Stephanie Murray of Ula Tortilla. Photo: Jeffrey Gleason
Can’t find the food that feeds your soul? These women took the tongs into their own hands.
Stephanie Murray of Ula Tortilla
People often ask what is the meaning of “Ula,” and for Stephanie Murray and her husband, James Price, it’s part of what inspired the family’s business to begin with: their children, Uriah, Lovissa and Asarum.
“We were basically homesteading—living off of our garden, hunting, raising sheep—and we needed a staple,” says Murray. They settled on corn, but weren’t satisfied with tortillas made from commercial masa (corn flour) stripped of nutrients by high-heat drying. A little research led Murray and Price to learn for themselves the ancient process of “nixtalamization,” which bathes the GMO-free field corn in a calcium hydroxide (limestone) water mixture to loosen the hulls and soften the corn. Using the fresh masa results in a more nutritious, whole-grain tortilla with an earthy flavor and toasty aroma.
“We made the tortillas just for us at first, with a hand grinder, a single press and a griddle,” says Murray. When they brought a few dozen to the City Market in 2014 and sold out instantly, word spread via local news outlets about the project and within six months, Ula Tortillas were being carried in Charlottesville’s Whole Foods Market as well as at Feast!, Greenwood Grocery and other stores farther afield.
Ula Tortillas are now available as far away as Wisconsin, though still made in small batches in Waynesboro by Price and two employees. “We never could have anticipated this,” says Murray, “but people really seem to love them.” Next off the press for Ula: natural corn chips.
Julie Vu Whitaker. Photo: Amanda Maglione
Julie Vu Whitaker of Vu Noodles
Transplanted from Vietnam to Waynesboro when she was a young girl, Julie Vu Whitaker grew up isolated from kids her age for being “different,” and family and food were her solace. She cared for others as a social worker for more than 20 years in Charlottesville before turning to her own dreams five years ago. “I decided I needed to conquer my fears and make a change, but I didn’t know how,” says Whitaker.
She happened upon The Farm, a tiny grocery in the building where Lampo is now, and was enchanted. “It was this little, adorable place, and I realized how much I wanted to do something like that,” says Whitaker. “So I asked them, can I make noodles for you?” What began as a handful of noodle boxes sold at The Farm soon turned into a larger operation based out of her newly certified home kitchen, serving 13 vendors in town including Whole Foods Market and Martha Jefferson Hospital’s café.
“The idea was that, as an ethnic person, if I wanted to just grab something and go, I could never find vegetarian or vegan Vietnamese food,” says Whitaker. “I wanted to make it and to share it.” When The Spot (as it’s known now) on Second Street opened up, she jumped at the tiny space. “I had always walked by and kept my eye on that place. I love downtown, and it was perfect.”
There, Whitaker expanded her offerings to include a bahn mi, a Vietnamese sandwich she makes with tofu, along with the noodle bowls. The Spot has no kitchen, so she rents kitchen space at the nearby Jefferson School and ferries the food downtown. That arrangement has led to her newest venture, a sit-down place at the Jefferson School Café, where she’s added a vegetarian pho to the menu. “I really believe in growing organically, and it’s worked so far,” she says.
Barbie Brannock. Photo: Amy Jackson
Barbie Brannock of Barbie’s Burrito Barn
“The food I cook is just like the Friday night meal at my house growing up,” says Barbie Brannock of her California-Mexican fare. In Redlands, California, a small orange grove town east of Los Angeles, neighbors would gather at Brannock’s adobe house to drink wine while the kids ate pomegranates and avocados from trees in the yard, and homemade tacos, tostadas and burritos were the ubiquitous main course. Young Barbie was in charge of frying up the chips and taco shells, which are a signature feature at her restaurant on Avon Street.
A local artist and teacher, Brannock finally heeded the encouragement of her friends to take the plunge and “open the Barn” as her own daughter prepared to head off to UVA. “I love doing this,” she says. “It makes me so happy when people eat fresh, delicious food.” Her menu includes all of her childhood mainstays (paired with pork, beef, chicken or simply vegetarian) plus a chopped bowl that blends the best of everything.
Though taco joints have gained in popularity in the past few years, Brannock believes her emphasis on crispy shells and lots of bright, contrasting ingredients makes hers stand out. “The California difference is that it’s not overly ‘saucy,’” she says. “I use lots of vegetables—jicama, radishes, cucumbers—along with guacamole, salsa and beans made fresh every day, so it’s not only about the meat and cheese. It’s a complete meal in your hand.”
With no plans to expand (beyond perhaps a delivery bike), Brannock is happy in Belmont. “I have my regulars, plus new people come in all the time, and we’re catering now, too,” she says. “I get to cook the food I love for everyone.”
Recent low water levels in the Sugar Hollow Reservoir caused some community members to voice concern. Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority’s Bill Mawyer says the company’s strategy allows the reservoir to drop 19 feet below the top of the dam before transfer of water to Ragged Mountain is suspended. Photo by SkycladAerial
Bill Mawyer often asks a question that few can answer: Do you know where your water comes from?
“Frequently in our business, people are shocked by the amount of time and money it takes to maintain a reliable water system,” says Mawyer, executive director of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, the agency charged with collecting and treating water in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
Though the governance of water issues is relatively calm today, the last two decades have been contentious, with deep divisions in the community over the best way to manage the region’s water resources. Albemarle County Board of Supervisors representative Liz Palmer recalls moving to the area in 1996 and observing the Moormans River near Crozet with almost no flow, while the dam at Ragged Mountain was overflowing.
“They were basically draining the Moormans dry, diverting all the water to Ragged Mountain Reservoir,” she says, “and nobody was protecting the river.” A severe drought in 2002, the worst on record, brought the city to within 60 days of running out of water and heightened public concern about overall supply, as did last fall’s water restrictions due to drought conditions. Palmer gained a seat on the Albemarle County Service Authority board in 2006 and was dismayed by the state of the infrastructure.
“The system was horribly antiquated,” she says. “The city and county had treated the Rivanna terribly.” After beginning the slow process of solving the myriad equipment problems, the RWSA turned its attention to preparing a long-term Community Water Supply Plan—a set of interrelated projects to take care of the community’s water infrastructure needs for the next 50 years.
Jennifer Whitaker, Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority’s director of engineering and maintenance, calls the proposed pipeline connecting the local reservoirs fundamental, and says “we cannot do without it.” Photo by Eze Amos
The crux of the current system’s challenge lies in Ragged Mountain Reservoir’s dependence on an almost 100-year-old pipe to carry 4 million gallons of water per day down from Sugar Hollow to keep it filled—Ragged Mountain’s own small tributaries cannot do the job. “The 13-mile pipe runs primarily above ground in an undulating fashion, and tends to come apart because it’s not deeply bedded,” says Jennifer Whitaker, RWSA’s director of engineering and maintenance.
Instead of spending many millions to replace that pipe, the RWSA devised a plan to solve an additional set of problems at the same time by connecting the Ragged Mountain and South Fork Rivanna reservoirs with a new pipeline so that water can be stored and shared between the two. “An interconnected system will be better for supply, for storage, for treatment and for the [Moormans] river,” says Mawyer. When the new pipeline connector is finished, the old one will be taken out of service.
Streaming service
Due to geographical good fortune, our water comes from clear mountain streams that feed into rivers, none downstream from other cities or processed wastewater. Small creeks springing from the Blue Ridge foothills trickle into Sugar Hollow Reservoir, northwest of Crozet, which spills into the Moormans River. The Moormans joins the Mechums River, flowing in from the southwest and also stream-fed, where they are rechristened as the Rivanna River (South Fork). The Rivanna, along with water from a vast 259-square-mile watershed, fills the 800-million gallon Rivanna Reservoir north of Charlottesville.
The third major reservoir in the system is at Ragged Mountain Natural Area, which sits in the northwestern crook of the I-64/Route 29 Bypass interchange. Armed with a brand new 129-foot dam, Ragged Mountain Reservoir’s capacity is the largest—a 1.5-billion-gallon bowl of water filled primarily via a 13-mile pipeline from Sugar Hollow. (Crozet and Scottsville each have small independent water systems fed by their own reservoirs.)
