AUGUST 80
FILLING THE VOID While our local daily newspaper cuts staff and pages, a variety of new online media outlets have emerged, each carving out a specialized area of focus. We explore the new media landscape and present a mini guide to its players.
BEST & WORST 2022 Wondering about the best place to get your hair cut, shop for shoes or plan a first date? In our 35th annual Best & Worst survey, readers share their picks for the area’s top shops, restaurants, community events and more, along with their thoughts on some of the region’s less stellar moments. With 188 categories, we cover it all.
TIM COOK
By Paula Peters Chambers
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LOCAL
SEEING GREEN World’s largest “living building” planned for Henrico’s GreenCity development
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ing opened in Portland, Oregon; if certior nearly two decades, a fied next year, it will be the world’s largroughly 300,000-squarefoot office building in est living building. GreenCity’s proposed Henrico County served living building will be roughly five times as the headquarters for that size. Best Products Co., the Richmond-based Typically, structures that receive living retailer that rose to fame in the 1970s and building certifications are smaller in scale ’80s with its innovative catalog-showand aren’t commercial buildings. They’re room format before shutting down in also usually built from scratch. the late ’90s. “There’s some challenges [of adapting Developer GreenCity Partners LLC an existing building], but then there’s now plans to turn the Best Products some benefits because of the configubuilding into the world’s largest “living ration of the building,” says GreenCity co-developer Michael Hallmark, adding building.” To earn the living building designation from Seattle-based nonprofit that because the building is low and wide, International Living Future Institute it has a large rooftop area. The rooftop (ILFI), a structure must have an urban will accommodate agriculture, feature agricultural component, create more net solar panels and capture rainwater. “We’re positive energy and net positive water going to try to blur indoor/outdoor in than it uses, and satisfy other criteria, some places,” Hallmark says. “Waste will including providing a year’s worth of all be processed on-site, so there’s no eco-performance data to a third-party dumping into the sewer.” auditor. The living building will be part Lisa Carey Moore, director of ILFI’s buildings team, says that GreenCity’s of the GreenCity ecodistrict, a $2.3 billion proposed living building will mixed-use development that The former Best help lead the charge when it will feature an arena that will Products headquarters, seat up to 17,000. comes to sustainable buildings. left, circa 1985, is being converted into a “living Earlier this year, the 58,000“By publicly committing to building” as part of the the Living Building Challenge square-foot PAE Living BuildGreenCity development.
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and the objectives within it, they have the potential to influence the marketplace,” she says, noting that a project of this size will show manufacturers of building supplies that there’s a demand for this type of undertaking. “That’s really key in terms of having a project at scale where they’re going to need many hundreds — if not over a thousand — products for this building.” While there are proposed living building projects in the ILFI pipeline that are larger than GreenCity’s, they haven’t been publicly announced. “Achieving the goals of the Living Building Challenge in the former Best Products headquarters will set the new international standard for sustainable development,” says John Vithoulkas, Henrico’s county manager, via email. “Having the largest self-sufficient commercial building in the world here in our county creates not only a positive impact to our local ecosystem, but also a new niche of economic development possibilities.” Hallmark believes GreenCity’s living building will open in 2025, the arena will debut in 2026 and the development’s residential components could be available as early as 2024. “The hope is that many, many, many more buildings like this will happen,” Hallmark says. “This isn’t necessarily a race to be larger. This is really a challenge to be more efficient, so size is less important than performance.” —Rich Griset
FROM LEFT: RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH COLLECTION, THE VALENTINE; GREEN CITY PARTNERS, LLC
DEVELOPMENT
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NEWS
STRAINING TO BE HEARD Post-Roe, pro-choice advocates work to elevate real people in the abortion debate By Scott Bass
