Richmond in Pictures III

[eandslee]

Some super awesome aerial photos of Richmond today...and of the raging James River.  I’m telling you - this guy takes some unbelievable photos!

https://www.facebook.com/858611964189755/posts/3666570690060521/?extid=0&d=n

[wrldcoupe4]

It was pretty cool to see today. 

[Hike]

I thought these were particularly nice and should share , they're  from  the RTD labeled as recent aerial views, linked that below along with an RVA Reddit view that was posted.

https://richmond.com/news/local/photos-recent-aerial-views-of-richmond/collection_101ad736-2bdc-5f22-adf2-edcbf91b04f2.html

 

This one is from  RVA Reddit, also nice.

 

Edited November 16, 2020 by Hike

[I miss RVA]

These are FANTASTIC photos!! 

[Hike]

11 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

These are FANTASTIC photos!! 

I know,  really looks good, the density is something I hadn't seen from this angle, and the one from Reddit, if you can zoom in to just the edges of downtown, the river in the foreground vanishing into the city, really nice.  Looks like one that could be a framed picture.  

[blake_p]

From Saturday (14-Nov-2020)

[wrldcoupe4]

Crazy! Here’s one from Friday afternoon. 

[eandslee]

Probably some off the best aerial shots of Downtown Richmond that I’ve seen.  Check it out!

Edited December 20, 2020 by eandslee

[I miss RVA]

A fantastic new exhibit at the Valentine - the Edith Shelton collection of photographs chronicling a slice of mid-20th-century Richmond. This exhibit will be at the Valentine through Sept. 2021 - and personally I hope and pray her fantastic work gets published comprehensively in a book. I would gladly pay a premium for such a fantastic photographic history of Richmond. Gosh- I'd love to peruse her entire photographic collection, which apparently is quite extensive.

https://www.wtvr.com/i-have-a-story/richmond-photographer-captured-thousands-of-photos-before-the-wrecking-ball

https://thevalentine.org/exhibition/edith-sheltons-richmond-revisited/

 

[Brent114]

Check out this beautiful drone footage! 
Take that sunbelt cities! 

[eandslee]

Excellent!  Awesome find!  Man, what a CITY!  Thanks for posting. 

As a reminder to everyone - if you find yourself around town during the holidays, take some photos and post them here.  Would love to see some construction updates and any other views you think we might enjoy!  Happy Holidays Everyone!

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

At 0:25, I got absolutely giddy seeing the impact of the three new towers (GAB, Childrens & Adult Outpatient) in the urban fabric. Really maximizing the use potential of those city blocks compared to what was there before. Love it

[I miss RVA]

On 12/22/2020 at 4:21 PM, RVA-Is-The-Best said:

At 0:25, I got absolutely giddy seeing the impact of the three new towers (GAB, Childrens & Adult Outpatient) in the urban fabric. Really maximizing the use potential of those city blocks compared to what was there before. Love it

Totally agree! Now - let's imagine that block on the west side of 10th street - public safety building block - with the 20-story tower plus all the smaller yet quite dense urban development. Once that block is fully built out - the whole of this part of downtown will really start to come together a bit.

[I miss RVA]

From our good friends over at RVA Reddit: A stunning picture of the skyline taken from the overlook at 22nd and Grace behind the old WRVA studios:

 

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by I miss RVA

[Hike]

Nice picture from rva/reddit 

 

[I miss RVA]

Some new photos by Creativedogmedia - posted on the RVA Reddit page.

 

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by I miss RVA

[I miss RVA]

From our friends at the rva Reddit page:

[I miss RVA]

Once again, our good friends over on the RVA Reddit page have struck gold - this time with an amazing video of Richmond in the snow as seen from high above Battery Park. Great perspective of the city, looking in from the Northside. The increasingly muscular skyline, looming in the distance, gives Richmond a big-city feel from this perspective that is quite fantastic.  Video produced by the fine folks at RVA Adventures.