The South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, which holds 800 million gallons of water, lies north of Charlottesville. Currently, the South Rivanna water treatment plant processes about 8 million gallons of water a day—the majority of the urban area’s clean water supply. Photo by Skyclad Aerial
To serve Charlottesville and the urban areas of Albemarle County, the South Rivanna water treatment plant processes about 8 million gallons a day—the vast majority of the urban area’s clean water supply. Ragged Mountain’s water is processed at the Observatory treatment plant on UVA’s Grounds, and then intermingled with the Rivanna water in the spidery network of underground pipes—67 miles long—that form the main water system.
In 1972, the city and county created the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority to manage those systems for the whole region. Governed by a board of directors that includes three city and three county representatives plus one appointed member, the RWSA is its own entity—neither the Board of Supervisors nor the City Council has control over it—and its budget is self-contained as an enterprise fund collected from water bill payments.
BILL BREAKDOWN: Why county and city residents pay different rates
The city and county bill their water customers at different rates and via different agencies, so your bill may vary depending on where you live. The Albemarle County Service Authority, an independent agency, sets rates, reads meters, coordinates maintenance and replacement projects and collects funds from county residents and businesses, while the Department of Utilities, part of Charlottesville city government, does those jobs for the city.
Each entity buys processed water “wholesale” from the RWSA and then adds its own costs to produce the rate it charges customers. In 2017, the RWSA’s wholesale rate was about $1.95 per thousand gallons, plus a flat debt service amount allocated to each entity based on large capital project financing (such as treatment plant upgrades). From there, the city and county diverge in how they charge for usage.
The county uses a four-tier system in which its monthly rate per thousand gallons goes up sharply after 3,000 gallons of use, and again after 6,000 and 9,000 gallons, to encourage conservation. “The lowest tier is basically at cost,” says ACSA Director Gary O’Connell. “If you want to irrigate your lawn, and you’re willing to pay quite a bit more for it, you can.” For a county resident in 2017, an average use of 3,500 gallons per month would cost about $24.
The city, by contrast, uses a seasonal approach instead of tiers, charging users about 30% more in the summer months than in the winter, again with an eye toward conservation. For the 3,500 gallons example using an average annual rate for 2017, a city user would pay about $29.50 per month. The city’s rates are higher than the county’s due to increased maintenance expense, particularly the recent capital costs of replacing aging or leaky pipeline under city streets, some of which is more than 100 years old. As well, a 1981 agreement allows UVA, an entity that represents about 30 percent of the city’s customer base, to be charged for water use at roughly half the rate paid by the rest of city users.
The RWSA handles the “wholesale” side of the water business, maintaining infrastructure such as reservoirs, dams and pumping stations, and providing drinking water treatment at five plants spread throughout the county. The RWSA has two main customers—the Albemarle County Service Authority and the City of Charlottesville’s water utility department—and each of these manages the “retail” side, setting rates, checking meters and selling water to residential and commercial water users.
The water system has come a long way from its earliest days. “In the 1800s, Charlottesville’s only water supply was a well pump in the location where today’s Sacagawea statue sits at the intersection of Fifth and Main streets,” says RWSA’s Whitaker. More recently, rapid population growth has led to growing pains that culminated in the water wars of the late 2000s, and to new ways of looking at our future water supply.
Muddy waters
When unveiled in 2006, the Water Supply Plan proposed a new taller dam at Ragged Mountain Reservoir to store more water, and a nine-mile pipeline along Charlottesville’s west side to connect the reservoirs. The plan immediately sparked a pitched battle between community groups, city and county leaders and the water agencies. A conservationist group called Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan, co-founded by Dede Smith, who would later be elected to Charlottesville City Council, raised questions about the necessity, expense and environmental impact of a new Ragged Mountain Dam.
Two more years of studies, presentations and public meetings addressed alternatives to the dam such as dredging the Rivanna Reservoir to make it deeper (which was rejected by the RWSA as insufficient and too expensive), as well as mitigation plans to replace the trees and woodland habitats that would be flooded by the expansion. The parties finally signed off on the Water Supply Plan in 2012, and construction on the dam was completed in 2014.
Originally a proponent of dredging, Smith’s current focus is on “freeing the Rivanna River” now that the dam has been built. “There is an opportunity here to realize the true benefit of the plan by removing the South Fork dam and relying on the Ragged Mountain dam alone to solve our water problems.”
In addition to conflicting views on the dam, the city and county also failed to see eye to eye on the need for an expensive new pipeline. During the plan’s negotiation from 2007-09, city representatives took the position that the pipeline was not a priority because Charlottesville wasn’t going to grow and thus didn’t need more water.
Gary O’Connell, now executive director of the Albemarle County Service Authority, was serving as Charlottesville’s city manger during negotiations between the city and county in 2007-09 to build a pipeline connecting the Ragged Mountain and South Fork reservoirs. He calls the city representatives who said Charlottesville wasn’t going to grow and thus didn’t need access to more water “short-sighted.” Photo by Eze Amos
Gary O’Connell, current ACSA executive director, was serving as Charlottesville city manager at the time and thought the city was being short-sighted. “All you have to do is drive up West Main or down Fifth Street and you’ll see [the idea of no growth] was crazy,” he says.
But county officials felt so strongly that both the dam and pipeline were needed for the community’s growth that they agreed that the county would shoulder the bulk of the projects’ costs—85 percent of the Ragged Mountain Dam’s $35 million, and 80 percent of the pipeline’s projected $100 million. “Without that agreement, the whole thing would have fallen apart,” says O’Connell.
Smith thinks the city made the right decision. “I don’t believe the pipeline will ever be built,” she says, “because the plan was premised on a water demand of 14 million gallons per day (MGD), and we have been stuck at less than 10 MGD for more than 15 years.”
To cover future eventualities, the Water Supply Plan contains a caveat: If the city should eventually use more than its 20 percent share of the new water capacity generated by the dam, it must repay its share of the cost of both projects to the county in an annual “true-up” process, which could run to the millions of dollars owed. To ensure accuracy, the county has installed meters in pipes at points all along the city/county boundary lines, to measure exactly how much water the city is using each year.
Pipe dream
The road to complete the next phase of the water plan is likely to be a long one, says Palmer, now a RWSA Board member. “Water will have to be on the city’s agenda again very soon, because we have to make a decision about where we place the pipe,” she says.
“The pipe” will be a 3-foot-wide ductile iron pipeline that requires a 20-foot easement to bury. Water-related construction projects are rarely low-cost affairs, often requiring deep tunnels or excavation through solid rock, navigating past roads and railroad tracks and around existing development. Though the pipeline’s projected southern wedge runs through mostly UVA-owned land around Ednam Forest and Farmington, the path becomes more congested as it has to skirt residential areas near Barracks Road and Albemarle High School and commercial tracts near Lowe’s and Sam’s Club. After the pipe is installed, says Mawyer, “we restore the land and replant it, and it’s generally invisible once it’s done.”
With a timeline that estimates three to four years to acquire the necessary easements along the pipeline’s nine-mile route and eight or more years to design and build it, along with managing various financing and environmental issues along the way, it’s a long-term project with a hefty price tag.
“The misnomer is that the pipeline is just a pipeline,” says Whitaker. “It’s also pump stations and intakes and pretreatment and treatment plants, and all of those pieces have to be built simultaneously. But the new pipeline is fundamental to the community meeting its long-term water needs and we cannot do that without it. The only question is when.”
The RWSA Board met in January and decided that beginning the full-scale pipeline project immediately would mean unwieldy spikes in staffing needs and debt financing, so they are currently looking at a time frame that would begin construction in 2027, but could shift that earlier as other items on their to-do list are completed.
Go with the flow
After last fall’s city and county water restrictions were enacted in response to drought conditions, many in the community wondered why the much-touted Ragged Mountain Dam had not prevented the need for restrictions. The answer is that the Water Supply Plan is only partly complete—the proposed pipeline is the linchpin to a full circuit that will assure a reliable water supply in the future.
Right now, low water levels in the Rivanna Reservoir, such as the September/October 2017 drop to 42 percent of capacity, mean that the whole system has to rely on the 64-year-old Observatory water treatment plant, which can’t fully sustain the urban area by itself. “It’s built to treat up to 7 million gallons per day, but practically it can only treat 2 or 3 million, and it really needs to be more like 10,” says the ACSA’s O’Connell. O’Connnell says increasing the plant is the next short-term project on the horizon, and that it can be completed in the next three or four years.