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Pro-choice advocates ing to fill a void in the national of the reasons storytelling is so attend a rally at Monroe debate by encouraging women impactful. … There are a million Park on July 8. and transgender people who’ve reasons why a person needed had abortions to speak out. Despite being to have an abortion, but we don’t always a common procedure — one in five preghear those reasons spoken out loud.” In Virginia, time is of the essence. nancies ended in abortion in 2020, accordAdvocates worry the state, one of the ing to the Guttmacher Institute — the South’s remaining “safe havens” for social stigma surrounding abortion has long discouraged many from sharing abortion access post-Roe, is precariously their experiences. This void, advocates say, close to losing that access. Republicans now control state government and hold has allowed pro-life political and religious leaders to shape the narrative. a majority in the House of Delegates. Gov. “Every abortion is justified when you Glenn Youngkin is calling for legislation hear why the person got an abortion. during the next General Assembly session When you hear a person’s story, it’s very to ban abortion after 15 weeks and has said he’ll sign any anti-abortion bill that hard to say, ‘No, you should not have had makes it to his desk. access to that health care,’ ” says Han Democrats still have a 21-19 majority Jones, political director for Planned Parin the state Senate, making passage enthood Advocates of Virginia. “It’s one
JAY PAUL
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n 1994, Kerry Mills and her future husband were living in a cramped apartment in the Fan. He was working as a carpenter and musician; she was fresh out of graduate school and lacked steady employment. “That’s when we found ourselves pregnant,” Mills says. “It wasn’t like we weren’t being careful or anything. We were using birth control, and it was just one of those — nothing’s 100%, except not doing it, right?” Mills and her boyfriend talked through the options for two weeks. Complicating matters was the fact that they both wanted to start a family. “I always knew I would be a mother, and it was always part of the plan,” she says. But neither had health insurance and their housing situation wasn’t stable. They decided they weren’t ready. “The narrative that’s out there is one of, you know, babies being saved, of people who are irresponsible, using it as birth control, all of that,” Mills says. “None of that is real.” In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s late June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, pro-choice advocates are mobilizing and hunkering down for a protracted legal and political fight as Republican-led states across the country enact new restrictions or ban abortion procedures altogether. In states where abortion is still legal, such as Virginia, it’s not just about protecting access to abortion, they say, but protecting “abortion health care,” which includes access to contraception, hormone replacement therapy for transgender patients and health care for the economically disadvantaged. Pro-choice proponents are also work-
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DON LONG/RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
After months of winner Powhatan Beaty, a first christened the Haxall Canal. controversy, Robert E. Among the passengers was L. sergeant in the Union Army; and Lee’s image on the floodwall was set ablaze Douglas Wilder, a former VirginU.S. Appeals Court Judge Spottsin the early morning ia governor and future Richwood Robinson III. Supreme hours of Jan. 17, 2000. mond mayor. A contingent of Court Chief Justice John Marshall, who also happened to be a slave the SCV draped the Confederate stars and bars over the 14th Street bridge under owner, made the new display, along with which the boat passed. Wilder, the first Richmond-born, internationally known African American to be elected as goversculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel, who as a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute nor in the U.S., stood, smiled and saluted. He later explained to The Washington Post fought for the Confederacy, and Abraham that he intended to defuse tensions. Lincoln, who made a personal visit to Soon thereafter, the Richmond Historsmoldering Richmond after Confederates ic Riverfront Foundation and Richmond set fire to the city and fled in April 1865. Renaissance, a downtown booster group, A replacement portrait of Lee was also convened a panel to meditate on the quesincluded. The famous Mathew Brady piction of who should go on the wall, includture showed a hatless Lee standing in uniform on a back porch in front of a ing Lee. After gathering public input on cross-and-Bible door. a revamped display, entertainer and The committee referred their choices philanthropist Bill Robinson was removed, to City Council. El-Amin sought to leave and other Black figures were added, the wall bare rather than return Lee, including the crusading Richmond Planet whatever he wore. editor John Mitchell Jr.; Medal of Honor
And then on July 16, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke made a cameo appearance beneath the Arthur Ashe statue. “Duke warned that the Lee controversy was just one battle in a war over the heritage of ‘European Americans,’ ” reported The Washington Post. Duke professed confusion about the Ashe statue on an avenue for “heroes of the Confederacy. … But they can’t put up with a mural of Robert E. Lee.” At last came the final decision by City Council. After an exhausting four-hour meeting in late July, the donnybrook was bridged by a 6-3 vote to approve the banners, with Lee among them. That November, a Times-Dispatch headline quipped, “Lee likeness returns to wall without a shot fired.” Then, between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Jan. 17, 2000, someone tossed a Molotov cocktail at the Lee banner, burning the image off the vinyl mesh. Lee didn’t return. R
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LIVING
In addition to hats and apparel, Crewel and Unusual crafts embroidered patches and decorative items.
