Curiosity

fenestrationless
Corner of Cedar Hills and Hydraulic Road. The trees in this part of town are disappearing, soon to be replanted along the grand boulevards of Stonefield. I suppose the trees in the Route 29 median are gone for good.
Has the Muse of Architects been communicating on a regular basis with the builders of Stonefield? Will the addition of veneers, nature band-aids, signage, street lights and grifters make it feel more like Charlottesville? While the grifters might not be welcome to loiter and panhandle in the interior of Stonefield they’ll probably be able to set up along the Hydraulic frontage in the public right of way.
Curiosity (Martian rover) landed today. (illustration below courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

rover photo NASA/JPL-Caltech
Look at it. It has cameras, wheels, it is looking for something. Looking for the trees and where did all the Martian water go? Curiosity has a Twitter Feed.
When will the Big Windowless at Stonefield be activated? Is it a DT mall slayer robot?
Will it spew cars through Cedar Hills neighborhood? Is there a water feature? Does Stonefield have a Twitter Feed?

reenactor


Charlottesville was established as a gridded town plan from the start. Dr. Thomas Walker was assigned by the County as Trustee, and a two acre public square was set aside for the courthouse at the northern edge of the fifty acre town. The site for the courthouse was selected on a hillside directly above the gridded village, several blocks above Three Notch’d Road or the main street of town. Over time, business activities around the Court Square included taverns, tailors, milliners, a printing shop, a gunsmith, and a jeweler. A portion of the original courthouse (1803) still stands as a part of the current complex of structures. The original twenty-eight block grid corresponds to the following existing streets: Sixth and McIntire on the east and west respectively, Jefferson and South on the north and south. A plan from 1818 indicated east/west streets as 66 feet in width, while north/south streets as 33 feet wide; this plan also indicated a two block by seven block annexation added directly to the north of the original grid.– Ken Schwartz

neighborhood model

named the opposite of what it is
My introduction to real estate advertising was an issue of Mad Magazine in the 1960’s.
Honest to goodness, discover Treesdale.
Note the three foot wide planting strip to the left of the sidewalk on the edge of Rio Road. Where are the trees to shade pedestrians?
Where is the “planting strip” wide enough to support trees?
(Techniques outlined in the magazine seem to be in play here.
Name your real estate development what it is not.
Formerly this section of Rio Road was lined with massive oaks…)

mallside is accurate

Land use planners have spent too much time focusing on numbers: the number of units per acre, the number of cars per hour, the number of floors per building, and not enough time on the values, customs, characteristics, and quirks that make a place worth caring about. Edward T McMahon


Dazzle with a clever name. Put a giraffe on the roof.


I believe the name of this development is the East Rio Office Park. Dentists, lawyers and deer. I challenge any member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to walk Route 29 from Rio Road to the City line and say:
“I don’t see the need for Places 29”

These neighborhoods and their centers will be pedestrian-oriented and mixed-use; they will offer a variety of housing choices, retail environments, office types, and employment opportunities. They will be connected by an attractive, efficient, and accessible multimodal transportation system.–AlbCo Community Development

scary


My fears regarding the future of neighborhoods? Cut them open to get to the golden eggs, trade them for a handful of magic beans, shrink National Historic Districts and ADC’s to the size of handkerchiefs, widen roads, install sewage pipes in the air, cut down the trees, fire engines everywhere. Anything is possible.
Charlottesville Tomorrow has the story:

Master Plan


Does anyone know the politically correct replacement words for Master Plan? Expert Plan? Large Area Plan? Comprehensive Plan?

(an excerpt from Charlottesville City Council June 15, 1959 minutes)

A COMMUNICATION WAS PRESENTED FROM THE ALBEMARLE S. P. C. A. PROPOSING A CONTRACT WITH THE CITY UNDER WHICH THE S. P. C. A. WOULD CARE FOR THE CITY’S STRAY DOGS. ON MOTION BY MR. COLEMAN, SECONDED BY MR. SCRIBNER, THIS MATTER WAS REFERRED TO THE DOG COMMITTEE.

THE FOLLOWING COMMUNICATION WAS PRESENTED:

JUNE 12, 1959

THE HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE

GENTLEMEN:
THIS LETTER IS TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE PRESENTATION AND RELEASE OF THE CHARLOTTESVILLE MASTER PLAN ON JUNE 9, 1959 BY THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION. INCLUDED BELOW ARE THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING PERTAINING TO THE MASTER PLAN.

