As Downtown pedestrians noticed last week, the building at 200 E. Main St., known as the former Boxer Learning building, swelled in anticipation of the nine-story tower it’s preparing to birth, with yellow tape and steel poles expanding its presence on the Mall.
To ensure a smooth pregnancy, Lee Danielson, the project’s public face, came before the city Board of Architectural Review (BAR) with his new design firm, NBJ Architecture, to get final approval in anticipation of a building permit. NBJ’s most recent Charlottesville project was the Hilton Garden Inn at Peter Jefferson Place.
 Prepare, Mall pedestrians, for the Boxer Learning building to enter a cocoon so that the Landmark Hotel may emerge. |
“While we were very competently handled in the beginning [by the West Coast firm Hornberger + Worstell],” Danielson told the BAR, “the fact that we have somebody who’s basically so involved in Central Virginia, knows the Charlottesville way of life, he can provide the construction administration that would have been very difficult from San Francisco.”
Neil Bhatt, president of NBJ, reviewed some minor detail changes to the project. Though the BAR had some comments, they seemed almost as eager as Danielson and Bhatt to see the project go forward.
Danielson first received approval for what has become known as the Landmark Hotel, which would house 100 rooms, back in 2004, and the BAR loved the design. However, as his partnership with Colin Rolph had disintegrated, the project languished and the site was eventually sold to local developer Oliver Kuttner for $3.7 million in 2006. Kuttner toyed with his own nine-story design, but sold the project back for $4.5 million in 2007 when Danielson teamed with Halsey Minor, a local who made a fortune in the dot-com boom.
So after all the shuffling, the BAR was back with the design that it loved.
“Our commitment and our statement to Neil when he came on board was not to touch the design of this building, interior or exterior,” said Danielson. “As you all know, once you start making a change, it’s humongous amounts of money that go, through the old domino theory.”
Demolition work is slated for this week, and the official groundbreaking will take place March 11. Developers hope to have the building permit in hand by May 15.
“We’re not stopping,” Danielson said.
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