Architecture Richmond Editorial: Pro Revitalization Plan

The first of two editorials discussing the controversial plan.

February 17, 2014; 9:58 AM • by Richard Hayes

In their own words ArchitectureRichmond “documents and examines the buildings, spaces, and urban textures of Richmond, both celebrated and undiscovered. It also offers a critical look at the community’s ongoing development and provides an open discussion of broad design issues”. Up to this point they’ve remained out of the Shockoe Bottom Plan fray.

Over the weekend they posted the first of two editorials that will take a look at the Mayor’s Shockoe Revitalization Plan. The first opinion is pro-plan and a counter opinion piece by Ed Slipek is to follow.

Beyond the museum, the development includes 700 residential units, a hotel, a grocery store, and additional retail space. What is more, this great amount of infill development will involve the destruction of very few buildings, a fact which highlights just how desolate the existing sea of surface parking is. Residential density and mixed uses are the life blood of neighborhoods and are sorely needed in the Bottom.

Some have brought up increased traffic as a problem with the plan. This concern seems shortsighted. I do not think a plan which is primarily about urban renewal should make broad accommodations to what is a suburban form of transportation. I see the increased density as an avenue towards greater use of and investment in pedestrian and public transportation infrastructure.