Bill Mawyer, a North Garden native, spent 15 years as assistant director of Henrico County’s public utility operations before taking the helm at the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority in November 2016. Photo by Eze Amos
And once the pipeline is built, explains the RWSA’s Mawyer, we’ll have a “circular circuit.” “If the Rivanna Reservoir gets so low that the pumping station there can’t function properly [as happened last fall], then we can switch it over and bring water up from Ragged Mountain Reservoir, where we have a huge amount of storage,” he says. “And when Rivanna is overflowing, we can store that extra water at Ragged Mountain.” The two sources will be connected, providing needed redundancy and reliability in the system.
Acquisition of the right of way easements along the new pipeline’s route is already underway, as are improvements to both the Rivanna and Observatory water treatment plants. Also ongoing is construction of an additional water line to connect the southern Avon area to Pantops, to ensure the eastern-most part of the county is in the loop. Next up will be projects to replace older Ragged Mountain water lines coming into the city, and pumps to increase their capacity and reliability and to be ready for the core pipeline project.
Sea change
The past two decades have also ushered in a keen awareness of environmental issues that water management policies can address. “In the early 2000s, in part because of the drought, the community started looking at meeting the ecological needs of rivers,” says Whitaker, “to make sure we maintain environmental health as well as human health.”
That new perspective meant a change in water release policies, particularly for the Moormans River, which is now allowed to flow freely downstream from Sugar Hollow Reservoir with limits on how much is fed through the older Ragged Mountain pipeline for storage. Similarly, the Rivanna Reservoir, when not spilling over the top, releases water to replicate what its feeder streams are contributing from the watershed, to better preserve aquatic life downstream.
Palmer wonders about the expectations of the public regarding the most visible measures of the water supply. “Reservoirs are meant to be drawn down, but what is the public’s tolerance for going into water conservation on a regular basis and watching levels go down?” she says. “That’s the way they’re supposed to work, but it makes people nervous.”
Marlene Condon, Crozet nature writer and photographer, recently sounded the alarm about reservoir levels in Sugar Hollow. “The streams in my area were drying up by last summer,” she says, “and the water authority should insist that people start conserving sooner during times of drought. When reservoir levels fall it means more is going out than coming in, and they should only be transferring water to Ragged Mountain if it is absolutely necessary.” The RWSA’s current water supply strategy allows the Sugar Hollow reservoir level to drop to 19 feet below the top of the dam before suspending the transfer.
CLEANUP CREW: Filtered water is constantly monitored for contaminants
Despite a flash fad in California and Maine where some are paying $15 for a gallon of completely untreated stream water for its supposed health benefits, water supply professionals recommend strongly against drinking raw water. “Crazy,” says Dave Tungate, the RWSA’s water manager, who goes on to list the ways in which water is processed to make it clean for drinking.
The first step is to remove the particulate—dirt and organic matter like leaves, wood and bugs. Raw water collected in reservoirs is piped to a treatment plant, where a coagulant is added to make the particles stick together (in a process called flocculation) and settle to the bottom of sedimentation tanks. At this point the water is visibly clearer, but “it’s not the stuff you can see that can hurt you,” says Tungate. “It’s the stuff you can’t see.”
Next, the water is treated and filtered for micro-contaminants such as giardia and cryptosporidium, microscopic parasites from animal activity in the river that can cause sickness in humans and their pets. New “granular activated carbon” filtration systems have been installed at every treatment facility in the county and are set to go online this spring. These systems filter out even more organic material in the water so that no acid byproducts are released during the final chlorination step.
The last phase balances the pH of the water to keep it neutral, disinfects it with chlorine, mixes in a corrosion inhibitor to keep pipe metals from leaching into the water and adds fluoride. “Water is a biological and chemical system and we are constantly gauging what’s coming in, and standardizing what’s going out,” says Jennifer Whitaker, the RWSA’s director of engineering and maintenance.
Toward that end, the filtered water is constantly monitored using an online turbidimeter for any kind of suspended matter from clay or silt particles to viruses and bacteria, and lab samples are tested for bacteria, algae, metals such as lead and nutrients (like nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer), as well as for residual byproducts from the treatment process itself. Charlottesville/Albemarle water meets or exceeds all federal and state standards for water quality.
Occasionally, city residents may notice their water taking on a milky or cloudy aspect, but the cause is usually benign. “The most likely cause of cloudy water would be dissolved air in the water,” says Tungate, which occurs more often when cold water from outside is piped into a warm house. Tiny microbubbles form as the oxygen tries to escape, and will dissipate after a minute or so of sitting still.
Gary O’Connell, whose office walls are covered with framed images of brook trout and fly-fishing lures, agrees with the need for greater public understanding. “I’ve fished a lot in the upper Moormans above Sugar Hollow and there were years where that part was dried up,” he says. “The natural flows come and go, so to think that a reservoir is going to be the same level year-round is not realistic.” Still, he and the other city and county water managers are focused on how to plan for future environmental uncertainty.
“There’s a lot of research being done on adapting to climate change for water utilities,” he says. “We’re seeing the peaks and seasonal variation, dry periods and extreme rain, and we know that has to be factored in to our projections. We’ll be doing a big study in 2020 to look at long-term supply and I think that climate change will have to be a factor in there.”
Regarding the pipeline project, Board of Supervisors Chair Ann Mallek is resolute. “As representatives, we have to make sure that we stick to our convictions and do not shy away from agreements and plans we already have, because that will create chaos,” she says. “Everything takes longer than you think it will, so let’s get started. To people who cringe because we have to build two pump stations—well, so what? You put solar power on them and you go to town.”
For her part, Whitaker, who joined the RWSA in 2003, says, “this is a fantastic time, from an engineering perspective, to be in this organization. We’ve taken parts of this system that were very broken, from a capacity, pollution and safety standpoint, and fixed them, and now we’re designing for the future. Watching this unfold is very rewarding; we get to see the execution of the Water Supply Plan actually starting to happen.”
Orangetheory studio manager Kelsie Floyd works with gym members to get them “in the zone”— 84 to 91 percent of their maximum heart rate—for at least 12 minutes during every workout. Photo by Eze Amos
For a town its size, Charlottesville is bursting with fitness club choices.
“We really have a big city-level of unique offerings here,” says Claire Mitchell, co-founder and owner of treadHAPPY, a treadmill-based fitness studio located off West Main Street. In contrast to “big-box” clubs like ACAC or the YMCA, boutique, or niche gyms, like treadHAPPY are small enterprises that offer highly structured, carefully curated classes for patrons seeking more efficiency and a personal touch.
The boutique trend took off about 10 years ago as small clubs began offering specialized workouts such as indoor cycling or CrossFit training, taught in classes structured around short intervals of high-intensity activity. “The emphasis now is on the fitness exercise science of workouts instead of sheer quantity,” says Valerie Morini of M3 Core Training, “to help people become stronger without injury.”
Boutique gym memberships are often more expensive than regular health clubs, and by design lack larger amenities such as pools or courts. “What you gain is a sense of community, accountability for your goals and results that make you feel good,” says Dar Malecki of MADabolic. In Charlottesville, wedging their way between more familiar options such as yoga, barre and boxing are several innovative standalone or franchise options that offer something for every taste.
Orangetheory
One of the more metrics-centric of the boutique gyms, Orangetheory opened in July in Barracks Road Shopping Center. With more than 850 franchise locations worldwide, Orangetheory offers members a one-hour, heart rate-based interval training workout that is different every day. Using cardio equipment like treadmills and water rowers interspersed with core and weight exercises for strength, the workout stresses getting your heart rate into the “orange” zone (84 to 91 percent of maximum) for at least 12 minutes. This, says studio manager Kelsie Floyd, is where the magic happens.
“Hitting that orange zone is beneficial for the body, and maximizes the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption,” says Floyd. “It’s an afterburn effect that lasts long after the workout is over.”
Each member wears a personalized heart rate monitor linked to a large digital screen, which displays her heart rate and zone by color, so it’s easy for both the member and fitness coach to tell if they are on track.
“People are busy and don’t want to have to think about what to do at the gym,” Floyd says. “These workouts are structured so they will work harder, and that structure holds them accountable.”
treadHAPPY
Local educators Claire Mitchell and Sara Currier wanted to turn their love of running into a group exercise experience that could be indulged no matter the weather or time of day. In early 2016, the pair converted a former auto service center into a light-filled treadmill studio. The club offers music-driven, interval-oriented classes, some of which combine other elements such as yoga and strength training.
Mitchell thinks that Charlottesville’s niche gyms offer a unique experience. “We know everyone by name, know if they have a particular health issue or injury. I think the community feel really helps people stay committed.”
