From the city…
In an effort to recoup some public money in the Downtown Mall Restoration project and reduce the final cost of the project, the City of Charlottesville will sell to the public original mall bricks from the 33 year old Downtown Mall while supplies last. City officials realizes a larger demand once the project began in January and have sought to find ways to offer bricks to buyers that would not be cost-prohibitive or challenge the administrative constraints of the City. The original plan was to sell only 8,000 cleaned bricks but the unexpected demand will result in more bricks being reused rather than recycled. The City estimates that there are around 360,000 bricks on the nationally-acclaimed Downtown urban park and the goal is to have no removed bricks go unused and enter a landfill. The City plans to offer several opportunities to soon to be builders and souvenir recipients:
* Special souvenir bricks will be sold at the City’s monthly surplus property sale beginning next month on March 6th at the City Warehouse on 4th Street (WHO) for $5.00/brick (limit of 5 per customer). The WHO is open the 1st Friday of each month from Noon – 3:00 p.m. In addition pallets of 200 cleaned bricks will be sold at a reduced price at this auction.
* An online auction of un-cleaned bricks to the highest bidder through GovDeals.com and available at the Transit Center on Avon Street at future dates to be determined, and
* Sealed bid to the highest bidder (see Purchasing Department for specifics).
Bricks not sold will be ground to be used at trails throughout the city with the largest commitment of bed material for the future Route 250 trail near McIntire Park. For more information on the program, buyers can call Shannon Morris at 434-970-3865. For more information on City purchasing: www.charlottesville.org/purchasing. For an update on the restoration effort, visit www.mydowntownmall.com.
Related posts:
- Mall Brick Sales and Other Updates from Charlottesville
- Downtown Mall Renovation Epic: War of the Bricks (Ch. 1)
- City Says Downtown Mall Rebricking on Schedule
Given your moniker I appluad your neutral presentation of a subject that arouses ire among so many…me being one of them.
They should have SOLD the NEW bricks to the public instead (while also selling the old), if they were really interested in bringing down the cost (to the extent that the project, over time, would have largely paid for itself.) I’ve posted about this before: in many large cities people just love to buy dedicated/inscribed bricks that will be laid upon the pedestrian mall thereby providing them a sliver of perceived immortality/philanthropy/prestige. People eat that shit up, and I am sure C’ville would really have eaten it up. Taking these orders/laying inscribed bricks as repairs needed to have been made over time would have resulted in a greater end product which would have only increased public buy-in (literally and emotionally.) Their response when I brought this up at a meeting was “it’s not in keeping w/ the original Halperin design.” Bullshit- there are many things (improvements and changes over time to the mall) that have not been “in keeping with” the original Halperin design. I don’t know Halperin, but I’d like to think the guy had enough intelligence to endorse smart moves.
Selling the old bricks largely as an afterthought is yet another example of this being hamfisted (poor planning.) It’s a reactionary move. Further (as has been pointed out in previous articles) the ambitious pace of the project and the enormous pressure to remain on schedule caused some genius to say “let’s just scrape ‘em up w/ a mini dozer”, thereby destroying many of the bricks. Dips.
it may be just me, but i have don’t like the look of personalized bricks . . i think the smooth clean top is classier . . . and i would suspect it to be more sturdy then a brick that has been etched?
pls pardon the poor editing and extra “have” in the note above!
If they can get the outrageous price of $5 each as souvenirs (I don’t think the new ones are costing that much?) Why limit it to 5 per customer?!? 360,000 x $5 is… I don’t know… a lot of loot though.. why sell in bulk for cheap? lazy bastids
All in all you’re just another brick in the Downtown Mall
Thank you! I’ll be here all week.
Good idea, but charity is no substitute for a strong municipality. We the people, and all that.
Remember, in Idiocracy, everything was branded, even water (except toilet water).
@6 I couldn’t agree more- well put.
@1.
1. Selling inscribed bricks would clearly make the mall better. Nothing says class like bricks spelling out Clyde and Thelma Shifflett! BOY HOWDY! I think it a facetious argument that could only be proved at the end result, with many negative things occurring in the meantime. People upset that their bricks were not where they wanted them, or were in front of a bar. And if construction or damage occurs..then what? And do you really think there is the pent up demand for 7.5M in brick sponsorship? Actually, make that 8.5 when you factor in the cost of the custom bricks. Nah, poor idea.
And of course, when Pepsi and Coke got into the fray, they ended up buying 50,000 bricks each, resulting in a whole block spelling Pepsi. Nice.
2. You clearly are not paying attention to what is occuring with the bricks. Yes selling them is an afterthought. DUH! Are you paying attention or just knee jerk reacting?? The bricks came up from the base much much cleaner than they ever thought (proving the fact that it needed to be done…) and so they decided to try and make some hay. And since they could not know how the majority of the bricks would come up thenof course it is an afterthought…
3. But hey, put your money were your mouth is and run for City Council.
let’s sell the freedom wall to advertisers for one month sponsorships?