THE MASTER PLAN WAS PRESENTED TO THE COMMISSION BY MR. ROBINSON WHO STATED THAT THE REPORT IS A CONDENSATION OF NINE INDIVIDUAL REPORTS PREVIOUSLY SUBMITTED AND THE PLAN AS PRESENTED INCLUDES THE REVISIONS MADE BY THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION. HE ALSO STATED THAT THE PLAN PROVIDES FOR A CONTROLLED AND BALANCED EXPANSION OF PHYSICAL FACILITIES
TO SERVE THE GROWING CITY AND FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF EXISTING FACILITIES LEADING TO ELIMINATION OF SLUMS, TRAFFIC CONGESTION, AND INADEQUATE PARKING.
MR. ROBINSON FURTHER STATED THAT HE HAS ESPECIALLY ENJOYED HIS ASSOCIATION WITH THE PLANNING COMMISSION MEMBERS, PUBLIC OFFICIALS, CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS,
OFFICIAL BOARDS AND PRIVATE CITIZENS IN THE PREPARATION OF THE MASTER PLAN.
HE COMMENDED THE PLANNING COMMISSION AND RELATED CITY OFFICIALS FOR THEIR UNTIRING EFFORTS AND INTELLIGENT STUDY WHICH ARE REFLECTED IN THE PLAN.

ON MOTION BY MR. GRIGG, SECONDED BY MR. YOUELL, AND UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED, THE COMMISSION ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION:

BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE CHARLOTTESVILLE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION WISHES TO CONGRATULATE THE FIRM OF HARLAND BARTHOLOMEW AND ASSOCIATES,
AND ESPECIALLY THE SERVICES OF ITS TWO FINE REPRESENTATIVES: MR. FREDERIC M. ROBINSON, ASSISTANT MANAGER OF THE SOUTHEASTERN OFFICE, AND MR. JOSEPH M. Ross, FIELD REPRESENTATIVE, WHO CONTRIBUTED SO EXPERTLY TO THE PREPARATION OF OUR MASTER PLAN. WE WISH TO EXPRESS TO THEM THE SINCERE APPRECIATION OF ALL FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE.

SINCERELY YOURS,

LORIN A. THOMPSON (SIGNED)
LORIN A. THOMPSON
CHAIRMAN

A MOTION BY MR. WEINBERG, SECONDED BY MR. COLEMAN, THAT THE MASTER PLAN BE RECEIVED AND THAT THE PLANNING COMMISSION BE COMMENDED AND SINCERELY THANKED FOR THEIR MANY HOURS OF SERVICE AND VALUABLE ASSISTANCE IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS
REPORT WAS UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED.

THE CITY MANAGER REPORTED THAT HE HAD RECEIVED NUMEROUS COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE PIGEONS IN THE CITY AND RECOMMENDED THAT AN ANTI PIGEON ORDINANCE BE CONSIDERED.

Alley


al·ley [al-ee] noun, plural al·leys.
1. a passage, as through a continuous row of houses, permitting access from the street to backyards, garages, etc.
2. a narrow back street.–Dictionary.com

Back before fire engines achieved the leadership role in urban design, back when streets were a part of the public commons, there were alleys. In Charlottesville several neighborhoods established before the apotheosis of the Automobile have alleys. The alley above is in Belmont, parallel to and north of Hinton Avenue.

Dear Charlottesville Planning Commission. Please consider the reintroduction of the alley into the urban form.

Monoculture

complete with bouncy house
Sunday a forum was staged by the Martha Jefferson Neighborhood Association to brainstorm with members of City Staff, Council and Planning Commission what to do now that MJH has taken the suburban plunge.
I have deep affection for Martha Jefferson Hospital but no love for the mess its exit leaves behind, the acres of impervious surface, the far-flung degraded neighborhood landscape of single family residences repurposed to house the filing cabinets and fax machines of medicos.
No summary offered here of brain storm sequelae.

On a personal note, I had a profane response, an emotive outburst (fortunately, not televised) following the brainstorming session. The position in which Martha Jefferson and Little High neighborhoods find themselves is similar to that of the Woolen Mills neighborhood and that similarity provoked me to say GOD DAMN.
Fifty years ago the Woolen Mills lost a neighborhood institution. Since the time of that loss the Woolies (Woolen Mills neighbors) have worked with City Staff, the Council and the Planning Commission to take corrective steps to lessen the consequences of the vacuum, the big emptiness that happens when a mono-culture moves on.
These cases of institutional death and institutional relocation are different. The problems faced by the neighborhoods are different. But the cast in the plays are the same. Planners, bureaucrats, politicians, developers and citizens.
Woolies have worked steadily for 50 years to improve the quality of life in their neighborhood.
Frankly, we have received little aid from the City in our efforts.
GD.