The Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...

 is one of the longest pedestrian mall

Pedestrian mall

Pedestrian malls in the United States are also known as pedestrian streets and are the most common form of pedestrian zone in large cities in the United States. It is a street lined with storefronts and closed off to most automobile traffic...

s in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Located on Main Street, it runs from 6th St. N.E. to Old Preston Ave., where it extends to Water St., for total length of eight blocks. It is laid with brick and concrete, and home to an array of restaurants, shops

Retailing

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

, offices and art galleries. On Fridays in the spring, summer and fall, the Downtown Mall is host to Fridays After 5, a weekly concert series. Several side streets are also paved in brick and likewise closed to traffic. On the east, the Mall ends at the Charlottesville Pavilion, an outdoor concert venue, while the west end of the Mall features an Omni Hotel and a recently defunct indoor ice skating

Ice skating

Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...

 rink. It is also home to the newly renovated Paramount Theater and the historic Jefferson Theater

Jefferson Theater

Built in 1912, this combination vaudeville house/cinema is one of the major performing venues in Charlottesville, Virginia. Operated most recently as one of the dollar theaters, it is currently closed for renovations and is now owned by Coran Capshaw, who is overseeing restoration.It was designed...

.

History

In 1976, East Main Street was converted into a pedestrian mall designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin

Lawrence Halprin

Lawrence Halprin was an influential American landscape architect, designer and teacher.Beginning his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, in 1949, Halprin often collaborated with a local circle of modernist architects on relatively modest projects. These figures included William...

. In 2007, Charlottesville planned a comprehensive rehabilitation and renovation of the Downtown Mall. Construction on the Mall Renovation began on Sunday, January 7th, 2009 and was completed that summer .

Further reading

• "Downzone Mall: Developers not 'taken' with new plan", The Hook.
• "Mall renovations: Downtown businesses not reassured", The Hook.
• ""Fountainplus? Mall design includes lots more water", The Hook.
• ""Downtown Mall Renovation Website", City of Charlottesville.