Photo by Justin Chesney
Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU
Opening April 21, 2018
At long last, the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at VCU will open April 21, 2018 … all fingers crossed.
The privately funded $41 million VCU project has been nearly four years in the making from the time developers broke ground in June 2014.
The ICA, a landmark noncollecting museum at the corner of Broad and Belvidere streets, was designed by world-class architecture and urban design firm Steven Holl Architects of New York.
It was originally scheduled to open in 2016. But delays scrapped that plan.
Next, Oct. 28, 2017, was selected as the ICA’s opening date. But concerns then arose that the climate inside the building might harm delicate works of art.
More construction was needed, along with more time to monitor the building’s indoor climate.
“We need 90 consecutive days of a stable climate,” explains Lesley Bruno, the ICA’s communications manager.
That, Bruno adds, means that the museum’s indoor temperature must be within a couple of degrees of 72 Fahrenheit and 50 percent relative humidity for three months.
As of late January, the contractors still had not turned the building over to VCU, according to Bruno, but the museum was scheduled to begin receiving art Feb. 1.
Preparations are still underway, however, for a big block party to celebrate the opening of the signature building in the spring.
Although final details of the party are still being determined, Bruno says there definitely will be music, art-making activities and food trucks.
There also will be free admission to see the ICA’s opening exhibition, “Declaration,” which, the museum says, “will explore contemporary art’s power to respond to pressing social issues.”
The interior capacity of the ICA’s building, named the Markel Center, is about 1,000 people, which can fluctuate depending on the amount of space different pieces of art require as exhibits rotate, Bruno says.
Richmond’s downtown revitalization will encompass an area bounded by North Fifth, East Leigh, North 10th and East Marshall streets. (Image courtesy Skyshots.com)
Downtown Revitalization and Coliseum Replacement
Proposals due Feb. 9, 2018
After nearly five decades in operation and with the city pouring in more than a million dollars a year to keep it on life support, the Richmond Coliseum is a frail senior citizen among performance venues.
Government and private interests want it gone yesterday.
But the effort to replace it, while also infusing new life into the area around it, likely will require a big checkbook, a lot of willpower, and the coordination of both public and private interests.
Some of those public and private interests have already stepped forward, including Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney.
In early November, Stoney announced that the city would be issuing a request for proposals to replace the Coliseum with a new 17,500-seat arena; build a hotel of least 400 rooms next to the Greater Richmond Convention Center; preserve, reimagine and re-adapt the historic Blues Armory; and provide low-income, workforce and market-rate housing.
The revitalization effort would encompass an area bounded by North Fifth, East Leigh, North 10th and East Marshall streets.
Developers will be mostly on their own to find financing.
“The city will not use any existing tax revenue or existing/future debt capacity to fund this project,” says Lee Downey, director of the city’s Department of Economic & Community Development.
Downey added that all proposals were to be in hand by Feb. 9.
One of those proposals might come from an investment group headed by Dominion Energy CEO Thomas F. Farrell and Altria CEO Martin J. Barrington.
They have hired private development firms to study how to replace the Coliseum and revitalize the area mentioned in Stoney’s announcement.
“Those development firms were previously brought in by the private Farrell/Barrington group [before the RFP was announced] to study the area,” says Jeff Kelley, a spokesman for the investment group. “Right now, the only thing we are confirming is that we are reviewing the RFP and look forward to a competitive process that moves the city forward.”
Image courtesy courtesy GRTC Transit System
GRTC Pulse Bus Rapid Transit
Contract requires June 30, 2018, completion
Pulse, the Greater Richmond Transit Company’s nearly $65 million bus rapid transit (BRT) project, doesn’t have one yet — a pulse, that is.
The hope for rhythmically thumping speedy buses, traversing a 7.6-mile path between Rocketts Landing and Willow Lawn in express fashion, has given way to concerns about the pace of construction.
But the work continues, sometimes day and night.
Lane Construction is in charge of building and designing the rapid transit project, and it has a lot of breathing room to complete it.
“The project team continues to work with the contractor and is pushing to get the work completed as early as possible,” says Carrie Rose Pace, director of communications for GRTC. “June 30, 2018, remains the contractual fixed completion date. The project is on time and on budget.”
No launch date for the new service has been announced yet.
The project is being financed by a $24.9 million federal grant, $7.6 million from the city of Richmond, $400,000 from Henrico County, and $32 million from the Virginia Department of Transportation and the state Department of Rail and Public Transportation.
Image courtesy Chesterfield Cultural Arts Foundation
Baxter Perkinson Center for the Arts
Completion delayed to fall 2019
A long-awaited arts center in Chester will have to wait a little longer, as fundraising continues and construction costs rise.
“We had hoped to be open by now,” says Hugh Cline, chairman of the Chesterfield Cultural Arts Foundation, noting that November-December of 2017 had been the original target date.
The new target is the fall of 2019, Cline says.
As originally envisioned, the center, with a 350-seat theater, a 75-seat multipurpose room, additional classrooms and a lobby, was to have been built for $8.1 million.
But rising building costs over the past several years soon pushed the total far higher. “About 50 percent over budget,” Cline says.
Since then, the arts foundation and the county have been scrambling.
In December 2015, the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors gave its approval for funding the arts center, authorizing the Economic Development Authority to raise $6.9 million in bonds.
The supervisors had earlier approved an operating agreement that would permit the arts foundation to lease the arts center from the county, which would own the building and make arrangements for its construction.
The foundation also would be responsible for most of the center’s operating expenses, aside from routine maintenance.
Cline says the arts foundation had raised about $2.4 million as of late November, with a goal of raising $3 million.
Meanwhile, the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors has approved an additional $2 million to get the project back in play and to cope with rising costs.
Allan Carmody, Chesterfield’s finance director, says that by early 2018, the county will have a better idea of the projected cost of the arts center under a revised design.
The center has been named the Baxter Perkinson Center for the Arts, in gratitude for a $1 million gift from Baxter Perkinson Jr., whose family founded Virginia Family Dentistry.