SEWING FUN
Local embroidery business brings the unusual to Richmond By Nicole Cohen
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ave you ever wondered where you can find a sweatshirt with an embroidered stick of butter design? How about a shirt featuring a cactus sitting in a
car without wheels with the words, “slow down”? Or a hat with a pizza box patch that opens to reveal a pepperoni pizza inside? Local embroidery business Crewel and Unusual is answering that call. With a penchant for unexpected designs in fun colors, most of its embroidered apparel and decor is derived from owner Daniel Crawford’s imagination. “I just like to make things,” Crawford says. “I’m naturally creative and I’m inspired by things in the world or nature … and then pop culture things. Pizza is very popular.” Crawford started the business in 2017, but says his journey began in 2012 when he purchased an industrial sewing machine. He began selling embroidered patches and products under the name The New Woodsman. With a background in
FOOTWEAR
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AQUARIUMS
SHARED SHOES
FINDING FISH
Ashland-based Stegmann has partnered with nonprofit Soles4Souls, donating more than 500 pairs of shoes to those in need. Known for wool clogs, Stegmann has expanded into boots, dress shoes and sandals. CEO Andy Jacobs says the July donation prevents discontinued shoes from ending up in a landfill. He says Soles4Souls has a “fantastic reputation for distributing footwear to people in need not just in the U.S. but all across the world, so that really appealed to us.” Look for new footwear selections this fall from Stegmann’s recent collaboration with J.Crew online at jcrew.com. stegmannusa.com —NC
Caleb Kilgore has moved his saltwater aquarium store, Reefology RVA, to 1561 N. Parham Road after his former landlord sold the building that housed his prior location at 11900 Hull Street Road. Reefology carries everything from tanks to a variety of saltwater aquatic life. Services include installation, maintenance and tank relocation, and they also offer touch tanks for parties, allowing kids to learn about ocean life. “It’s hard for us to say no to anything aquarium-related,” Kilgore says. “We just tackle it, and we’re always up for the opportunity.” Kilgore is also bringing on a new partner, Kole Elkin, whom he says has been instrumental in growing the business, which first opened in September 2020. reefologyrva.com —NC
FROM TOP: JULIANNE TRIPP; COURTESY STEGMANN
SHOP TALK
needlework and a lot of trial and error, Crawford has fashioned a successful business with regular local and national clients, three employees, and five machines. The studio at 2306 N. Lombardy St. is filled with creative patches, shirts, hats and more. The designs are quirky, yet simple — such as a tarot card image reimagined with bread and butter, numerous eyes grouped together, and multiple mushroom patterns. The business’ name is a pun based on crewel, an embroidery term, and the fact that the designs are often not what you’d expect. Crawford is launching a line of embroidered vintage clothing later this month, making use of the gently loved pieces he’s been collecting for years. “Just trying to make something old new again,” he says. A large part of Crawford’s business is custom work where clients come to him with an image they want embroidered on a piece of apparel. He’s done everything from company logos to a golden retriever with a mermaid tail for a family vacation. He even has a step-by-step guide available online (crewelandunusual.com) to submit a request for custom work. Crewel and Unusual products can be found on the website; Carytown’s Ashby also has a small selection. Local pickup is available at the studio. Crawford says people should wear what brings them joy and if he can assist with that, it’s gratifying. “To be able to be creative, make something, express something, and [have] people get excited about it, it’s invaluable,” he says. R
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PRIVATE SCHOOLS
SCHOOL NEWS The latest on the private education front
SCIENCE
Relatively Outstanding Steward instructor Earns Einstein Fellowship
COURTESY THE STEWARD SCHOOL
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aura Akesson may not be a regular “Einstein” yet, but she’s on her way — to Washington, D.C., at least. The Steward School upper school science teacher is one of 15 teachers from around the country tapped in May as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow. She will be spending the upcoming school year in Washington, working on STEM resources and programs with the Department of Energy alongside other fellows working with government agencies. “I’m excited to learn and make an impact,” Akesson says in a press release. “I love teaching not only because I get to share my excitement for science, but for the ability to create opportunities where students realize their great capabilities and potential. The chance to do this on the national level is both daunting and exciting.” Past program participants helped draft legislation and advised on policies to improve K-12 education, evaluated national programs centered on school
Laura Akesson, a science reform, and designed new feafor teaching … to make signifteacher at The Steward icant contributions to the tures of national STEM eduSchool, will spend the next year working in educational community.” cation programs. Washington, D.C. Akesson has worked as a Einstein fellows were selected from a large applicant physics and biomedical design pool of full-time K-12 teachers with at teacher at The Steward School since 2012, least five years of STEM experience. The and serves as the academic dean of the school’s Bryan Innovation Lab. She has fellows will have access to a “national network of education leaders and pro22 years of education experience, includgrams,” according to a press release from ing stints with Virginia Commonwealth University, Henrico County Public sponsoring agency the U.S. Department of Energy. The program intends to foster Schools and Zurich International School. a greater understanding of the possibilShe also leads Science Overdrive, a science ities and challenges in STEM education education nonprofit company she foundamong teachers and restore their “passion ed in 2009. —Staff Reports
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CONSTRUCTION
CHARTERHOUSE MAKEOVER School breaks ground on new building for its Richmond campus
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he Charterhouse School is getting a makeover. The West Broad Street campus, one of two affiliated with United Methodist Family Services, opened in 1979, but the city’s connections to the facility go back to the early 1900s. “We’ve always existed on the same plot of land on Broad Street,” says Katie Moore, United Methodist Family Services’ director of fund development. “Several years ago, the board decided that they wanted to envision a new master plan for our campus.” Now the plans are coming together. Construction of a new mental health residential treatment center for children was completed in 2021. Charterhouse also serves students who are referred to its program by surrounding schools after struggling in more traditional settings. The school provides specialized education to around 130 students. As the school program expanded, it became clear
that remodeling would be needed in order to consolidate the existing spaces and expand the services available to students. “That’s what makes [Charterhouse] so special — it’s kids that have just been through really heartbreaking things and just need a little bit of love to help meet
their educational goals,” Moore says. The new building will include 10 new classrooms, a kitchen, a cafeteria and a recreation room. UMFS has raised about 80% of their $8 million goal, thanks to a combination of donations and funds from Spy Rock Real Estate. Construction will take about a year. “The kids who are being served by this program have gone through very serious things that have resulted in pretty challenging mental health diagnoses and other behavioral issues,” Moore says. “Our focus and what we really care about is to make that experience as normal as possible.” —Ale Egocheaga
The new building includes a kitchen, cafeteria and recreation room.
