Editorial on New VCU Building

From the Times Dispatch article (also on the FanoftheFan site):

Located at the corner of Broad and Belvidere, near one of the most-traveled entrances to the city, the ICA will be a signature building for the School of the Arts and VCU, representing the best in international contemporary architecture and art, and a valuable community resource for Richmond. The ICA, which is expected to be about 32,000-square-feet, will feature approximately 8,000-square-feet of gallery space, an outdoor installation space, a 210-seat auditorium with tiered seating, classrooms, a gift shop, a café with a catering kitchen and an entry hall suitable for exhibitions, installations and social events.

This announcement was expected for a while now. The new building is certainly going to improve the look of the intersection- anything is an improvement over the parking lot that’s there now. However, I hope Richmond considers all the ramifications thoughtfully.

It’s not surprising that the VCU community is excited about this development. I cannot deny the recognition and enthusiasm that it generates. And before I go further, I will state that I am not a VCU hater, despite what some people say. After all, a big part of what made Richmond attractive to me is the VCU art school’s synergy with the local music/art scene. I will continue to acknowledge and celebrate genuine accomplishments and the people who make them happen.

But beyond whatever controversy the design of the building may create (it’s obvious that VCU and Richmond leaders wanted a ‘signature building’ for this intersection), there are other questions that should be considered. With Center Stage, the Landmark Theater, the delightful VCU Singleton Center, VCU Brand Center, etc, does VCU, and Richmond in general, really need another venue that can seat over a hundred people?

As VCU does more infill, will it get more serious about helping deal with the City’s transportation and traffic issues? That intersection is already the most dangerous one in Richmond, and maybe the state.

Will this be built with green building measures? LEED certification, anyone? Or is VCU’s commitment to the environment another empty promise?

And then there is the cost…sure, it may get built with private donations, but how will VCU support it along with the rest of its physical plant? If I was a first-year student, I would be very concerned about more tuition increases. My warning: Be very wary of liberal politicians, no matter if they are ‘blue’ or ‘red’, when they are idiotically falling over themselves in support of ‘higher education’ and ‘growth’, no matter what.

Again, its understandable and even desirable that VCU have ‘audacious ambitions’ and that Richmond look foreword to being internationally known for its art, but untempered ambitions become a problem when they conflict with citizens’ legitimate interests, both in small and large ways, to the point of corruption and dishonesty. Remember when VCU administration told Oregon Hill, City, and state officials that there was no possible alternative location for a student recreational center? And yet here they are, building over their parking lots?

Honestly, I might let it go and let bygones be bygones, except that the VCU Board of Visitors has still not done the honorable thing and ended the threat to the neighborhood.

18 thoughts on “Editorial on New VCU Building

  1. Oh stop! What a beautiful building! And what a great – and appropriate – location for it! This adds to the city’s beauty, and to the city’s and VCU’s attraction – as in the ability to draw people to Richmond. It’s a win-win-win all the way around, so quit looking for an excuse to be negative and celebrate this news!

  2. Sorry, the only way we are going to improve Richmond is to apply critical thinking diligently.

    It’s one thing to celebrate accomplishments, its another to mindlessly cheerlead. Let’s be more circumspect and considerate.

  3. Scott, if i had a nickel for every time you bring up the Cary Street gym… I’D HAVE A LOT OF NICKELS

  4. According to VCU website the building will be platinum LEED. So not an empty promise. Also, didn’t Huffington Post name VCU as one of the most green campuses in the country?

    When buildings are built from private donations funds are typically set aside for ongoing maintenance.

    Perhaps the performance space is built differently than what currently exists in the area, maybe a theater in the round type space.

  5. Morgan, we need that ironclad agreement to protect the neighborhood. Until then, there will be an issue.

    Lee, thanks for the information. I agree that is encouraging (though I doubt very much that VCU is one of the most green campuses in the country.).

