December is one of my favorite months to be downtown. In Roanoke, as in many other communities in the Blue Ridge, the windows and sidewalks are transformed by the holiday season. It’s cold, there’s music in the air, and occasionally it snows. Some years, my other life takes me downtown nearly every evening, playing music for our regional theater, so I experience magic outdoors and in, exiting the stage door each night from one world, with actors and stories onstage, into another, with Dickensian carolers, jugglers and carriages on street level.
Even in the 10 years I’ve lived here, Roanoke’s downtown has changed dramatically. Monday and Tuesday nights are now nearly as busy as Friday and Saturday nights, with constant traffic through the parking lots and the restaurants.
Probably the most dramatic change is the completion of the $66 million Taubman Museum of Art that will open to the public Nov. 8. It’s designed by Randall Stout, a Knoxville native who worked years with Frank Gehry and inherited his startling, contemporary style. The museum, built next to the railroad that in many ways built the town, has been a source of controversy in town. Some people are excited about the change, the boldness, the architectural risks and urban edge of it. Others think it doesn’t fit Roanoke, doesn’t suit our downtown.
At first glance, the building is all angles and peaks, glass and metal. Its roof rises to a sharp, jutting height. It looks nothing like the century-old and older warehouses, hotel and storefronts that surround it. “It’s a sculpture, in and of itself,” says staffer Jennifer Wise.
Look closer, and you’ll see what Stout had in mind – what he describes as “metaphors” for its surroundings. The angular lines of the roof mimic the mountains visible beyond. The curve of the terrace, from where you can see Mill, Read, Sugarloaf and Tinker mountains, echoes Virginia’s Natural Bridge. To Wise, who took me on a tour recently, the line of the building mirrors the line of the railroad tracks just beyond.
Inside, a “luminous ceiling” of Stout’s design winds through the galleries with the quiet light of a river. Every expanse of glass frames the city’s landmarks and the mountains beyond. The building deliberately echoes and celebrates the land it inhabits.
Besides its architectural impact on downtown, the museum will have an economic one. It’s projected to create $29.2 million in net new local spending, $9 million in wages, more than $1 million in local and state taxes, 470 jobs. It is changing the Roanoke skyline in more ways than the visual.
This issue visits downtowns throughout their region that are recreating their skylines; bringing the old and the new together, celebrating history while finding creative ways to move into the future.
We’re looking for your stories for our fall 2009 getaways feature! Deadline: Jan. 31, 2009. For submission guidelines, click here.
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—Cara Ellen Modisett