@9, pt. 2, So these ease with which the brick came up proves that this needed to be done? It has nothing to do with the fact that the City decided years ago to stop maintaining the mall and the resulting crack and voids in mortar joints let moisture accumulate between the bricks and their underlying slab? All it took was one good freeze-thaw cycle to seperate the bricks from their base, doesn’t mean they needed to be thrown away and the mall started from scratch. By your logic, the fact that they brought heavier-than-needed equiptment in to do the job means they thought the bricks would be harder to remove, and thus that the job didn’t need to be done to begin with? When they’re done laying new brick, they’ll be even easier to remove than the old ones.. so that means we’ll need to re-do the mall again?
The problem we’re going to have in the future is that the original slab was not designed for the amount of moisture reaching it through faulty mortar joints. By dry-laying the new mall with no mortar, even more water will find its way down there, there’s literally nothing to stop it now but sand (a terrific conduit for it). All that water will freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw and there will be resulting movement of brick caused by it. What you should be seeing is new bricks being laid over a sloping slab with sufficient drains so that water that percolates down has a place to go [and those drains need to be protected with filters so the water than finds its way out doesn't carry any sand with it or you've got real problems]. Instead they’re just using the old, flat slab without drains that was not designed for that purpose. In the end, its going to require more maintanance then the old mall, but I guess Judy Mueller will get to hire more staff then…
BTW, you’ll notice that there aren’t lots of little pieces of brick in the old mall, but the new sections have lots of them? If anyone with any brains were involved, they’d have ordered a few cubes of oversized brick [the mall bricks are 4x12, so say.. 6x16? even if they had to be specially made] and where they wound up with a 4 1/2″ space, instead of using a 1/2″ sliver of a brick to make things work, they could have cut a larger one down to fit perfectly. The masons who laid the original mall were artists compared to these fuckstix. And we’re paying 7+ mil for a shittier finished product?
@12 Not saying I don’t believe you, because I do, but were potential problems with the slab ever brought up at any time during the many public discussions regarding the Mall rehab? If so, what was the thinking on this?
@9 please everybody cut the Shifflett jokes. Shiffletts (and slaves) built this fucking town. Show some respect.
Grape is back, and she knows what everyone should do.
I, for one, am relieved. I have been morally adrift.
*snicker*
@9 Sue didn’t intend to get your little panties in such a wad there Betty. Geez, you’d think you were Mr. Stroh.
First of all, it’s an idea…if you don’t like it that’s fine. It is, after all, something that could have been considered/investigated, and put out there for public consideration/discussion/input. However…
1st, the idea was that this would happen over time, as repairs needed to be made (out with the old section, and in with the new…again, as needed, until the mall had been re-bricked…which would take years.) Point is, selling the new bricks (and also selling the old) would have off-set the costs phenomenally…it should have at least been costed out for shits and giggles.
2nd, many other cities have been pulling this off just fine…you should go visit some. Your triple long jumps to conclusions suggest you believe no one would have any controls over such a project (i.e. that Pepsi could buy blocks at a time) which is of course freakishly simple, to the point of being funny. Further, who cares if there’s an occasisonal Bob Shifflett (two f’s, two t’s…a purebred)- they’ve as much right to dedicate a brick as anyone would, as community members. Now if you want to go down that road it’s likely that the Shiffletts aren’t pretentious enough (or wouldn’t care enough) to pay 20, 30, or whatever for a dedicated brick. Now if you wanted to be shitty about it, you could price it out of reach for most of these folks you seem to assumptively consider unsavory (though I wouldn’t agree, obviously.)
3rd, as to scraping them up, @12 captured many of the points there. My point was that if they had any foresight (or wished to maximize returns on selling the old bricks) then they wouldn’t remove them so hastily in such a way that many of them will be unuseable/unsellable. In fact, none of that would be an issue at all had the re-bricking been done “as needed” over time. There’s your duh.
4th, why would I run for city council? That’s not what I am interested in. It’s another triple long jump to a conclusion to surmise that a criticism/opinion means one wants to run the circus. I do believe that most of us could have managed this particular project better, to at least accept public ideas and foster true discussions and investigations that would have resulted in true, sound, consideration and decisions. It is clear that this thing was hamfisted, that much is not debateable.
So of course the idea of dedicated bricks isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and that’s of course fine. The overall point should have been that many ideas/options should have been fully vetted and thoroughly investigated, and that true public input would have been solicited/considered. There’s no doubt that many ideas would have resulted in a more cost effective method of getting this done.
@ 17. Of course that should have begun with “Sure didn’t intend…” I can’t speak for Sue, nor did Sue have anything to do w/ this, nor does she care about your panties…
@14, No one that I know of @ the City has put any thought into this. Except for Mr. Huja, I don’t think there’s anyone around who had anything to do with the construction of the mall 30+ years ago. Back then they saved money by installing a cheap slab system (no slope, no drains). What allowed them to do this was the fact that they spent their money installing a quality surface of slightly pitched, mortared brick that when properly installed and maintained, is highly impervious to moisture. The alternative would have been a cheaper surface of dry-laid brick over an expensive slab system with slopes and drains. Now we have a hybrid of the cheaper slab and the cheaper surface. They were not designed to work together, and I predict we’re going to have problems.