 

[wrldcoupe4]

This will strike conversation

https://richmond.com/business/watch-now-what-is-richmonds-tallest-building/video_9fe1e407-f360-5b4e-90ee-44858c6c95f4.html

[I miss RVA]

Nice find, Coupe. The video is very well done.

You're right - it should start conversation about one of the topics that has been a sore spot for many of us here - what will it take to get something taller than the Monroe tower built in Richmond? Hopes that CoStar would come through look to be just that - hopes - that aren't likely to pan out. And particularly given the pandemic (and likely at least for a while post-pandemic) the chances of seeing a really big new office building going up downtown seem pretty remote.

What's hot in Richmond right now (and I know every last one of us on here is grateful for this!!) are large residential buildings. Lots of them are being built, more are on the way, and it seems that going forward they may be getting increasingly tall. The sexiest building that has at least been on developer drawing boards is the 25-story residential tower that appears in renderings to be situated on Broad, somewhere in the western section of the Arts District. But even then, such an ambitious project - which if build would yield the city's tallest residential tower - still would not bring us a building taller than the Monroe tower.

The obvious answer is economics - but what does Richmond need to do economically in order to get something even 30 or 35 stories tall built? No doubt, if a large Fortune 500-type of company could be lured here post-pandemic as the markets in places like New York or wherever begin to shake out - and if they wanted to establish themselves downtown with a signature headquarters building, then who knows - it could happen! Until then, with the players in place on Richmond's economic landscape, I don't see a 500-foot-tall building rising in Richmond any time soon.

[eandslee]

Well, looking internally (looking at the companies already in Richmond), here are the possibilities for tall towers...at least, below are the possibilities I can think of.  Obviously, the chance of getting a tall tower built downtown would be even greater if a large out-of-town company moved in and wanted a major HQ presence downtown, but here is my list of possibilities based on what I know right now:

1) Dominion hasn’t built their second tower yet. Perhaps they would be willing to build taller if the need arose to house more employees downtown before the actually build.
 

2) The other good prospect would be if Atlantic Union Bank were to grow a bit more and were willing to have a major presence downtown.  Banks like to build tall and flashy. 
 

3) Least likely, but still a remote possibility (a very small possibility) is CoStar, but I’m 99% certain that they can’t or won’t build very tall (maybe 15-20 stories max). 
 

4) I think that a mixed use tower would be a great possibility if the cost to build it could be justified.  This tower, in theory, would contain parking, retail, hotel, residential and office space.  Would be great if a developer could put a project like this together and make it work.

5) Would also be great to see Capital One would move its operations downtown from the west end, but I don’t think that will ever happen.

Can’t  think of any other way based on companies already in Richmond.  Can any of you think of one I haven’t?  

Edited March 9, 2021 by eandslee

[I miss RVA]

55 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Well, looking internally (looking at the companies already in Richmond), here are the possibilities for tall towers...at least, below are the possibilities I can think of.  Obviously, the chance of getting a tall tower built downtown would be even greater if a large out-of-town company moved in and wanted a major HQ presence downtown, but here is my list of possibilities based on what I know right now:

1) Dominion hasn’t built their second tower yet. Perhaps they would be willing to build taller if the need arose to house more employees downtown before the actually build.
 

2) The other good prospect would be if Atlantic Union Bank were to grow a bit more and were willing to have a major presence downtown.  Banks like to build tall and flashy. 
 

3) Least likely, but still a remote possibility (a very small possibility) is CoStar, but I’m 99% certain that they can’t or won’t build very tall (maybe 15-20 stories max). 
 

4) I think that a mixed use tower would be a great possibility if the cost to build it could be justified.  This tower, in theory, would contain parking, retail, hotel, residential and office space.  Would be great if a developer could put a project like this together and make it work.

5) Would also be great to see Capital One would move its operations downtown from the west end, but I don’t think that will ever happen.

Can’t  think of any other way based on companies already in Richmond.  Can any of you think of one I haven’t?  

These are all possibilities, though I do think they are more long-shot possibilities than realistic - at least in the short-to-intermediate term.

