Charlottesville's Pedestrian Mall Receives National Endowment for the Arts Grant

The National Endowment for the Arts has selected "Designing Community: A Social + Design History of Charlottesville's Pedestrian Downtown Mall" (Lawrence Halprin & Associates, 1973 Community workshop, 1974 Downtown Master Plan, 1976 Public Space design) for a 2009 Design Arts Stewardship award. This grant, awarded to Preservation Piedmont and the Charlottesville Community Design Center (CCDC), will fund continued documentation, research and oral history interviews leading to publication and public colloquium about the Halprin design Charlottesville Pedestrian Mall. The work will be directed by Elizabeth K. Meyer in collaboration with Daniel Bluestone, Lydia Brandt, Jane Fisher, Director of CCDC, and a group of UVA graduate students.

Research Progress to date UVA Students and faculty in Architectural History and Landscape Architecture started site documentation of and research on the Charlottesville Pedestrian Mall in the Fall 2008 semester. The preliminary documentation and research done by the students took place within a graduate design studio, LANDSCAPE ADDITIONS, taught by Professor Elizabeth K. Meyer, FASLA. During the Fall semester, students learned about the Mall's history through archival research, site visits, lectures and interviews with Dean Abbott (Adjunct Professor, University of Minnesota) who was the project designer for the Mall when he worked at Lawrence Halprin Associates and landscape historian Allison Hirsch (Lecturer, Harvard GSD.) whose dissertation focused on Halprin's innovative Take Part community workshops, including one in Charlottesville.

The landscape architecture students' findings were compiled into a small publication in January 2009. This project was selected for a Virginia Chapter ASLA Student Award for Communications to be received in mid-April. That student work has been continued in the Spring 2009 as in an urban community history research workshop under the direction of Professor Daniel Bluestone, Director of the Historic Preservation program. The student research in his course establishes a social history context for understanding the relationship between the Halprin design for the Mall and mid twentieth century "urban renewal" in Charlottesville.

Construction Progress to date In January 2009, Barton Malow construction company began the rehabilitation of the Mall. They are replacing the original brick 4 x 12" brick pavers with new bricks of the same size set in sand. The electrical and plumbing infrastructure is also being upgraded. After public opposition to the degree of design changes proposed last Spring, the current scope of work does not include new fountains, play areas, or public art. While many in the community wish that the uneven brick surface caused by a decade or more of deferred maintenance had been repaired rather than replaced, there is general consensus that Halprin's design intent and character have been protected.

The 375000 original bricks removed from the Mall are for sale to the public: http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2009/02/02/brick-a-brac-city-to-sell-old-mall-bricks-to-the-public .  Call (434) 970-3865 or email Shannon Morris: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Construction photographs and progress reports can be accessed at: http://www.mydowntownmall.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mydowntownmall/