On Architecture
Second glance: Free Bridge a design delightIf you live or travel east of Charlottesville, you've probably driven over it hundreds, if not thousands of times without giving it a passing glance. Yet the seven-lane Free Bridge that crosses the...read more Dec 14th, 2011
Cruising Carlton: Jacobean revival, trailer parks, and towers Ever drive down Carlton Avenue? We did. It was never hard to miss the "Young Building" at 1102 Carlton, but now that Habitat for Humanity's transformation of the former Sunrise Trailer Park project...read more Dec 7th, 2011
Rotunda rehab: Good-bye and good-riddance to magnolias?As UVA gears up to begin a $4.7 million roof replacement project for the Rotunda, part of a planned $50 million restoration of Thomas Jefferson's famous centerpiece on the Lawn, a major visual...read more Nov 28th, 2011
Snap: The new Martha JeffersonThe new 84-acre campus of Martha Jefferson Hospital gleams in the morning light of a recent autumn day, as captured by pilot-photographer Skip Degan. A year after a major merger, the venerable...read more Nov 27th, 2011
Rice Hall: UVA cuts ribbon on $65 million smart buildingUVA officials cut the ribbon Friday morning on a $65 million building that can provide real-time reports on its own utility usage while educating the next wave of brainiacs. The November 18 event...read more Nov 18th, 2011
Snooky's owner wins right to remove cedar shakesOne of the Downtown Mall's more unusual façades may soon change, now that the Board of Architectural Review has, at its November 15 meeting, approved the removal of the expanse of cedar shakes that...read more Nov 17th, 2011
Travel plans: Will Bypass bypass peds, bikes, and transit?The proposed Western Bypass, the resurrected $235 million road project that will cut a 6.2-mile swath from Forest Lakes South to the North Grounds of the University of Virginia through neighborhoods...read more Oct 31st, 2011
Garrett Hall renewed as Batten School homeWith Virginia's outgoing U.S. Senator giving a kick-off speech, the University of Virginia opened its 11th school last week in a building that got a spiffy renovation that recalls its earliest days...read more Oct 25th, 2011
Woodard buildings finally getting a faceliftWhat has been the Downtown's Mall's biggest pile of vacant buildings has received new attention this year, as the long-shuttered storefronts and upper-story spaces at the northeast corner of First...read more Oct 25th, 2011
$100K to burn: Donation stokes $3.7 million Lawn fireplacesOn a chilly fall day when the temperature barely cracked the 60-degree mark, University of Virginia officials announced that there's hope for the 106 chimneys of the hallowed Lawn and Range rooms,...read more Oct 20th, 2011
Stonefield stalemate: Is the Trader Joe's design appropriate?While it has been impossible to miss the massive earth-moving project at the site of the future mega-commercial center known as Stonefield (previously Albemarle Place), the 65-acre village-style...read more Oct 18th, 2011
New view: Photog captures tornado-smashed 'Sylvania' from skyThe tornado that roared through the Green Springs Historic District of triple-punched Louisa County gave Hook contributing photographer Skip Degan an opportunity to pilot a fixed-wing aircraft over...read more Oct 15th, 2011
Fraternity fall: Horrific outcome as balcony rail breaksThe wooden railing surrounding a University of Virginia fraternity's covered concrete porch appears to have collapsed–- or at least pulled away from the surrounding columns–- under the...read more Sep 25th, 2011
Snuffed out? Fire ban puts a damper on UVA traditionA tradition as old as the UVA Lawn itself was recently snuffed out, at least temporarily, as University officials announced last week that students living on the Lawn and the Ranges would no longer...read more Sep 20th, 2011
Retail migration: Could Stonefield threaten Barracks?Last week, we looked at store vacancy data for the Downtown Mall, completed in July by the City's Office of Economic Development, but what about the City's other retail centers? And what effect might...read more Sep 13th, 2011
Mall kiosk surfaces, British Corner invasion, and is the Mall okay?The journey of the Downtown Mall's iconic kiosk continues. Three years ago, the City had it removed from the Mall with plans to demolish it. But after the Hook wrote about its demise, some folks...read more Sep 6th, 2011
'One man's greed' VA court decision blocks YMCA constructionOn August 2, Piedmont YMCA CEO Denny Blank says, he was in a meeting with the contractor who was going to build the new $15 million, 72,000-square-foot YMCA facility in McIntire Park when he got the...read more Aug 23rd, 2011
First view: Designers reveal look for Trader Joe's, StonefieldTrader Joe's, the specialty grocery chain that has caused ripples of enthusiasm over its impending arrival in Charlottesville, will present a mostly windowless expanse of stone and masonry to the...read more Aug 13th, 2011
Modern markers: History tour goes high-techOur area is thick with sturdy historic makers, those grey and black signs with inlaid text explaining the brief history of a place along the roadsides or next to parking lots and buildings. But...read more Jul 27th, 2011
The Lodge: Old Trail for older folks Back in 2008, developer David Hilliard began his "Lodge at Old Trail" project, a senior living community in the heart of Old Trail Village in Crozet. He was hoping to create what he calls a multi-...read more Jul 19th, 2011