The Source for Richmond Architecture and Design Information

Nonesuch Place: A History of the Richmond Landscape

T. Tyler Potterfield2009The History Press157 pages All cities are shaped by the landscapes on which they are built. The great harbors of New York and Hong Kong made those cities into the hubs of international trade we know today. Istanbul’s position on the Bosporus strait has made it a meeting point of cultures for nearly …

The North Atlantic Cities

Charles Duff 2019 Bluecoat Press 279 pages Richmond, like its near neighbors Washington and Baltimore, is a city of row houses, at least in its inner neighborhoods. This urban building block sets Richmond apart from cities like Phoenix, which are almost entirely suburban, and places like Paris, which are composed mostly of multi-family dwellings.  In …

Reading List: Twentieth-Century Richmond: Planning, Politics, and Race 

Christopher Silver1984University of Tennessee Press342 pages Why does Richmond look the way it looks? Why are highways located where they are? Where did the line between Richmond and Henrico originate? Why have we settled this region in sprawling suburbs instead of compact districts? Why are the interests of minorities and the poor consistently sidelined in …

Reading List: Spying on the South

Tony Horwitz 2019 Penguin Press 417 pages Few designers in American history have had a greater effect on the nation’s cities than Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903). Olmsted is well known as a pioneer of landscape architecture and for his role in designing New York City’s Central Park, but few know of his stint as a …