances fell through. With the exception of the occasional art show in the grand hall, the building sits empty but it is for lease and awaiting reuse.

D.OK.