TreadHAPPY’s studio classes were developed in tandem with physicians from Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, and are taught by running-coach-certified instructors. Mitchell says the club aims to transform the sometimes-monotonous nature of treadmill running. “We’ve married together the science-based functional stuff with what’s cool in group fitness and music, so the work is a bit disguised and the time flies by,” she says. TreadHAPPY is set to open a second location in Richmond’s Fan District this month.
MADabolic and M3 Core Training
Though Dar Malecki had been involved in fitness training her whole life, including bodybuilding, power lifting and owning CrossFit gyms, it wasn’t until she took her first MADabolic class in Charlotte, North Carolina, that she felt like she understood the future of fitness. “I walked out of that class and said, ‘This is how women and men should be training,’ and it’s become my passion.” She and business partner Morini opened MADabolic in Charlottesville in 2013, followed by M3 Core Training in 2015, and the two owners stress the benefits of low-impact training.
“We need a strong foundation of muscle as we age,” says Malecki. “So I believe in a weighted, strength-based program using controlled movements, combined with low-impact cardio training.” In a MADabolic class, that might look like a series of intervals—lunging with hand weights, hoisting a sledge hammer, indoor rowing or biking and pounding a heavy bag. “It’s never out-of-control or competitive, and there’s a work-to-rest ratio that burns fat and increases metabolism without putting extra strain on the body.”
Morini, a former UVA rower who has also taught cycling and barre, say boutique fitness is “about efficiency. People don’t have time to get lost in the social vortex of big-box gyms or to wait in line for 45 minutes to get on the treadmill. Here, there are well-trained instructors with carefully organized workouts who know you.”
M3 Core Training offers classes in barre, water rowing and boxing, and features the area’s only Megaformer studio. The Megaformer machine uses a sliding, spring-resistance platform to allow targeted, low-impact exercises that give the user a cardio, strength and balance workout all in one. “It’s for all ages and all levels, from absolute beginner to professional athlete,” says Morini. “My favorite classes are when my 70-year-old dad and his friends are here alongside younger students. They inspire each other.”
What should a public park contain? Swings and slides, shaded benches, a grassy picnic spot? Should there be gestures toward the region’s history, ecology and culture? Could a park be a place of encounter, of healing?
In June, following their decision to remove statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from park grounds, city councilors issued a Request for Proposals to redesign the recently renamed Emancipation and Justice parks. That RFP was withdrawn on August 25 following the tragic August 12 white nationalist rally, but City Council decided last week to issue a new RFP under a two-phased approach.
In the first phase, the city calls for a wide-ranging community discussion about the purpose and character of the downtown public spaces, in an effort to fully incorporate residents’ values and intentions into the process. While an ongoing court challenge delays the removal of the Confederate statues, designers are also tasked with adding elements to the parks that would “reinterpret” the statues while they are still in place, to provide a more complete and honest narrative of Charlottesville’s past.
Phase I is slated to take a year to complete. Phase II (under a separate RFP to begin when the statues’ fate has been determined), will create new comprehensive designs for both parks.
Back to the drawing board
Unlike the landscape surrounding a private residence or office building, “a park is a public space that belongs to everyone, and a lot of meaning is embedded in it because of that,” says Joe Celentano, principal with VMDO Architects, whose offices overlook Emancipation Park. Landscape architects think deeply about the interactions between people and their environment, and are acutely aware of the ways public spaces affect communities.
The city’s initial RFP frustrated many local designers with its condensed start-to-finish time frame (18 months), limited financial commitment ($1 million) and scant articulation of vision or values for the project. Some have suggested that a three-year process might be more appropriate, particularly for allowing a collaborative discussion among the city’s residents.
“The first months to perhaps a year will be about healing and listening,” says Thomas Woltz, principal with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, “the second year about design and the third year about construction. If you storm in with a design, if the pace is too fast, it will fail.”
UVA professor of landscape architecture Elizabeth Meyer, who consulted with city councilors on the new RFP, agrees. “Those sites mean something now that they didn’t last May, and we’re not at a place yet where we know how we want to react to that,” she says.
Expert designers—perhaps everywhere, but particularly in Charlottesville—are careful not to presume a vision for the parks. The key, they insist, is the process.
“Vision is not made on an island; it’s made on a foundation of values,” says VMDO senior associate Andres Pacheco. “So the first question is, what are the values of the city and its residents?” Though an unambiguous expression of those values in an RFP could be a jumping-off point, Pacheco’s colleague Celentano wonders if the two might have to proceed hand in hand. “Maybe the design of the parks has to be about helping to clarify what are our values.”
The city’s plan envisions a public engagement phase run by the design firm that is awarded the contract. The team should include designers with expertise in landscape architecture, the history of the American South, social equity and urban design, as well as a facilitator who is trained to draw out opinions, to weigh the louder and softer voices and make sense of the raw emotions—a sort of community-wide therapist.
Vinegar Hill Park. Photo by Skycladaerial.com
Eye on the prize
When the designers at Bushman Dreyfus Architects decided to launch a public design competition earlier this year, they originally thought that Emancipation Park would be a nice location to start asking some questions about public art and community identity. “[The park] was our initial site, but then, of course, events overtook us all,” says Principal Jeff Bushman. “So we shifted our focus to Vinegar Hill Park, a small site at the west end of the downtown pedestrian mall.”
The competition, dubbed The BDA Prize, seeks proposals for a work of public art that will “embody the values and aspirations of a diverse community.” Against the backdrop of the gentrification of neighboring Vinegar Hill fifty years ago, the competition poses questions about how best to express true narratives about our shared history, society, and culture. Entries are to be submitted on a 30 by 40 inch poster, and BDA welcomes anyone who wishes to participate. Regardless of material, media, or form, proposals must be focused on finding common ground, and “as such, they are aspirational.”
The idea is to generate discussion on several fronts, says Bushman. “What in the public realm can we somehow agree is representative of us as a community? We may never all agree, and it would be boring if we did, but what we have to do is be able to talk to each other.” Another set of questions touches on who is the decider. “It could be good to have a discussion about who gets to decide what our public monuments are, and how that works,” he says. “Is it Mr. McIntire? If so, why him?”
The firm plans to host panel discussions and other public events at the Jefferson School in the spring to encourage an open dialogue about the entries. “We plan to hold this competition every year,” says Bushman, “though it will be harder in future years to identify an issue that is accessible to everybody, like this one is.” Due by February 2nd, 2018, entries will be judged by a jury of five cultural and design leaders, and monetary prizes will be awarded. Learn more at bdaprize.bdarchitects.com.
Local architectural historian Louis Nelson points to UVA’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers as an ongoing project whose design team carefully cultivated many different community voices. “That’s an example of an intensive, highly engaged collaborative process that fundamentally changed the design, messaging, content and location of that memorial,” says Nelson. “To try to walk in on the front end with a design already on paper would have been a catastrophe.”
Just as important, says Woltz, are the stories of a place. NBW begins its projects with a deep dive into the ecology, history and culture of a site to find what makes it unique. “This is an old earth,” he says, “and so often, stories of oppression or the taking of land go unrecognized or, at worst, hidden under our feet. Landscape is remarkably powerful at hiding and erasing history.” With a deliberate process of discovery, a park’s design can represent unique stories that only its native soil can tell.
“The designers can collect the clues and make refinements,” says Pacheco. “But we all as citizens have to figure out whether this is about history or the future, is it about grieving or about celebrating, is it a center or is it a space? It’s going to be challenging.
“Maybe the most beautiful thing about the project, then, is actually the process, not the product,” he says. “I can imagine the process being the heart of it.”
Ground rules
Emancipation Park (formerly Lee Park) sits on one acre of land on a square downtown block, next door to the Central Library. Philanthropist Paul Goodloe McIntire donated the land for the original Lee Park in 1917 (and for the 0.4-acre Jackson Park in 1918), and commissioned large memorial sculptures of Confederate generals to be placed there in honor of his parents. (His father, George, had served as Charlottesville’s mayor during the Civil War.) Other than a few replanted trees and shrubs, not much has changed in the parks since 1920.
Far from a blank slate, Charlottesville’s downtown parks are imbued with a history—both remote and recent—that will freight every step of the redesign process. Before work can begin in earnest, several legal and administrative processes will have to play out. Although City Council voted earlier this year to remove the Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson statues from the two parks (at an estimated cost of $300,000 each), their fate is currently in limbo until a court decides whether a Virginia law that prohibits localities from disturbing memorials to war veterans applies in this case.
