VCU Arts Depot was built in 1907 as Richmond & Chesapeake Bay Railway depot, a dozen years before the grandiose Broad Street Station (Union Station) was built a mile west. Trains passed through the station’s second floor, in the rear. Train service ended in the 1970s. Today, the building is occupied by Virginia Commonwealth University’s […]
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Julep’s entrance canopy caught my eye on East Grace Street. It turns out that the wrought iron device was originally on the building next door (see landmark nomination, page 9). Had I backed up a bit, I might have noticed (and photographed!) the entire three-story Georgian Revival building. The building was originally a women’s clothing
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Virginia Department of Transportation Annex was the last of the Commonwealth’s planned office buildings in Richmond in 1961, and the somber grey structure has been described as “cold.” Yet, when the sun hits it just right, the windows provide a warm golden glow. Name: Virginia Department of Transportation Annex, Virginia State Department of Highways Annex
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John Tyler Building, a state office building, takes up an entire trapezoidal block. The shape is so irregular that Architecture Richmond comments it is “a site without a single right angle.” The site is also on a steep incline, so the building might be viewed as seven or 11 stories, depending on which corner you’re
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Kanawha Plaza is a park built on a deck spanning the Downtown Expressway (I-195) between South 7th Street and South 9th Street. It was conceived in 1972 at the behest of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The bank was planning a new headquarters building overlooking the James River at the same time that Downtown
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Monumental Church was built as a memorial to 72 people who died in an 1811 theater fire on this site. It served as an Episcopal parish church until 1965, when it was transferred to the Medical College of Virginia. Name: Monumental Church Location: 1224 East Broad Street Year Completed: 1814 Architect: Robert Mills
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Riverfront Plaza is a pair of red granite-faced office towers overlooking Kanawha Canal and James River, just east of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The 20-story near-twins sit atop a parking garage. Name: Riverfront Plaza Location: 901 & 951 East Byrd Street Year Completed: 1990 Architect: HKS Inc. Style: Postmodern SAH Archipedia: Riverfront Plaza
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Afton Chemical Corporation headquarters is on the Gambles Hill site of the former Virginia State Penitentiary. Name: Afton Chemical Corporation Location: 500 Spring Street Year Completed: 1993 Style: Postmodern Wikipedia: Afton Chemical Style Weekly: A New Book Tells of the Horrors of the Virginia State Penitentiary Google Map All images copyright © Kenneth Grant /
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Ginter House was built in 1892 as the residence of Lewis Ginter, a transplanted northern entrepreneur who made Richmond his home after the Civil War. Harvey L. Page and William Winthrop Kent designed the mansion with elements of Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne styles. Ginter’s niece, Grace Arents, inherited the property in 1897. From 1924
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Chesterfield Apartments, built in 1903 as luxury residences – and Richmond’s first high-rise apartment building – is now occupied mostly by VCU students. The landmark building is part of the West Franklin Street Historic District. The building’s distinctive features are stone sills and flat-arch lintels on all windows, 10 oriel projections, an Ionic-columned portico, and
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