These student designs for preserving the Menokin plantation suggest how we might expand the Shockoe Bottom debate.
by Edwin Slipek
When critics of the mayor's Shockoe Bottom development plan have voiced concerns, snippy proponents inevitably have smacked back: "Well what's your alternative?"
It's a disingenuous response, considering there never was an open call to architects, designers and others for how a ballpark, historical site, commercial center and apartment house might coexist and function in a tightly configured urban space. With little forewarning, only one plan was presented in November with the admonition that, like a Rubik's Cube, if dismantled the whole works would fall apart and be near impossible to reassemble.…[ Read more ]