Adding to the set of obstacles for removal is the fact that both statues are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and, as the first public park established in the city, Emancipation Park is likely eligible for the same honor. These designations mean the sites must undergo a compliance review before they can be changed, explains local landscape architect and historic preservation expert Liz Sargent. “Someone with the Virginia State Historic Preservation Office is going to have to determine whether the existing historic fabric can retain its value if the statue is moved or if the park’s landscape is significantly changed.”
1. Local landscape architect Gregg Bleam worked with Bushman Dreyfus Architects to refresh and beautify Booker T. Washington Park, Charlottesville’s first African-American park. 2. Nelson Byrd Woltz designed Citygarden, a three-acre park in the heart of downtown St. Louis that celebrates the cultural and natural histories of the city and its environs. 3. Charlottesville landscape architect Nancy Takahashi worked in tandem with VMDO to create Scottsville’s Canal Basin Square, an interpretive park that chronicles the inextricable connection of Scottsville to the James River.
On top of that, the original donation of the land for Justice Park came with strings attached. McIntire stipulated in the deed transferring the land to the city that it must be named “Jackson Park,” that it remain a park and that no structures other than the Jackson statue be built there, including other monuments. Legal challenges may be posed one after another by groups opposed to altering the parks, further delaying any future design phase.
From a purely aesthetic perspective, UVA professor Meyer points out the statues are quite large for such small spaces. “But even if you take the statue out of Emancipation Park, it’s still not a successful space,” she says. “It’s lifted up above the street, which limits visibility across, so just entering may make people feel uncomfortable. Also, instead of buildings on all sides, the open parking lot [on East Market Street] creates a problem of closure.” As well, the park is not currently barrier free, with sets of stairs on three sides limiting universal access.
Confederate monuments aside, there is a growing awareness among architects and geographers of a simple and sobering concept called “racialized topography,” evident in the ways cities have historically developed. “The parks are racialized not just because of the statues, but also because of their elevation,” says Meyer. “High places are dry and have good views and tend to be white places in the American South. The parks are in a place where they read as privileged, and those things are not going to be changed by just taking away a statue and putting in a fountain.”
Paint me a picture
Ever the optimists, landscape architects try to wrap all of these considerations into their quest to create something both beautiful and affecting. Frederick Law Olmsted, father of American landscape architecture and designer of Central Park in New York City, said, “A park is a work of art, designed to produce certain effects upon the minds of men,” an idea that inspires Meyer and her colleagues. “We know from neuroscience that immersion in nature does affect your brain,” she says, “and so parks can become centering places of memory, or of personal experience.”
“There are essential human needs that a park can supply—shade, fragrance, prospect (as one looks out across one’s city), places of quiet gathering or larger civic engagement, contact with plants, color, water,” says Woltz. “Beyond these, if we can make the ecologic and cultural histories of a place evident to the public, then the design can help to build a strong bond between people and the place they live.”
New way of thinking
WHAT IF… like the Freedom of Speech Wall at the end of the mall, one element of the design is nothing until someone does something to engender dialogue, like, for instance, an empty stage.—Jeff Bushman, principal with Bushman Dreyfus Architects
Elizabeth Meyer. Courtesy subject
WHAT IF… we identified a network, or constellation, of historical and cultural sites all around Charlottesville that told a more interesting, less didactic story, and liberated us from focusing just on the statues.—Elizabeth Meyer, UVA professor of landscape architecture
WHAT IF… we were to excavate in Emancipation Park and submerge a portion of the Lee statue underground. …There could be a subterranean museum, and a garden terrace on top, so we would leave the statue on site but reclaim the public space.—Louis Nelson, architectural historian
Andres Pacheco. Photo by Eze Amos
WHAT IF… the park went from being a hot potato to just a wonderful place for children to play—to encourage children of all races, religions and backgrounds to play together, and they’re going to remember this park because of that.—Andres Pacheco, VMDO senior associate
At once down-to-earth and starry-eyed, like visionaries with protractors, landscape designers tend to dream big. “What if you could look four years into the future at the park’s opening ceremony, what would you want to see?” asks Celentano. “People of all races supporting what’s been done, celebrating something that brings people together, right? So, we have to back it up from there.”
Meyer sees value in separating the commemoration issues from how to make the park a good social space. “Instead of thinking of it as something empty waiting for a thing to be put there, it could be more of a place of encounter, and that may start with how you design a bench or a seat,” she says. “In Central Park, some of the benches are quite long, so you sit down next to strangers. We could try to imagine this as a place where you could encounter people not like you in a way that’s dignified and comfortable, eye to eye.”
Even within the small city block of Emancipation Park, designers’ imaginations take flight. What if the entire space was a children’s playground, inviting kids of all races and backgrounds to simply play together? What if it was a lush garden, planted with native species of flowers, grasses and trees? What if Emancipation Park was linked with Justice Park and other sites along a larger constellation of historic places, forming a trail through the city?
“If we could take a vision and actually paint with it—paint with emotions and intent—we would do it,” says Pacheco. “The job of an architect is to fine tune and strengthen the vision with whatever built materials come to this park. If it’s about healing, or playing, or unity, every detail in the park should point to that.”
And while the idea of the community arriving at a consensus on a particular design is appealing, the steps along the way may be more important.
“The goal,” says Celentano, “is to have a very elaborate and inclusive and complete process so that people agree on what the vision is, and feel that their voices have been heard. Only then can the ultimate design be satisfying, because it honors the vision.”
Kennedy Mason, Madison Cornwell and Eden Radifera meet with their teacher, John Worozbyt, about their “Diversity Makes Us Stronger” campaign at Burley Middle School. Photo: Robert Radifera
Upon their return from the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., in January of 2017, local moms Kristin Clarens and Amanda Sovik-Johnston felt empowered, but also challenged. “We were just emerging from the super-foggy days of having newborns and realized that we wanted to re-engage in our community,” says Clarens, an attorney. “It felt like a gauntlet had been thrown: Now what?” They recognized that meaningful civic engagement would have to happen at the family level, and Charlottesville Families in Action was born.
The two women initially founded their organization by reaching out on Facebook to other families with small children, intending to find local activities where parents and their kids could get together to build, donate, celebrate and fundraise for meaningful causes. The enterprise was motivated not despite having kids in tow, but because of them. “We are making a conscious decision to model the sorts of behaviors that we hope our kids carry forward into the world,” says Clarens.
The kids jump in to the planned activities naturally, and with joy. Events are scheduled every other Wednesday, from 4:30 to 6:30pm, and many involve crafts, music, food or all three. From planting starter seeds for the Monticello Avenue gardens with the Urban Agriculture Collective of Charlottesville, to learning about solar power in Virginia while roasting marshmallows in their own personal solar ovens in Washington Park, the activities deftly intertwine the fun with the educational. Some events are fundraisers, such as a sold-out brunch at Mas in support of Dreamers and their families, while others are hands-on helping, like building toolboxes for Habitat for Humanity, or collecting a vanload of supplies (including two chainsaws!) for hurricane aid.
Sovik-Johnston, a clinical child psychologist, says a big part of the group’s focus is to make the work part of their kids’ lives so they will grow up as leaders in their communities as well. But just as important is how the sessions can serve as a proactive tool to combat fear.
Kristin Clarens and Amanda Sovik-Johnston founded Charlottesville Families in Action following the Women’s March, hoping to create opportunities for parents and their kids to be more actively engaged with their community. The org’s fall event at The Front Porch raised money for kids in the arts. Photo: Eze Amos
“My 6-year-old son said to me, ‘Wow, a lot of bad things have happened in Charlottesville this year,’” Sovik-Johnston recalls, “and I said the other side of that is that so many people have come together to help and care. Yes, stuff is scary, but if we sit in it, it becomes overwhelming, so let’s do something and then we’ll all feel better.”
Margarita Figueroa has taken her children, ages 7 and 9, to several of the FIA events and appreciates the high level of organization as well as the predictable schedule.
“After the election we felt hopeless, but we couldn’t just sit in our houses and mope,” says Figueroa. “This feels good and is good for the community.” After the events of August 11 and 12, FIA quickly put together a panel discussion for parents about how to talk with their children about what had happened. “That came up right away and helped a lot,” says Figueroa.
To help parents prepare and reassure their kids, FIA also posts Car Talk on its website, a set of talking points about each event that parents can use as conversation starters about the importance of the activity.
