Since Andrew Holden went to jail last month for staging a sit-in at a local hotel, he’s often been asked, “Was it worth it?” Despite suffering from what he calls “the worst medical treatment” he’s ever encountered, Holden says he actually found incarceration liberating. He admits most people won’t understand that feeling, but, he says, […]
Before long, family vacations may take you to the “redeemed” site of a former toxic dump. The unnatural history of such a park won’t necessarily be posted along the trail, either. More likely, the truth will be trapped beneath “cap and cover” vegetation and other peek-a-boo devices. Landscape architect Julie Bargmann refers to that process […]
A serial rapist is on the loose in Charlottesville––police suspect the same man is responsible for at least five sexual assaults in the past six years, including a November 11 attack in the Willoughby subdivision. The violent nature of the attacks has attracted local media, but City and UVA rape counselors say rape, in all its […]
Two years ago, Charlottesville carpenter Louise Finger packed her tool belt and sized up a new project. She put aside her usual routine of building swanky homes for Central Virginia’s well-to-do and embarked on what she says is a more rewarding path: constructing no-frills public structures for communities in need. Ilove that kind of work, […]
Ashlin and Lloyd Smith, like many Charlottesvillians, are no strangers to the clash between developers and residents. The Smiths are also no strangers to “firsts”: Lloyd was among the earliest members of the Downtown Board of Architectural Review in the late 1960s and Ashlin was one of the founding members of Preservation Piedmont in 1993, […]
About a year ago, John Coleman noticed that the parking spaces outside his business, Central Battery Specialists on Grady Avenue, had been changed. What had previously been all-day free parking now had two-hour time limits. According to the landlord, Ivy Realty and Management, the City had made the change. So Coleman, who has been in […]
The first day of shooting ANJLZ begins on a cold mid-November morning, in a large garage located on an estate in Free Union, just west of Charlottesville. A group of people, most still looking sleepy and clutching cups of coffee, are milling about in two small rooms adjacent to the garages main bay. A few […]
No doubt the ancient Greeks had something we might call a culture, as did the Persians, Egyptians and Phoenicians. An Appalachian quilt, a plate of spaghetti or a vase is created according to values, principles and traditions; these cannot be proven or disproven. Culture is irrational. To maintain a culture you have to guard it, […]
On Friday, November 8, Architect-Mayor Maurice Cox delivered a jargon-heavy lecture on his vision for the future of Charlottesville–something about creating public spaces through the juxtaposition of built form and whatnot. On Saturday, a green cardboard dragon-car trampled picnickers and excreted pavement on the floor of Nature Gallery. The two events had nothing to do […]
For Dominick Palamenti, theater is a family affair. He first became involved in theater while living in Italy, working in Shakespeare troupes. When he moved to New York City to study acting, he met Sea Aviar, whom he married. Aviar was originally from Virginia, and when the couple decided three years ago to move back, […]