The latest proposal from local architect Bill Atwood is an extended-stay hotel on West Main Street.
Last night, Atwood presented the project to the city’s Board of Architectural Review (BAR) for the initial discussion of the concept. The hotel will sit where the Studio Art Shop is currently located, next to Kane Furniture on West Main Street.
“We did not intend in the original discussion to bring a hotel to you,” Atwood told the board.
Atwood said that, ultimately, the hotel would be incorporated into the new developments proposed by UVA that will transform West Main Street.
Nonetheless, the hotel, according to Atwood, will serve a very specific purpose: It will help families of patients being treated at UVA Hospital with a place that could somewhat resemble home.
Although the BAR was appreciative of the concept, the design left some board members puzzled. William Adams said that the 9-story hotel “doesn’t seem very Charlottesville to me,” and noted that the massing of the structure stretching around the corner of West Main and 11th streets, is “huge.”