Uptown Neon looks to add some extra glow under new ownership

Uptown Neon owner Chloe Kottwitz (Photos by Charlotte Matherly)

Two years after arriving in Richmond for what was to be a weeklong trial run with Uptown Neon, Chloe Kottwitz has found herself at the helm of the longtime neon sign shop in the Fan. 

The 24-year-old bought the business earlier this spring, taking over for her mentor Doug Solyan, who had run it for 35 years before his death a little over a year ago. 

“Doug wanted his work and his legacy to continue. I mean, he had poured his heart into it,” Kottwitz said. “I think he was just definitely looking for someone who was willing and ready to do that. … I just feel lucky that I got to kind of be that person.”

Kottwitz officially bought the store from Doug’s wife, Debbie Solyan, in late spring for an undisclosed sum. 

With the deal came the shop’s first-floor storefront at 2629 W. Cary St., which Kottwitz estimates is lined with more than 1,000 neon signs on the walls and ceilings. 

The shop in the Fan

While most of those aren’t her creations, she hopes to make the store more her own, little by little.

She’s also looking to make Uptown Neon more of a destination. It doesn’t currently get much impromptu foot traffic, since most of the work is custom orders for individual customers, restaurants and small businesses. She said she hopes to encourage walk-ins by creating a seating area at the front.

“I would like to have it be a place where people stop by and check things out … [so] people just feel free to be in the space,” she said.

Kottwitz’s interest in neon sparked when she took a glassblowing and sculpture class for her art degree in New York at Alfred University, where she graduated in 2021.

“It clicked. … It was a skill that I could learn and really just be aiming toward perfecting,” Kottwitz said. “[I was] just completely mesmerized by the fact that it’s just these glass tubes that illuminate.”

Uptown neon is one of the only shops in Richmond dedicated exclusively to neon signs.

Her journey to Richmond began when she was connected with Solyan through an acquaintance of her college professor. Solyan quickly became a mentor and inspiration to her. 

Kottwitz said she enjoys the shop’s “garage-shop aesthetic,” in which every piece is handmade.

“I definitely feel like it’s a mix of mad scientist meets the creative genius that Doug was,” she said.

To make a neon sign, she first sketches the design on a large piece of paper. Then she grabs one of the 4-foot glass tubes and uses torches to melt and bend the glass. She hooks it up to a vacuum pump to clean out the inside, then injects the gas – usually neon or argon – that creates the colored light.

Smaller pieces take two to three days to complete, whereas a larger project may take upward of a week, Kottwitz said. She charges $60-$80 per letter, depending on size, and sells small signs in the $600-$800 range. Larger ones generally cost between $1,000-$2,000.

Uptown Neon is the only remaining shop in Richmond dedicated solely to neon, Kottwitz said. There used to be several locally when Solyan started out decades ago. Now the closest neon shops are out toward Charlottesville and Norfolk. That’s in part due to a change in technology, such as the adoption of LED lighting. 

“Slowly, it just kind of dwindled,” Kottwitz said. “It’s not the easiest thing to get materials. It’s not the easiest thing to do in general. It’s a pretty specific craft to know about, and that knowledge definitely had died out with the introduction of LED.”