“We try to give parents the language to share with their kids about why we are doing this, and how good it feels when we help others,” says Sovik-Johnston. “So hopefully when they grow up, they’ll think of themselves as, ‘I’m the kind of person who helps.’”
While FIA is organized around families with younger children, the group also offers an internship program for local teens to help with the events. Sarah Webb, a senior at Renaissance School, has been part of FIA since its inception and was there at the first event at Firefly back in February, a letter-writing campaign.
“The kids were writing about saving the polar bears, green energy, love is love, all kinds of issues and policies,” says Webb. “As a kid, I know I was never very aware of much, like, inequality around me, and this is such a vital time for kids to know what’s going on in the world and be aware.” As she nears graduation, Webb is actively recruiting other interns, like Mercedes Goering, a Renaissance 10th-grader. “It’s fun just hanging out with the kids,” says Goering. “I really enjoyed cleaning up the Rivanna River, and building toolboxes for Habitat [for Humanity].”
More than ever, local kids inspired by news and events are taking action to make a difference. Shreya Mahadevan, a fourth-grader at Johnson Elementary whose mother, Priya, runs the Desi Dosa stall at the City Market, wanted to do something to help with hurricane relief during the recent spate of destructive storms. “She took it upon herself to set up a collection at our stand for the hurricane victims, and raised almost $300,” says Priya. The family channeled the donations to hands.org, a nonprofit that provides assistance to communities affected by natural disasters.
Burley Middle School eighth-grader Eden Radifera was in Jamaica with her family over the weekend of August 12, and followed the day’s disastrous events on her phone. She recalls the feeling of powerlessness, both while away and upon returning to Charlottesville. “It was really bothering me that all this stuff was going on and I couldn’t change it, so I knew I had to do something to reassure myself that I could take part in making a change.” Radifera brainstormed ideas with a few friends, focusing on her most immediate community—her school.
“At Burley we are such a diverse school, a melting pot of everybody, and we wanted to make sure everybody felt safe, and they knew we’re a unified school working to fight discrimination,” she says. Radifera helped organize a Unity Day on the first of every month, and she and her friends have arranged an order of blue and white (Burley school colors) bracelets to sell to students during their Friday Blast period. Her group came up with slogans and surveyed the student population, ultimately agreeing on the phrase “Diversity Makes Us Stronger” to be printed on the bracelets. The school plans to donate any proceeds to a local community foundation.
“I couldn’t stand the feeling of being so helpless,” says Radifera. “I had to do something.”
Schools in action
While many schools participate in community aid programs like food drives and shoe collections, a growing number are encouraging more hands-on and project-oriented service learning for their students, with inspiring results. Village School students regularly head out of the building to help in the soup kitchen at Christ Episcopal Church, and they visit Clark Elementary and Barrett Early Learning Center to read and write with the younger kids there. Despite the recent unrest that has taken place near the school’s downtown location, Head of School Eliza O’Connell says the students remain undaunted. “I’ve been amazed by the maturity of the girls.”
A math lesson turned into much more at Charlottesville Day School as algebra teacher Tiffany Stauffer helped seventh and eighth graders organize a Friendship Feast in March for refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Congo. With assistance from Kari Miller, founder of Charlottesville International Neighbors, students designed, budgeted and fundraised a potluck dinner event to host 10 refugee families, including lots of kids. Games like Connect Four helped bridge the language barriers, and each family was given a large soup pot filled with kitchen supplies and spices, as well as a family game night bag to take home. “The students really embraced the idea of making the families feel welcome,” said Stauffer. “And it made them so happy to be doing it.”
In an initiative launched this year, Peabody School’s seventh- and eighth-graders are designing year-long projects aimed at researching and addressing a community need or problem. The project phase was jumpstarted with an in-house Leadership Academy, where local community leaders talked to students about how to be change-makers. After learning about humanitarianism, philanthropy and disaster relief from those experts, students designed innovative projects that they’ll complete independently. Goals range from partnering with area nursing homes and the Rainforest Trust, to addressing traffic issues with Albemarle County and teaching life skills to younger kids, all driven by each student’s passion. “We’re encouraging students to think beyond their own experience, and to identify their strengths and limitations,” says Victoria Young, assistant head of school. “Not every project works the first time you try it, but they learn to reflect and make it successful as they go, and that’s just as important.” LM
Home work
It is, without question, difficult to discern where to begin and what to say to young people when speaking about the intangible cruelties within our society. Eager to shelter our children from hardship, parents can avoid difficult conversations, hopeful tides will turn and moments will pass. The impulse to shield their hearts from hurt and bodies from pain is reasonable, of course. And yet, a desire to maintain and invoke innocence and a discomfort with challenging dialogues beget the crises that plague our communities; they cannot be solved with silence or inaction.
We do a disservice to our children when we avoid our crucial obligation: to nurture. The greatest form of activism in our community today could be the swelling of conscious discourse, bold expression and action-oriented love in the form of supported children. No better result could be achieved than an outpouring of kindness, engagement and courage in the face of a daunting tomorrow. The cultivation of such is the work of parents.
Young people are watching the way we navigate the world: Violence is on the channels and the streets; bullies lurk behind lockers and the Resolute desk; disharmony and even hate abound in neighborhoods and message boards. Our chief responsibility must be to model empathy, respect and willingness to grow. Here’s how.
+ Foster and encourage open dialogue. We cannot lift the burden of fears, whether our own or our child’s, until we face the beasts head on. Allow conversations to be ongoing. Accept that there may not always be a solution. Ask questions and share emotions.
+ Authentically explore the “other.” Reading stories, attending community events and engaging in volunteerism can cultivate empathy. When we interact with people outside of our immediate understanding, our capacity for compassion is amplified and communities are strengthened.
+ Be seen promoting justice in pursuit of peace. Stand up and get vocal about inequalities, and name them. Use language that is simple and honest. Identify as a family the power you have to make our community more equitable, accepting and representative.
Let us teach the next generation that love is a verb. Let us orient them around the most oppressed in our communities, centering progress above tradition. Let us direct their fears into outspoken compassion. Adrienne Oliver
Adrienne Oliver is a mother and educator working and writing in Charlottesville. She is a middle school literacy teacher, with a focus on arts-integrated, culturally responsive education.
Lynn Novick appears on Thursday to discuss “The Vietnam War” documentary series, which she co-directed with Ken Burns. Courtesy Virginia Film Festival
To tell the full story of Vietnam along all of its harrowing dimensions, the producers of an epic new film series about the war required 10 years of research, more than 100 personal interviews and a healthy dose of humility. “I personally have been obsessed with the Vietnam War for most of my adult life,” says Lynn Novick, who co-directed “The Vietnam War,” a 10-episode, 18-hour documentary, with longtime collaborator Ken Burns. “But it was still humbling and exhilarating to find out how little we really knew about it.”
The conflict, spanning the terms of five U.S. presidents and killing 58,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese, was so sprawling and divisive that even those who were immersed in it—soldiers, protesters and leaders alike—have struggled to make sense of what happened or to find common ground with other points of view. Many chose to bury the memories and move on.
Fifty years hence, Novick and her team made creative choices aiming to fill the gaps in the war’s oft-distorted narratives, beginning with the voices they included in the film. In addition to hearing from Americans impacted by the war, Novick made four trips to Vietnam to interview military and civilian Vietnamese from both the north and south.
Taking the time to establish trust and a connection with her subjects is a hallmark of Novick’s technique. “They dealt with the same emotions as our soldiers,” she says. “They had leaders who were imperfect at best, and were all trying to survive a horrific event. It’s like going through the looking glass and looking at ourselves from the way they saw us.”
In a similar vein, the film features interviews with ordinary Americans and their families rather than “famous” decision-makers and celebrities such as Henry Kissinger or Jane Fonda. “They’ve had their say, many times over,” says Novick. “We wanted to hear from people that you didn’t know and hadn’t heard from, and who maybe didn’t have a legacy to protect.”
The daunting task of sifting through hundreds of thousands of photographs and huge quantities of newsreel footage, audio recordings, music and photos fell to a small team of meticulous researchers and producers in New York. “Everything had to be collected, digitized and put into a database so we knew what we had when we needed it,” says Novick. Marc Selverstone and Ken Hughes of the Miller Center at UVA provided vital guidance and legwork in finding key bits of presidential audio from their archives.