Dominion - biggest issue once we are post-pandemic is even IF additional office space will be needed. The pandemic has/is/will be changing the way we're viewing work environments. I almost could see Dominion -- at some point -- IF they're not going to build on the old James River Plaza site -- selling the land and another developer eventually putting something there. No guarantee, of course - Dominion COULD surprise us. I just don't know that there will be much movement on that block any time soon.

Atlantic Union Bank - perhaps the most realistic chance for something big and flashy - provided they aren't swallowed up by another regional/national bank. And how long will it take them to grow to sufficient size with sufficient employees working downtown to actually get them to purchase a parcel of downtown land and start building? I think like Dominion, this could be a multi-year wait before anything significant happens.

CoStar - 100% agreed. I think that's a done deal -- they're playing small ball rather than going for the three-run homer. As Chef Ramsay is fond of saying: "what a shame".

Mixed Use - that certainly has a lot of possibilities - but how much of such a building would have to be built on spec vs having an anchor tenant as part of the mix? And this despite the fact that folks in the industry keep saying companies might line up to come to Richmond if there was sufficient Class A spec office space available -- and that they go to other cities because those cities are building spec office space, whereas Richmond isn't. I would like to think that these folks know what they're talking about.

Capital One - I agree. It would be AWESOME to have them move downtown. I'm just not sure even our grandchildren would ever live long enough to see it.

[Wahoo 07]

Dominion is our best bet for a new highest in the next few years.  It is actually planning another building and has shown an unshakable commitment to downtown.  While I, like many on this board, wish for for a building (or several) to crack the 500' mark, it doesn't seem likely in the foreseeable future.  Atlantic Union Bank would probably take over more of the James Center first (maybe be the impetus for its long delayed expansion).  Otherwise, something unforeseeable would have to occur -- like a massive surge in regional population that propels Richmond from 44th to 32nd largest metro or a few F1000 companies either relocated to or open major offices here. 

The 25 story residential building on Broad is really promising.  If that is successful, it might encourage others to build taller residential towers downtown.  Maybe a luxury building will be the next tallest.  However, if downtown gets seven to ten 350'-425' buildings in the 2020s, Richmond, especially when viewed from the south, will look and feel markedly urban.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Wahoo 07

[Icetera]

15 hours ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

This will strike conversation

https://richmond.com/business/watch-now-what-is-richmonds-tallest-building/video_9fe1e407-f360-5b4e-90ee-44858c6c95f4.html

Interesting that they listed First National Bank as the 10th tallest at 292'.  I suspect they meant to select 8th & Main (the other Dominion labeled tower) which is listed at 290' while First National is only listed as 262' (the difference in height is visually obvious).  One James Center (285'), Central National Bank (282'),  and Gateway Plaza (276') are all taller while its immediate neighbor, One Capitol Place is nearly the same height (261-262').  Both of VCU-MC' towers now under construction are clearly also breaking into the Top 10, likely both breaking 300', though it may be a while until actual heights are released (the numbers are currently very inaccurate calculations that do not match the structure).

  

[I miss RVA]

3 hours ago, Icetera said:

Interesting that they listed First National Bank as the 10th tallest at 292'.  I suspect they meant to select 8th & Main (the other Dominion labeled tower) which is listed at 290' while First National is only listed as 262' (the difference in height is visually obvious).  One James Center (285'), Central National Bank (282'),  and Gateway Plaza (276') are all taller while its immediate neighbor, One Capitol Place is nearly the same height (261-262').  Both of VCU-MC' towers now under construction are clearly also breaking into the Top 10, likely both breaking 300', though it may be a while until actual heights are released (the numbers are currently very inaccurate calculations that do not match the structure).

  

I'm curious if the measurements of the Children's Hospital expansion might need to be updated just a bit as, based on photographic evidence, the right-most elevator shaft as of now appears to be level with -- or slightly above -- the primary roof-line of City Hall... (which would indicate that once the building is fully topped out and whatever crown may be put on the Marshall Street side has been put in place, that the actual, overall height of the building will be higher than the current estimate.