Magazines Weddings

Say cheese!

Wedding photos can be formal or casual, posed or of the moment. Or you can step into the booth… Kyle Kirkeide turned his own wedding guest experience into The Photobooth Company. “I went to my sister’s wedding in Florida in 2011, and they had a photo booth set up,” he recalls. “Afterwards, I started thinking […]

Carol Diggs | May 23, 2024

Knife & Fork Magazines

A cut above

From the outside, Reid’s Super-Save Market looks like what it is—a mom-and-pop grocery and Charlottesville institution that’s been serving the neighborhoods along Preston Avenue for decades. The store was in the news last winter, as the community rallied to help it survive changing demographics, post-COVID supply challenges, and inflation hitting food prices hard.  But for […]

Carol Diggs | May 22, 2024

Abode Magazines

Creating your own space

Like plenty of other Wahoos, Landon Saks loved Charlottesville and stayed here for several years after graduation. Eventually, life took her to Aspen, Colorado, and her career keeps her traveling—but Saks still wanted a base in town and a gathering place for friends when she came back. So in 2021, she decided to make herself […]

Carol Diggs | May 22, 2024

Abode Magazines

Creating a hilltop haven

When she’s called a serious decathlete, May Kelly demurs. “I just love to be in the outdoors,” she says. “But I have to be moving—I enjoy it more.”  “Moving” for Kelly means lap swimming, bicycling, running, and hiking. When she and husband Jim bought a Whitehall-area house on a knoll overlooking Shenandoah National Park in […]

Carol Diggs | May 22, 2024

Abode Magazines

Something new (with a little old)

When did Heidi Gilman Bennett know she wanted to renovate the kitchen in the 1980s Ednam house she and her husband had just bought for their move here from California? “Before we even moved in,” Bennett says with a laugh.  The family loved the house in the woods on its hillside site, “but the kitchen […]

Carol Diggs | May 22, 2024

News

The Downtown Mall: Past & Present

The Downtown Mall is a central feature of life in Charlottesville—a place where residents, locals, and students alike head for shopping, meals, drinks, and entertainment. But there’s more: At eight blocks, it’s one of the longest pedestrian malls in the country. Of about 200 pedestrian malls built in the 20th century, ours is one of […]

Carol Diggs | May 15, 2024

News

Fight fire with practice

Earlier this month, area wildfires were in the headlines, but fire season is year-round in Albemarle County. “There are seasonal factors—more brush fires in summer, more chimney fires in winter,” says Matt Ascoli, battalion chief for the Albemarle County Department of Fire Rescue. “But we can be called out any time.” That’s why on a […]

Carol Diggs | April 3, 2024

Abode Magazines

Rooms with a view

Architect Rosney Co. Architects  Builder Greer and Associates Interior design Jennifer Stoner Interiors  Landscape architect Waterstreet Studio As soon as I came up here and saw the view, I called my wife and said, ‘I’ve found the place,’” recalls Hugh Shytle. “I felt like I was on top of the world.”  Shytle and his wife […]

Carol Diggs | March 12, 2024

Abode Magazines

Organic luxury

The renovation of Keswick Hall gave new owners Molly and Robert Hardie a chance to rethink every aspect of the luxury hotel, including moving the resort’s spa from the members-only clubhouse to its own building. The result is a reimagined facility with more service rooms, a more private setting, easier access for hotel guests and […]

Carol Diggs | March 12, 2024

News

Planting the seeds

Devin Floyd has made his knowledge of, and love for, the Piedmont into a personal vocation by working to restore it in all its ecological diversity. Floyd is the executive director of the Center for Urban Habitats, an environmental education, research, and consulting group that he created in 2012. But its mission really began decades […]

Carol Diggs | March 6, 2024