Popular songs by artists from Bob Dylan to the Beatles, inserted in the timeline precisely when they were first released, imbue the film with authenticity and tension. “A lot of these compositions and recordings are national treasures, and the artists wanted assurances that they would be used in their historic context in a meaningful way.”
Among the most important tracks was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Ohio,” released just after the Kent State protest shootings and never before licensed, which took a year of negotiations with producers to secure.
To give the film its deft cohesion, Novick and Burns orchestrated every episode along with their writer Geoffrey Ward and producer Sarah Botstein. “Little by little we have to put our arms around the entire show and try to wrestle it to the ground piece by piece,” says Novick. “We have to boil it down to make it into a watchable film, and it’s a long process that takes many years.”
Now, finally, the film has reached its ultimate audience: the people who lived through the war and others who wish to learn from it. In Charlottesville, even as local veterans debate how the documentary covered issues such as the valor of combat troops, the U.S. media’s skewed portrayal of important battles and the deep impact of PTSD on returning soldiers, they agree on its potential to enlighten older and, especially younger, generations of Americans.
“I think it’s a good thing to revisit at this point,” says retired Marine Colonel James T. O’Kelley Jr., who commanded forces for three years in Vietnam. “I see cities burning overseas, and it feels like we haven’t learned what we should have.”
Army veteran Tom Oakley says the film revived intensely personal memories, but also provided some healing. “Coming home was the hardest part because of the way we were treated,” says Oakley. He was moved by an apology from a protester in one episode of the film.
Bruce Eades was drafted into the Marine Corps and learned to speak Vietnamese before being sent to the war zone, where he survived the Tet Offensive. Now serving as commander of the American Legion Post in Keswick, Eades says the film has given him a measure of hope. “Maybe it’s not too late for us to learn from the war,” he says. “Maybe something like this can unify us. I think we need today’s young people to learn from history, to lift us up, to save us.”
When tackling a renovation project, sometimes it’s hard to see what’s right in front of your face. Especially when it’s a wall. “People tend to put Band-Aids on things without looking at the overall effect,” says interior designer Wendi Smith, “so I try to take a step back.” Asked recently to spruce up an unattractive corner sunroom on the main floor of a large Ednam house, she was stymied at first. While the room’s issues were obvious—ugly tile flooring, sliding glass doors that led to a 20-foot drop, leaking skylights—the solutions didn’t seem to address the underlying problem.
“I kept walking through and feeling like everything was piecemeal,” Smith says. “The whole area was too dark and chopped up.” Finally she realized that the answer was to remove one interior wall separating the kitchen from the family room and sunroom, allowing light to flood the space and opening up blocked sightlines and circulation. Though the homeowners weren’t totally prepared for the project’s enlarged scope, which would include a kitchen redo as well, they recognized the need for a cohesive design and embraced the upgrade.
Without a wall to separate them, the kitchen, sunroom and family room function as one big, open space. Photo: Stephen Barling
“We knew that Wendi was terrific from working with her and our builder, Jeff Easter, on a master bedroom and bath renovation,” says one of the homeowners. “One thing that I particularly appreciate is that she can narrow the choices down to three—as in three tiles, paint colors, knobs—for me. And she can quickly pivot if you say none of those.”
The Ednam project was “pushed along” by the impending wedding of one of the homeowners’ children, to be held in the house the following summer. The focus was always on making the trio—sunroom, family room and kitchen—brighter, more open and more complementary. The carpet and two different types of floor tiles were replaced by rich, dark wood flooring running through all three rooms. Brown bookcases and ceiling beams in the family room were painted white, and the crisp feel flows into the sunroom, with its slanted white beadboard ceiling and new skylights.
The “declutter” that often accompanies renovation offered an additional advantage in this case—it helped the family fit 98 chairs into the main space.
The renovated kitchen serves as a focal point, with white cabinets, black granite countertops and, to warm up the space, a soft brick red on the center island. Photo: Stephen Barling
“We had emptied the bookshelves to paint them, and we kept them that way through the wedding for a clean look,” says the homeowner. Tall windows replaced the old sliders in the sunroom, providing a lovely backdrop for the ceremony.
Though it began as a fix-up of one corner, the heart of the project is the newly blended space of the three rooms. The wall that stood at their nexus was torn out and replaced by a wide, curved soapstone countertop, which quickly became a convenient central hub, illuminated by hanging pendants and flanked on the family room side by six stools for entertaining or casual dining. The stools, which feature inlaid wooden seats made from rounds cut and polished from fallen trees, were a local farmers market find by the homeowner. Lori Randle of Cabinet Solutions designed the refreshed cabinetry, using a soft brick red for the base of the center island, which warms up the black counters and white cabinets elsewhere.
Easter was able to reuse the old granite countertop material on both a work surface and wall space next to the grill on the patio off the kitchen.
Smith says each of her design clients is unique and she makes new friends on every project. The key to her success, she says, is listening. “My job is to educate clients to a point, but if they love something, you use it and you make it look good,” she says. “That’s the balance.”
Ragged Branch owner Alex Toomy runs a two-part operation at his southern Ivy distillery: bottling bourbon and raising cattle. The Black Angus cows feed on a mash mixture post-distillation, resulting in beef that pairs well with, go figure, straight bourbon whiskey. Photos: Jen Fariello
On a picturesque, 92-acre hillside ranch in southern Ivy, native Virginian Alex Toomy and two partners have launched an enterprise centered on a perfect pairing: bourbon and beef. Craft distillery Ragged Branch, now open for business after five years of preparation and two more of whiskey-aging, is poised to make its mark on the Virginia spirits industry with time-honored distilling practices using only locally sourced raw ingredients.
“I feel really good about what we’re making,” says Toomy, a real estate developer who has directed large local projects such as The Rocks, Ragged Mountain Farm and Old Ballard Farm. While his partners live in other parts of the country, Toomy directs the on-site activity as he carves a unique path in the Virginia bourbon business. “I’m a strong believer in not caring what anybody else is doing, I’m going to do it right.”
To do it right, Toomy first learned from a master. “I met with Dave Pickerell [former master distiller of Maker’s Mark] in Kentucky to get his advice,” says Toomy. “We talked for four hours, and I could hardly write fast enough to get it all down.” It was Pickerell who convinced Toomy to jump-start the business by producing the first batches in smaller (25-gallon) barrels, to age and sell after two years while the larger barrels continued aging for four. Pickerell now serves as Ragged Branch’s consultant and master distiller, selecting barrels to blend before bottling.
The distillery offers two varieties of Virginia straight bourbon whiskey—wheated and rye—with a straight rye also in the pipeline. Every part of the process is environmentally sustainable. All of the crops are harvested from their own land and a neighboring 800-acre tract leased by the distillery. One large cornfield grows on the ranch right next to the rickhouse where filled barrels are stored. “We grind all of our grain fresh every day,” says Josh Toomy, Alex’s son and graduate of Virginia Tech’s agriculture program, who oversees the day-to-day distilling. “Our water flows from a deep well, and it’s filtered multiple times through deionizers before being used to dilute the alcohol and then recycled as coolant in the cooker.”
The industry is taking notice. In April, Ragged Branch was given a state Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development grant for sourcing all of its grain from Virginia producers and creating new jobs in the industry and, in October, its rye will be featured as a Virginia ABC Chairman’s Choice product. The tasting room in the main house overlooking the distillery is perfect for parties and receptions, complete with an open kitchen, chef on staff and a wide porch with Blue Ridge views for sitting and sipping. Ragged Branch will hit local ABC stores in October.
A side of beef
Alex Toomy grew up riding cutting horses on his father’s 200-acre cattle ranch near Fishersville, so it’s no surprise that Bourbon Beef is also on offer at Ragged Branch. Toomy’s own Black Angus are kept on land leased nearby, plus a dozen finishing steers on fields at Ragged Branch. The cattle are fed a mash mixture derived from the distillation process after the alcohol is vaporized. “It’s like corn oatmeal,” says Toomy. “It has rye and wheat in it as well, and it’s 20 percent protein.” Mixed with hay and a little rolled corn, the feed gives the resultant beef a distinctive rich flavor and smooth texture. Fresh ground beef and a variety of prime steak cuts can be purchased from the distillery store daily.
UVA Executive Vice President and COO Pat Hogan oversees every aspect of move-in weekend, when 3,800 first-years arrive. Photo by Amy Jackson.
