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John Marshall Hotel

tombarnes

By tombarnes
in Richmond

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journiyin Hamlet

journiyin

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I had a literal dream last night that the John Marshall sign was lit again... maybe it was a glimpse into the future!

I guess since I am down there...

There has been a lot of people walking around and in the building with notebooks and pens... architect and structural engineering types... identifying issues and solving problems...

But that is all I could get from eavesdropping the two or three times I spotted such a group...

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burt Megalopolis

burt

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A poster named Impaq at Richmond City Watch says a new "top notch" General Contractor has been named for the John Marshall Residences project. Whether or not it will be apartments, condos, a mix of the two, or apartments for conversion to condos is unknown.

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kramerski Crossroads

kramerski

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It's probably totally unrelated but several Dominion crews were underground doing utility work directly in front of the John Marshall today.

It "could" be related to the JM.....

I worked on the last failed project at the John Marshall and we ran into a problem with availiable power in the buidling. There are some monster transformers under the side walk that used to only feed the JM in the past. When it was in mothballs, Dom. Power "stole" a lot of the power for JM and used it elsewhere. Part of "our" new design dealt with installing an upgraded electrical service and vault for the project. My involvement ended in Dec. '04 /Jan'05.

I read somewhere else in this thread that someone said it was "full of furniture" but it really isn't. Only the first 3 hotel room floors were ever redone on the later '90's and had furniture. The 2 story expo hall was full of junk (mostly furniture) but for the most part it was empty.

The major problems in the building mainly dealt with water intrusion, crumbing paint and plaster, mold /mildew and a really old building that was "band-aided" for many years. It needs to be gutted and redone. It was closed from around '88 until '98 and then just scraped by until the last attempt at getting it back on its feet. A lot of the project hinges on tax credits due to its historic status. I hope it makes it this time.

Feel free to ask me questions as I've been in just about every knook and cranny of the building.

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thatguy Whistle-Stop

thatguy

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It "could" be related to the JM.....

I worked on the last failed project at the John Marshall and we ran into a problem with availiable power in the buidling. There are some monster transformers under the side walk that used to only feed the JM in the past. When it was in mothballs, Dom. Power "stole" a lot of the power for JM and used it elsewhere. Part of "our" new design dealt with installing an upgraded electrical service and vault for the project. My involvement ended in Dec. '04 /Jan'05.

I read somewhere else in this thread that someone said it was "full of furniture" but it really isn't. Only the first 3 hotel room floors were ever redone on the later '90's and had furniture. The 2 story expo hall was full of junk (mostly furniture) but for the most part it was empty.

The major problems in the building mainly dealt with water intrusion, crumbing paint and plaster, mold /mildew and a really old building that was "band-aided" for many years. It needs to be gutted and redone. It was closed from around '88 until '98 and then just scraped by until the last attempt at getting it back on its feet. A lot of the project hinges on tax credits due to its historic status. I hope it makes it this time.

Feel free to ask me questions as I've been in just about every knook and cranny of the building.

I thought the plan was to gut and redo the entire building?

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kramerski Crossroads

kramerski

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I thought the plan was to gut and redo the entire building?

I would think it still is, but a few things were being held on to. I don't know that much about the new plan. I no longer work for the same firm.

There are a lot things inside deemed historic that can't touched/changed. Hotel Floor Corridor walls and door locations being a big one. A lot of the windows can't be replaced only fixed. Some old historic walls and ceilings are hidden behind newer ones. The really old barbershop counters are hidden behind the "new" barber shop walls, etc.

A lot of has to do with returning the lower three floors to their close to original 1928 look. Some one in the 80's did some nasty renovations where the old grand stairs were torn out and new ugly stairs were added along with a lot of chrome and mirrors.... A lot modifications have to be done to bring it up to code too and a lot of code modifications were being used to minimize a lot of that. It's designation as a high rise isn't helpful from a code standpoint.

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kramerski Crossroads

kramerski

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Amazing how news for this project comes and goes...

I know for a fact that the design on the JM has restarted. An Electrical Eng. friend of mine was there early this week and relayed to me the further demise of the existing infrastructure since the last time we were there together (Spring of 2005).

It might just happen yet......

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tombarnes City

tombarnes

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I have little doubt that the interior will need to be completely gutted. Architectural elements of note can certainly be saved, but most of the interior should be stripped and rebuilt. The building has been patched and repaired many times over the years. The main public rooms should be restored, but the rooms themselves would likely have to be gutted entirely. Does anyone know what the structural system will permit in terms of removing interior walls? This would have a major impact upon what can be done with the rooms. I would think that the apartments would have to be reasonbly large in order to sell.

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