Rough as silk: A city studio shows off its true character

Think of history in Charlottesville, and you might think first of Court Square, Monticello, and other seats of power. But the city has an industrial past, too, and it’s still visible in places like the Silk Mill Building, an 1898 factory whose brick façade is tucked behind the Preston Avenue Bodo’s. Eighteen years ago—after stints […]

From the editor-at-large: Formal influences

In the Piedmont, large red brick houses have always had a certain kind of monumental grandeur in the landscape. They are Virginia’s architecture—a tall central house, often hyphenated with ancillary spaces to the sides, large and formal, yet quiet and elegant—and were the standard bearer of sophistication in their time. I admire them most often in late autumn […]

More ranch, please: A house grows inside its old footprint

It was a familiar Charlottesville story. The house, a 1960s ranch, boasted a great location near Downtown, but its outdated floor plan needed to be modernized. “It was a lot of square footage but didn’t seem like it when you walked in,” said Scott Abbott, owner of Abbott & Co. General Contractors. “It was your […]