CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CvilleRightNow) – Eight months after being added to the Virginia Landmarks Register, the Downtown Mall has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. UVa landscape architecture professor Elizabeth Meyer told The Daily Progress not many places are on this register that are not even 50-years old yet, but this is a significant public space that deserves such designation. The Virginia registry designation says the Mall “signifies an important period in the city’s community planning and development efforts led by elected officials, business leaders, and local citizens in the years following the Second World War. It also exemplifies the work of Lawrence Halprin, a renowned landscape architect of the late 20th century, and his firm, Lawrence Halprin & Associates. Completed in two phases between 1976 and 1980, the Downtown Mall serves as an excellent example of Halprin’s urban design vision to accommodate for movement through space.”
The Mall was added to the Virginia registry last June, and was included in the national registry last month.
Click here to read the Downtown Mall registry entry.