  6. From http://ica.vcu.edu/about-the-design/

    In advancement of VCU’s commitment to science, technology, and environmental responsibility, the ICA’s design incorporates many environmentally-friendly elements, making use of natural resources whenever possible. This includes the use of geothermal wells to provide heating and cooling energy for the building, green roofs to absorb storm water and maximize insulation, and glass walls designed to exhaust heat in the summer and harness it in the winter. The project is designed to meet LEED platinum certification standards. BCWH is the architect of record in Richmond.

  7. Scott, I’ve heard you demand this “ironclad agreement” many times and I’m curious if you know of any other university that has made similar arrangements? Also, how do you think it could actually be enforced. Any contract can be broken. Contracts have clauses specifically for remedies in case a contract is broken. So even if VCU signed some contract stating that they would not purchase property in Oregon Hill ever, they could still do it one day as long as they paid whatever remedies were required by the contract. Furthermore, who would be the other signatory to the contract? If it’s the city, well that’s pretty much meaningless because as a state institution, VCU cannot be bound by laws or rules imposed by a local jurisdiction. About the only way I can see you could get something with teeth is if the legislature specifically passed a law saying that VCU couldn’t purchase property in a certain area. Of course, nothing would stop a future legislature from rescinding the law.

  8. Before Oregon Hill made the mistake of relying on a promise from a University President. Now neighbors want something in writing from the Board of VIsitors. Obviously, even then it is not easy to keep treaties over time; you can ask the Native Americans about that.

    However there is precedent elsewhere for better relations-
    Check out Planned Development 43 (PD43), an agreement with the city of Chicago that has specified University land use in Hyde Park since 1966.

    http://chicagomaroon.com/2012/01/24/admin-agree-to-cap-woodlawn-building-height/

  9. Scott, the example of the University of Chicago is not really applicable. It’s a private university and therefore subject to all the standard land use regulations by the city. Therefore the city had leverage to require concessions. Oregon Hill residents and the city have no such leverage with VCU. Just trying to determine how you expect to get some kind of agreement with no leverage.

  10. Fred, I can find more examples-

    http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~scripts/nph-brs.exe?s1=&s2=&s3=&s4=121193&s5=&Sect4=AND&l=20&Sect1=IMAGE&Sect2=THESON&Sect3=PLURON&Sect5=CBOR1&Sect6=HITOFF&d=CBOR&p=1&u=%2F~public%2Fcbor1.htm&r=1&f=G

    Still, if you look at VCU’s political power, it’s pretty daunting. They can pretty much do anything they want in Richmond and I would suggest it is a real problem that is now out of control. I am open to suggestions. We realized this when we went through the Rec Center episode.

    https://www.oregonhill.net/2007/11/03/aarb-rubberstamps-vcu-plans/

    https://www.oregonhill.net/2008/03/22/vcu-given-authority-to-acquire-land-without-state-approval/

    In the end maybe all we can do as citizens is keep asking VCU to do the right thing.

    https://www.oregonhill.net/2008/10/24/ohna-president-asks-vcu-to-take-positive-step-for-true-community-partnership/

    At least we are not alone in this-

    https://www.oregonhill.net/2011/11/18/report-from-vcu-master-plan-meeting/

  11. Scott,

    I agree with Fred on this. Who would VCU sign the agreement with? Would they have to have an agreement with every property owner in Oregon hill? Do you propose they sign an agreement with the neighborhood association? What if a property owner isn’t a part of the neighborhood association, are they part of the agreement or can they decide on their own to sell property to VCU.

    I have driven through Oregon Hill. My advice for the neighborhood association would be to work with property owners to clean up their properties.