On the heels of the tragic events in Charlottesville August 11 and 12, the University of Virginia had to ready itself for another chaotic, but undeniably happier, weekend that began August 18: the arrival of several thousand excited and nervous students for move-in days (see page 29 for their reactions to the anticipated start of classes). And getting the university in shipshape for a new batch of Hoos takes a village.
“Running the operations of the university is sort of like running a small city,” says UVA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Pat Hogan, who manages all things non-academic on Grounds. Encompassing its own housing and dining facilities, building and landscape maintenance, transportation, police and fire service, utilities, capital projects and a hospital, the entire complex is a microcosm of a functioning town. And when its 22,000 citizens return each August, not in a trickle but in a deluge, UVA has to be prepared.
The Friday and Saturday before classes begin are circled in red on Hogan’s calendar: move-in weekend. “I remember my wife and I dropping my daughter off here in the fall of 2000, and how hard it was for us to leave,” says Hogan. “But the Grounds are beautiful, the community is welcoming, and the students have so much energy—they’re really ready to change the world.”
So what does it take to hit peak readiness for their arrival? Here’s the lowdown on the ramp-up.
Lay of the land
“We are the first impression,” says Richard Hopkins, landscape superintendent. “Our students arrive at the university and the first thing they see is some piece of landscape, and we need to grab them.” His staff of 79 year-round workers takes care of the grass, shrubs and trees, arranges new plantings and clears away litter, and they carefully manage the cool season fescue growth to be optimal in August.
Hopkins and the staff look forward to the students’ return because that means the end of construction season. “All summer the backhoes and trucks park everywhere on Grounds,” he says, “and we come behind and work to restore and recover the landscaping.” Predicting the habits of students can be challenging as well. “They create shortcuts to their class buildings through the grass. Each year we repair them, and the following year the path will be someplace different.”
For the groundskeepers, the worst-case scenario is a big thunderstorm on the eve of move-in weekend, leading to trampled sod and a muddy mess. “If you’re really focused on keeping it perfect, it’ll drive you crazy,” he says. “You have to step back and say, ‘It’s okay, they’re using the space.’”
Upgrading on a curve
“Summer is as busy as we get,” says Rollie Zumbrunn, associate director of facilities management for housing. During the summer months, the custodial and maintenance workers have three kinds of work to do in the residence halls. Annual turnover includes deep cleaning such as waxing floors and resetting the rooms so they are ready for new occupants. Minor upgrades might involve changing a room from a lounge to a bedroom or swapping out carpet. And capital projects such as replacing elevators or installing air conditioning are the biggest and take the most time. This summer they’re upgrading dorm access from metal keys to ID cards, which are easier to turn off if lost.
“It’s exciting,” Zumbrunn says. “All of Charlottesville is more alive during the school year. The students bring so much energy.”
Culinary arts
“In late August, it’s like we are opening 25 brand-new restaurants, all at the same time, with brand-new guests and a portion of new staff,” says Matt Smythe, director of operations for UVA Dining. More than 600 employees strive to bring interesting, healthful meals to the student population, and the execution requires massive coordination of inventory, preparation and service. “We order paper products and supplies throughout July and August,” says Smythe, “but produce and perishables we bring in as close to when we need them as possible.”
Smythe notes that dining is a unique service because a student might visit a dining hall 20 times in a week. “We see the students more than anybody on Grounds except their roommate, and we want them to enjoy the experience.”
The food service crew keeps abreast of current food trends, and is always experimenting. “Last year, we tried a chicken-and-waffle night at O-Hill as a one-off, and it was a tremendous success,” says Smythe, so much so that it became a permanent menu item, complete with weekly variations dreamed up by the culinary staff.
Despite the gale-force ramp-up, Smythe says move-in weekend is his favorite time of the year. “The excitement on Grounds, the anticipation and the nervousness, the pride of the parents—it’s just a great weekend to be part of the university community,” he says.
Supply and demand
“We call it ‘book rush,’” says Cristy Huffman, executive director of the UVA bookstores. The robust online book ordering system that allows students to pre-order textbooks can yield upward of 500 orders per day in the weeks leading up to the start of classes, but the University Bookstore gets them filled in time. The addition of 25 to 30 temporary employees to the regular staff means the bookstore can process orders within 24 hours and have them ready for students to collect on the day they arrive.
“We focus on making the process as easy and stress-free as possible for both students and their parents,” says Huffman. This means setting up tents outside the store stocked with dorm items that students may have forgotten, from fans to surge protectors, and serving as a Q&A hub for families seeking directions or instructions. “The first 10 or 12 days are a huge push, but we get everybody through and make sure they’re happy,” says Huffman. “We get to know the students and watch them grow up while they’re here—it’s very fun for us.”
Home team
Over the course of the two-day move-in weekend, 3,800 first-year students and their families descend upon Grounds, and Residence Life has the process down to a science. “We want to make them feel at home where they live,” says Executive Director of Housing and Residence Life Gay Perez.
Some 250 resident assistants, along with hundreds of returning student volunteers, are dispatched to each of the residence halls to greet, check in and unload the arriving students, ideally in under 15 minutes per carload. Parking and transportation staff direct traffic, technology specialists are on hand to help with computer and network issues, and dining services sets up water stations throughout the residential areas. “It’s really a university showcase event,” says Perez, who notes that new (or newly renovated) residence halls are so carefully pre-checked that opening week glitches are almost nonexistent.
Assistant Dean of Students Andy Petters reiterates the message that parents and students receive at orientation: “We tell them the first thing they should pack in their car, and unload when they arrive, is patience. If they have that, then the rest is just fun.” Parents may have a tough time leaving their son or daughter on Grounds, but Saturday night’s JPJ concert is meant for students to have fun getting to know each other.
“By Sunday afternoon when students go to the Lawn for Convocation, there should be no more parents lurking around behind the shrubs,” says Petters with a smile.
Located in McIntire Park, the new YMCA incorporates design elements that acknowledge its natural surroundings: floor-to-ceiling windows bring in the wooded views from the fitness room and the pool, as well as flood the space with natural light. Photo: Stephen Barling
When Piedmont Family YMCA CEO Jessica Maslaney was still a program director for the Y back in 2009, she tagged along on a tour of regional Y facilities with local VMDO architects to look at design ideas. “I think they invited me because I was an English major in college, and so I was the note-taker,” laughs Maslaney. That tour inspired the future CEO as well as the architects of the Brooks Family Y to create a new building in Charlottesville that expressed the Y’s mission of openness and inclusivity.
Turning the concept of openness into physical reality was a creative delight for the architecture team. Former VMDO co-owner Todd Bullard, who served as the project’s lead construction administrator, had coached and managed Y basketball programs in town for years, and he understood the Y’s intent. “We loved the idea of the building being as transparent as possible,” says Bullard. “For example, from the exterior you can see all the way through to the trees beyond.” Floor-to-ceiling windows let in daylight and provide large, wooded views from the fitness room and pool.
Photo: Stephen Barling
The transparency continues inside, where from any point in the vast fitness center, you can see from end to end of the building from east to west. VMDO senior associate Jim Richardson, who has worked on the project since 2008, says he’s happy when the design influences the performance of a building like the Y. “We think members will appreciate the interior glass, so if you’re working out you can look into the pool and see your kids swimming, or into the gym to watch them play basketball,” he says.
For Richardson, McIntire Park is an ideal venue for the Y, as its open interior harmonizes with the surrounding vista. “The park setting is an incredible opportunity for the Y because many programs work well with outdoor facilities,” he says. Given the building’s low profile, “the park landscape seems to slide right into the front door.”
Photo: Stephen Barling
The building’s abundant natural light had to be managed efficiently across the various interior spaces, and the designers used the site’s downhill slope to the west to their advantage. “The gym and pool are essentially massive boxes, and too much glare can be a problem when you’re shooting baskets,” says Bullard. The “boxes” were set into the hillside, sheltered by the surrounding woods, to decrease their exterior bulk and temper the direct sunlight. Energy efficiency is an added benefit, as the earth stabilizes the facility’s interior temperature year-round.
Bill Loughridge, owner of Brooks Y builder Loughridge Construction, says the 18-month project wasn’t without its challenges. “The site itself was very tight, particularly on the backside, and there were quite a few accommodations to make sure everybody had access,” he says, referring to a city requirement that McIntire Park remain open during construction. Despite those trials, Loughridge was pleased with the outcome. “It’s really a lovely project, with a lot of clerestory light that brings the outside in quite a bit.” And bringing the outside in is just what the new Y hopes to do.
