Erika Howsare, Author at C-VILLE Weekly

News

It’s the little things: Locals team up to tackle carbon reduction at home

The first Earth Day occurred in 1970, long before anyone started to worry about what was, at first, called “global warming.” So those trying to get Americans to change their behavior for the planet’s sake are fighting a battle against eco-fatigue, born of repeated exposure to environmentalist messages, and their inevitable fadeout. In Charlottesville, one […]

Erika Howsare | April 17, 2019

Living

Kids on the loose: Confronting the risks of a free-range childhood

“Go play outside!” is one of those phrases that pops out of parents’ mouths as though it comes from a deep well of universal wisdom. Along with eating your vegetables and not waking the baby, playing outside seems so obviously the right thing for kids to do. Once they cross the threshold into the great […]

Erika Howsare | April 11, 2019

Abode

Patio perch: A new hardscape creates space for entertaining outside

After living for decades in a grand house in Suffolk, Virginia, overlooking a 27-acre lake, Diane Grieder and Marion Grigg retired to Charlottesville and a whole new landscape. They were glad to downsize to a smaller home, Grieder says, but “it was hard to give up that lake view.” Two years ago, when they found […]

Erika Howsare | April 8, 2019

Abode Uncategorized

A kitchen full of light: A big, bright cooking space blends beauty and functionality

For the interior redesign of a large house in a leafy Charlottesville neighborhood, architect Bethany Puopolo reassigned many of its spaces—a family room became the master suite, and the living and dining rooms switched places—in order to make them work better for her clients, a couple with three young children. But the father, the family’s […]

Erika Howsare | April 8, 2019

Living

Rail fun: Through the countryside and under the mountain on the passenger train

Three days a week, an Amtrak train called the Cardinal rolls through Charlottesville on its way from New York to Chicago. Unless you’re planning a long trip to a city along the route (Indianapolis, anyone? Cincinnati?), you may not look twice at the train. But it’s more than a means of transport. For a family, […]

Erika Howsare | March 28, 2019

C-BIZ Magazines

Bio builder: How to grow biotech right here at home

Charlottesville’s biotech industry—of which the University of Virginia is a major driver—is lively and growing, employing around 1,800 people. Nikki Hastings, formerly an executive at two of those companies, recently took the helm at CvilleBioHub, a local industry group with an ambitious vision: “to double the size of the biotech industry over the next 10 […]

Erika Howsare | March 5, 2019

C-BIZ Magazines

Shirts to sweat in: Rhoback makes polos for a “young golfer” demographic

In 2014, when Matt Loftus was about to enter the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, he knew he wanted to start a business, but he didn’t realize how quickly it would happen. Loftus and a group of friends had partnered that summer with the clothing company Vineyard Vines in a marketing campaign that […]

Erika Howsare | March 5, 2019

Living

Kids’ stuff: Retail therapy works for the younger set, too

My kids get pretty sick of trailing me through the grocery store. Clothes shopping, depending on how it goes, can be a thrill or a deep disappointment. But there are other kinds of stores that are more reliable sources of fun, entertainment, and information—everything, that is, you want from a day trip. What’s more, they […]

Erika Howsare | February 21, 2019

Arts

Creative space: Second Street show reveals painters in their natural habitats

Art in a white-walled gallery can take on an aura of total separation from the person who made it, and the context in which that person worked. For that matter, so can murals seen from the car—so often, we’re looking at art in a vacuum. Here’s an antidote: Second Street Gallery’s current show, “Inside The […]

Erika Howsare | February 13, 2019

Living

Star-struck: For a planetarium visit and so much more, Harrisonburg is out of this world

Some day trips have a singular purpose (i.e., “We’re going to the zoo!”), while others consist of a medley of experiences in the same general location. My family’s recent Saturday in Harrisonburg was one of the gumbo type. My husband and I and our girls, ages 5 and 8, saw a planetarium show, then visited […]

Erika Howsare | February 6, 2019