Good morning brickfans. We here at Brick Watch hope you all got your permission slips signed: It’s time for a field trip to our Downtown Mall. Only, you and BW don’t get to go (full disclosure: We’re already on the Mall; we work here). A group of kindergarteners from the Covenant School took a spin around the Downtown Mall this morning to learn about construction and the rebricking.
They started out at the Post Office, then did a tour of the 400 and 500 east blocks of the Mall (in hard hats far too large for their wee bodies), before heading to Chap’s for a spot of ice cream, then back to school.
Maybe it’s a coffee buzz, but their model is inspiring to Brick Watch, and not just in a Zen, new-eyes-on-the-world kind of way, either. They are taking the time to learn about community issues, see them first-hand. And if you haven’t seen the Mall in a while, perhaps you should take a field trip of your own. The rebricking is really starting to take shape.
We’re seeing the first glimpses of how the re-bricking will go directly in front of store fronts. On the North side of the 400 East block, businesses like The Nook have been mostly walled off with footbridges connecting their front doors to the rest of the Mall. How fun! A boardwalk in Charlottesville!
A footbridge! How romantic!
And yesterday, Brick Watch stumbled upon this lovely scene:
Looks a bit like the beach, don’t it? Here’s another view:
Any bricktales from your own recent field trips to the Mall?
