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Preservationists plan rally
They're scheduled to meet with a Warner aide Friday in hopes of saving two buildings
BY WILL JONES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
Preservationists plan to hold a rally tomorrow and meet with one of Gov. Mark R. Warner's top aides Friday in hopes of stopping the demolition of two state-owned office buildings on East Broad Street.
The Eighth and Ninth street office buildings, formerly the Murphy and Richmond hotels, are among a half-dozen old properties near Capitol Square threatened by expansion by the state, said Jennie Dotts, executive director of the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods.
"These are significant buildings -- all of them -- that really contribute to the identity of Richmond," she said. "I don't think since the evacuation fire of 1865 we have been confronted with such a loss of so many significant buildings."
State officials consider the Eighth and Ninth street office buildings derelict and too expensive and inefficient to rehabilitate. Neither has been designated a historic landmark.
Conditions in the Eighth Street building, built in 1911 as the Murphy Hotel, have deteriorated so much recently that 190 posts and beams were delivered yesterday to the basement to prevent the sidewalk by Eighth Street from collapsing, said Susan Pollard, a spokeswoman for the state Department of General Services.
The wooden shoring timbers, recommended by a structural engineer, are expected to be installed in about two weeks. At least 10 state agencies are housed in the building, which could be demolished this summer.
"At this point in time, there's no need to evacuate the building," Pollard said. "Something needs to be done to make sure they don't have to go to such extreme measures."
Dotts wants an independent assessment of the building and said ACORN would pay for it. "They have an agenda. They want the building demolished," she said of state officials.
The General Assembly and governor ultimately will decide whether the office buildings are knocked down or saved. The budget enacted last year includes about $2.4 million for the demolition of the Eighth Street building, and a bill filed this session by Del. Harvey B. Morgan, R-Middlesex, would provide $16 million for the construction of a parking deck in its place.
One possibility is a 315-space deck that would have retail space on the ground floor and a foundation sufficient to support the future construction of an office tower, said James T. Roberts, director of the Department of General Services.
He stressed that Virginia needs more room for its workers because it leases 2 million square feet of office space. He also said the state is spending $200 million to improve old structures in and around Capitol Square and would have to submit a plan to the state Department of Historic Resources before any building is demolished.
"It's advisory, but it's a quite serious one," he said of the review.
Tomorrow's rally is scheduled from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. near a vacant lot at Ninth and Broad facing the General Assembly building. A bus will shuttle participants from the parking lot by the Branch House at Robinson Street and Monument Avenue. Dotts said riders should gather there at noon.
Representatives of ACORN, the Historic Richmond Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities are scheduled to meet Friday with Secretary of Administration Sandra D. Bowen.
The Historic Richmond Foundation forwarded an e-mail about tomorrow's rally to its members, but Executive Director Donald Charles expressed some concern about the timing.
"I'm a little guarded about a rally in advance of a meeting [with officials] you want to engage some discussion with," he said.
Charles also said he doesn't believe alternatives to demolishing the office buildings have been fully considered.
Ivor Massey Jr., president of the APVA, plans to attend the rally and said Virginia has long been a poor steward of historic resources under its control. He said officials shouldn't be allowed to knock down a building simply because they've failed to maintain it.
"The things that are being saved are being saved because of people who fought these kinds of things when push came to shove," he said.
Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or wjones@timesdispatch.com