  12. Let’s be honest about VCU goes green, it’s a marketing campaign. If VCU really wanted to go green decisions would have to be made at much higher levels than a professor and a couple students. Not to downgrade what they do, but VCU is a long way off from integrating “green” as a core principal of how they operate. Some call it “greenwashing” I say just look here, here, and here and you’ll see what VCU is really about. More students, more tuition dollars, cars required for all incoming freshman (I am being facetious).

    http://www.maps.vcu.edu/monroepark/bowestdeck/index.html

    http://www.maps.vcu.edu/monroepark/jeffersonstdeck/index.html

    http://www.maps.vcu.edu/monroepark/broadstdeck/index.html

    So in conclusion, VCU builds hundreds of parking spaces for autos (those dollars come directly from tuition folks, not state funds) and spends a little here and there on a couple bike racks, three locations total for moped and scooter parking across two campuses, and razes historical structures (like the ones in Oregon Hill) with abandon yet still gives a priority to this parking space. As the critic Lewis Mumford wrote half a century ago, “The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is the right to destroy the city.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/arts/design/taking-parking-lots-seriously-as-public-spaces.html?pagewanted=all

    And the VCU policy on locking to anything other than a bike rack:

    Bicycles may not be parked, stored, or locked to any structure or within any building, including campus residence halls, on either campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. Bicycles shall not be locked to railings, utility or light poles, fences, trees, handicap ramps, or any structure other than the bike racks. Students or employees in violation of this requirement are subject to having their bicycles removed and being charged with a violation under the Rules & Procedures of Virginia Commonwealth University

    http://www.usca.vcu.edu/about/policies_procedures/building_policies.html

    Sure, we don’t want to destroy a couple handrails but when the university does so by razing historic structures entirely it’s considered “institutional progress”. Let’s be honest about VCU and their “green” priorities.

  13. Lee, the state, city, or neighborhood association could be involved in an agreement. This happens all the tie in other places where universities run up against neighborhoods. Its up to the VCU Board of Visitors to do the right thing and put something in writing that lessens the threat to the neighborhood.

    As for cleaning up the neighborhood, maybe we need less people “driving through” and more people stopping and investing their time and energy to make things happen. The neighborhood association struggles with absentee landlord situations, just as many other neighborhoods in the City.

  14. All those in favor of Scott changing his last name to ‘Greenburg’ for his support of the environment say aye!!

  15. I know I’ve asked this before and I know VCU has encroached on Oregon Hill in the past but I still don’t understand the agreement. According to the databases, Charles Moses and Donald Traser own the whole Laurel/Cary side of the 100 block including the parking lot and vacant lots. There is one house standing between a very large “lot”. I don’t know Mr. Moses or Traser and I don’t want to speak for them, but they are obviously sitting on a RE goldmine. If VCU or Pine Court 4 (or whatever the hell) comes knocking, I don’t understand where an “agreement” with the neighborhood would come in, like other posters have said, why should the neighborhood association have right to tell him what to do with their properties? Besides those, the half blocks behind the athletic facilities are the only properties that VCU could conceivably be interested in and those seem to be under the Saint Andrews control. Realistically VCU won’t encroach across the bridge and therefore it might be best to work with these few property owners rather than working for what sounds to be a hard to enforce “agreement”. All of the “big 3” owners as far as VCU and Oregon Hill property owners seem to have been here for a while and would perhaps be easier to work with. That being said, the inactivity on the corner of Laurel/Cary along with the open parking lot is a bit ominous in terms of development.

    As for the building, I can’t say it will fit with the BP, but it’s certainly incredible in comparison to the parking lot.

  16. Chris, I don’t expect this proposed compact to ‘tell’ private property owners’ what they can do. I am just hoping for something that keeps the public institution of VCU from encroaching further into the neighborhood.

    The neighborhood association and the City’s Community Development have tried to get urban business zoning for W. Cary and Belvidere in the past. We would like to keep the neighborhood’s ‘front face’ of pedestrian friendly small businesses.

    https://www.oregonhill.net/2008/06/25/re-zoning-and-the-disappointing-marty-jewell/

    https://www.oregonhill.net/2011/06/17/top-ten-issues-for-the-neighborhood/

  17. Regarding Chris’ comments: not everyone is only after the big “goldmine” in this life. Mr. Traser is concerned about the neighborhood and has placed preservation easements on much of his property. Additionally, there are preservation easements on three other properties north of the expressway in Oregon Hill. The residents of Oregon Hill deserve to be treated fairly by VCU.

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