Charlottesville High School String Ensemble is Ireland bound

“If you’re brought up in Charlottesville, this city is the center of the universe,” says Laura Mulligan Thomas. “It’s a great town; a wonderful place,” the long-time conductor of the Charlottesville High School Orchestra quickly adds. But when her young musicians perform further afield (in France, Italy, England and Switzerland, for example), she says it […]

February Abode: On stands now!

The February issue of Abode features a historic home overlooking the James River (it once belonged to a relative of Thomas Jefferson—yes, that Thomas Jefferson!), a mix-and-match kitchen in Ivy, a primer for wallpaper and more. Here’s what you’ll find inside: A house on Riverside Avenue breaks the mold. Why wallpaper is your new best friend. […]

Piedmont Place merges many functions

The idea of a “new downtown” in Crozet has been in the air for years. With the opening of Piedmont Place—a lively, mixed-use building just across the street from the Crozet Library—it is suddenly looking like a reality. “My wife Michelle and I moved to Crozet in 2011,” says developer Drew Holzwarth, who manages residential […]

Latitude 38 experiments with the horizontal

You can often spot a Latitude 38 house from a block away. The Charlottesville company, owned by husband and wife team Jeff Erkelens and Joey Conover, has tended to build tall, vertical structures, with a fresh, quirky asymmetry. But one Latitude house, found in the Riverside neighborhood adjacent to Riverview Park, breaks the mold. More […]

Mix & match: A rustic house gets a modern update

Kristi Williamson’s house in Ivy is one of those that has evolved with the times. Built in a rather rustic style in the ’80s, the original, Williamson says, has a DIY feel. “There were lots of funky doors and different kinds of trim,” she says. Subsequent owners made additions; Williamson and her husband, John, bought […]

The urban myth: Are denser areas more beneficial to their inhabitants?

The recent arrival of winter weather in Charlottesville has brought interruptions to school, work and business, particularly on the outskirts of town. The snow storm was a reminder that it generally takes longer for snowplows to clear rural backroads and neighborhood streets than it does in the town center, where everything is more concentrated. This […]