Edwin Slipek

Last month, as a back-handed slap to Black History Month no less, Virginia Union announced plans to demolish the abandoned, but sturdy Richmond Community Hospital to open up a site for 130 housing units.

(Guest Commentary) Ideas include constructing infill office structures at the top of the hill, and establishing a park-like grand promenade that would crown and celebrate the old hillside architecturally while offering vistas of other Richmond hills and landmarks.

(Guest Commentary) If the asphalt could speak, it’d remind us that this eastward sloping hillside was once a densely populated, mixed-use caldron of human activity.

(Guest Commentary) These respective presentations, impeccably installed, feel like more than art exhibitions; they are like a symphony in Bey’s case, or in Wright’s evolution, a serious musical play.

This is the second of columnist Edwin Slipek’s two-part feature of prominent local personalities and leaders who passed away in 2023.

Our broader family, the Richmond community, has felt the loss in 2023 of many impressive folks whose example and deeds will continue to affect us. (Guest Commentary)

(Guest Commentary) Richmond movie goers are being caught unawares — jolted even — when “The Holdovers” targets a respected, 126-year-old prep school located just up the road in rural Fluvanna County.

How can Richmond be proactive in drafting and initiating a fresh, imaginative and practical narrative for respecting and building upon the past? Here are three ideas.

Make no mistake, the legislature’s $292 million, 14-floor office building is the grandest structure built in our community this decade. (Guest Commentary)

Our town has architectural depth that can translate into century-old places being repurposed. It’s a mark of Richmond’s age, economics and shifting civic values.