AWARDS
All Saints students attended the award ceremony earlier this year at the Richmond Marriott with former governor L. Douglas Wilder.
IN APRIL, All Saints Catholic School was awarded the Grace E. Harris Leadership award by Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. The annual award, named after the late Grace E. Harris, a past provost and vice president for academic affairs at VCU, is given to an individual or organization making “a dis-
cernible, sustainable positive impact on the quality of life in Virginia through public service,” according to the Wilder School’s website. It was presented to All Saints at the annual Excellence in Virginia Government Awards, held at the downtown Richmond Marriott. “All Saints Catholic School of Richmond is recognized for its work to prepare students
for profound success in high school, college and throughout their adult lives as highly engaged leaders in a diverse, democratic society,” according to the Wilder School website. All Saints has about 200 pre-K to eighth-grade students in the Richmond area, and the school’s alumni boast a 100% high school graduation rate, with most opting for college. —Craig Belcher
FROM TOP: COURTESY CHARTERHOUSE SCHOOL; COURTESY ALL SAINTS CATHOLIC SCHOOL
All Saints Earns Leadership Award
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built without a backstage area — student performers had to wait in the audience for their cues.” Because of this, certain performances had to be held at other venues or outside. Sometimes, dance performances would take place in the dance practice room on campus, but audience members were taking up performance space, and it felt like they were part of the show, says Arts Coordinator Kendall Neely. The new Arts and Innovation Center, 32,247 square feet in size, is scheduled to be completed in December, and it will have a two-story theater with wings and a backstage area. The center will also have a fly system, a theatrical rigging setup allowing sets to be moved on, around and above the stage, so the performance space can be used for multiple shows and presentations. The new arts center will also have a welding and scene shop that will allow students to create the art featured in their performances. “We make sure that every part of the program has the students not only just doing it, but they’re actually involved in the creation of their own work, and to
New venues: St. Catherine’s Arts and Innovation Center and St. Michael’s Perkinson Arts Center
have ownership over production,” Neely says. “You want to be able to showcase your work as well as be part of the creation process.” Dunlap graduated from St. Catherine’s in 1970 and has been working at
“The arts allow for children to express themselves. The arts are essential, central to the full development of the various dimensions to a child.” ROBERT GREGG II, S T. MIC HAEL’S EPISCOPAL SC HOOL
the school for 37 years. She’s seen firsthand the need for a proper performance space and the emphasis placed on arts at the school. “What the arts program is to me is a far greater part of a St. Catherine’s education than it was when I was here,” Dunlap says. “It’s grown tremendously, and I think it is really one of the very important aspects of our educational offerings. And I think this building symbolizes that.” As schools in the Richmond area invest in the arts, they are increasing students’ problem-solving ability, developing their motor skills and fostering creativity that the students can tap into throughout their lives. “The arts allow for children to express themselves. The arts are essential, central to the full development of the various dimensions to a child,” Gregg says. “The arts are some areas of life and school that children are exceedingly comfortable with, and by being in a school where the arts are essential to what you do, other children who wouldn’t explore or wouldn’t discover that about themselves realize that they have a voice.”
FROM LEFT: COURTESY ST. CATHERINE’S SCHOOL; LAUREN CONTESSA/ST. MICHAEL’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
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