Monthly Archive for September, 2005

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Nelson Byrd Woltz Caught in Controversy

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 14, 2005 in Business and Politics. Closed

Charlottesville’s Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects has done work for Washington & Lee University, the North Carolina Arboretum, Nike’s European headquarters, and the city of Portland, but it’s their latest project that’s gaining them notoriety. They submitted a design for the Flight 93 National Memorial, the site that will honor those who died in that Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001. Their entry, “Crescent of Embrace,” was selected from over 1,000 submissions by a panel including architects and families of the deceased. That design was announced last week. Rendering of crescentThe major feature of the memorial is a ginormous swath of red maple trees, describing an arc across the landscape, around the field in which the bulk of the debris was found.

Anti-Islamic bloggers have jumped all over the design. Blogs like Captain’s Quarters, Michelle Malkin, and Little Green Footballs write that they are “stunned, outraged, and sickened” by the design, which they argue honors terrorists by echoing the crescent moon that is some Muslims have adopted as a symbol of Islam. The blowback is spilling over to the media, and may well derail the proposal.

It’s presumably not the sort of exposure that Nelson Byrd Woltz was going for, but if their design gets built, it’ll be a real feather in their cap.

UVA Names Diversity Chief

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 13, 2005 in UVa. 1 Comment

UVa has created a “Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity” position, and named Dr. William Harvey as the man to fill it, the AP reports. Harvey’s most noteworthy experience in this realm is his recent work as the vice president of the American Council on Education’s Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity and, prior to that, the Vice President and Director of the organization’s Office of Minorities in Higher Education. Harvey is, it must be noted, African-American.

UVa has a history of racial tension, though perhaps an even stronger history of talking about talking about racism. Presumably, Dr. Harvey will take the position that has long been assumed by UVa Dean of African Affairs (aka “Dean of All Things Black”), M. Rick Turner, and hopefully handle matters somewhat more delicately than the notoriously heavy-handed Turner.

Land conservation fund receives first funds

Published by Duane Gran on September 13, 2005 in Development and Taxes. Closed

A Daily Progress article covers the first donation to Albemarle County’s Acquisition of Conservation Easements program, a tax-deductable fund for the county to purchase land easements. From the article:

Albemarle County will be able to set aside more rural land like Ford’s because of a $10,000 anonymous donation to the county’s Acquisition of Conservation Easements program, the county announced Monday.

The program was established in 2000 and the fund set up earlier this year. The $10,000 is the first contribution to the program, and the money will be used exclusively for the county to purchase easements – voluntary agreements that help maintain open space and ecological diversity by restricting development of land.

Persons concerned about sprawl and protecting open spaces may wish to read a county press release for details on how to contribute to the fund.

Progress Editorial on Matthew Charge

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 12, 2005 in Law and Justice and Meta News. 2 Comments

Today’s Daily Progress editorial reviews the recent matter of the wrongful rape charge brought against Christopher Matthew, and closes with a muted swipe at some of Charlottesville’s junior media outlets:

Finally, it must be noted that some area media overplayed the arrest. (This newspaper endeavored not to do so.)

A serial rapist remains at large, and everyone wants to be told that he has been found and that our homes are safe again. But too quickly associating this arrest with that investigation imposed additional trauma on the innocent suspect.

For good reason, our justice system is founded on the principle of “innocent until proved guilty.” We’ve just seen an example of why.

With the Sheckler lawsuit against WVIR decided just two years ago, some local media outlets may not have learned the proper lessons that accompany jumping to conclusions.

Tennis Courts, Made in C’ville

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 12, 2005 in Business and Sports. Closed

Further evidence that Charlottesville is the center of the universe: 90% of the country’s clay tennis courts are made from igneous basalt mined at Luck Stone. As David Hendrick explains in today’s Daily Progress, their “Har-Tru” surface material is mined in Shadwell before making its way to courts across the nation. In the earliest days of the 30-year-old company, the U.S. Open was even played on Har-Tru for a few years, before the tournament moved away from clay. Today, every court from Farmington’s to Central Park’s are all made by Luck Stone. Small world.

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