Carytown & Museum District News Events in Richmond Virginia, West of the Boulevard

January 21, 2010

3 Comments.

1. These State of the City events are always political fluff and provide little substance, yet it will be a nice opportunity to visit the renovated Carpenter Theater.

   I would like Richmond Mayor, Dwight Jones, to act boldly. Richmond needs an architectural landmark to draw attention to Richmond as a Twenty-first Century city.

   Seattle has a Space Needle, Saint Louis has it’s Arch, Richmond should build a beautiful tower with a multi-colored laser top that could be seen from D.C. and Hampton Roads.

   With a beautiful tower downtown, we could all look to such a dynamic new landmark with pride, and on the lighter side of the issue, it would give Richmonders something to use as a geographical reference besides telling people that something is so many blocks from the, “old Miller and Rhodes” building (wherever that was).

   J. Tyler Ballance @ January 21st, 2010 at 2:40 pm

2. um…are you serious?

   Karen @ January 22nd, 2010 at 9:57 pm

3. Richmond lacks distinctive architecture in general, but when compared to other cities, Richmond has no single landmark that captures the dynamic of the former Confederate Capital.

   There are several things that Richmond could do that would make the City a magnet for talented people and their ventures. I am sure that many citizens have constructive and creative ideas that would be helpful in re-energizing this rather generic river town.

   1. A distinctive tower or tall building as a key landmark, would be a good start.

   2. Tearing down the housing projects and scattering replacement housing into much smaller quad-plexes all around the region would do much to clean up the downtown and near town landscape.

   3. Instead of trying to bury Richmond’s Confederate past, celebrate it and make money from it, just like cities like Plymouth, and Gettysburg have turned their historical affiliations into economic engines. It is estimated that by properly marketing Virginia’s Confederate era tourism, we could add a BILLION dollars in annual tourism revenue. (We currently get about $18 Billion annually from all tourism).

   I am sure that others have some interesting and creative ideas. If you do, then go ahead and contact the Mayor’s office and give them your ideas for getting Richmond moving forward into the Twenty-first Century.

   J. Tyler Ballance @ January 24th, 2010 at 9:10 am

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