A little moisture under the right conditions making its way down below the old mall surface was enough to form a layer of ice that could dislodge bricks and break mortar joints. Under the new set-up, lots more moisture will make its way down there and have nowhere to go. Make it cold enough, and I think you’ll have frost heaves that will make people look back fondly on the condition the mall was in before they started all this. But hey, maybe we’ll have mild winters from here on out.
@17, Memorial bricks is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard, and I say that with all due respect.
Have you ever been to the UVa Law School? They put donors names everywhere, and it greatly cheapens the finished product when you’re reminded constantly that they couldn’t scrape up the scratch for a square yard of carpet without some rich a-hole slipping them a few bucks in exchange for a brass plaque that cost almost as much to boast of their generosity. Bull-shit. They shoulda flushed that idea down the John T Casteen Memorial Crapper.
@20 If that’s the stupidest idea you’ve ever heard of then surely you’ve never followed politics…or maybe you’re no more than ten years old (as evidenced by your use of the word stupidest.) Again, it’s an opinion/idea. I have mine and you have yours, no biggie. Many ideas and methods should have been more thoroughly investigated, as opposed to a foregone conclusion ramrodded through. Though different I agree w/ your perspective on U.Va pimping themselves out for donor’s bills, though that’s an age old, tired, simple and painfully transparent issue.
…But you know, therein lies the greater question, doesn’t it? Sipping a few beers while working on a carburetor gives one time to noodle w/ things…
The greater question is what is the city doing to solicit/acquire the buy in (literally, and also figuratively) of it’s community members? Though I’m clearly of the belief that U.Va. pimps their asses out (sickeningly so) I also get that in order for them to remain competitive among other top universities they have to grub the way they do. It’s a huge, complex and hyper-competitive industry they’re in, moreso these days than ever. Like it or not (and I’m in the not group) it’s a fact that Development is what it’s all about.
Communities (in the form of, in this case, City Council) have to think this way as well. In order to prosper (in my opinion, ideally, to progress economically, intellectually, etc., etc.) they must not only gain trust and execute to accomplishment by doing things smart, they also need to get w/ the program on gaining buy in (again, literally and figuratively.) If you fail on the business/numbers level, you’ve tanked…better be re-examining the model/strategy/goals. Point is, C’ville has to get smarter so they don’t tank things further…this mall thing being one of the greater examples. I’m obviously of the opinion that the inscribed bricks provides buy in- financially and emotionally- while potentially contributing to what may be for some a greater sense of community. So on the one hand it’s the same (in that it’s about leveraging resources to remain competitive or even above water in whatever sport you’re in) but holds the potential to be different in practice (i.e. you don’t have to be dead to have your name on one or be a fat cat, anyone can afford them) while still meeting the same end (progress, however defined, through trust and smart action.) So by way of example now, would this specific idea have been the way to go? Don’t know…don’t know if our population leans that way or not..it’s worked in other cities but we can’t know for sure what the majority here think about it. Point is, it (like any other idea) should be fully explored, esp if the economics clearly back it up. Shit wasn’t fully explored (many ideas/opinions on materials, procurement and methods), conclusions foregone, deals made, and what we’ve got is what we’ve got. The greater q is how the city does business, what strategies and philosophies they employ, and will that have a postive or negative effect on the likelihood of long term success (as a gov’t, and as a city/community.) What’s happening isn’t working well- they’d better get with the program and consider leveraging resources (smartly) to survive and hopefully prosper. That’s challenging in the best of times, and obviously moreso now as the economy tanks.
I stand corrected! Your critique of my use of the word ’stupidest’ is now the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Your memorial mall brick idea gets bumped to second place! Would you like to try for the trifecta? I better go! If my mom finds out I’m using the computer I’ll get grounded again…
@23 Eh, don’t be so thin skinned kiddo, as I mentioned before it’s no biggie. It is, after all, just a community blog.
@24, If you could just cite an example or two of the sort of place that’s incorporated an idea along the lines of your ‘inscribed brick’ one successfully without feeling cheesy and tacky and disneyland-ish, you might develop just a shred of credibility, but you’ll never convince me its a good idea. Our public spaces are ours as a whole, as a community. Not belonging to some more than others. If the City thinks we need a new mall, it should pay for it. That’s why municipalities exist. Not just so there’s an entity to pass the hat to the privileged few so their charity and benevolence can keep this town running. Thats our responsibility. Its why we pay taxes. The downtown mall is this town’s preeminent public space, I’d rather they spend more money to make it nicer than do what you suggest and cheapen it one iota. And even if your suggestion saved us a little bit of $, Council would just blow it on $20,000 Christmas trees and other nonsense. In the end we’d have devalued what we hold dear for no net gain.
Sipping a few beers while working on a carburetor gives one time to noodle w/ things…
I once rebuilt the carburetor on a ‘76 Cordoba and has so many parts left over I thought I could maybe build a spare with them? Though to no apparent ill effect. I’d self-servingly say it ran great, but I’ve already mentioned that it was a ‘76 Cordoba, so no one in their right mind would believe that. A car only a Saudi could love.
As much as I’ve paid the city in parking tickets, I think I deserve a brick with my damn name on it.
@27 you should have stop parking on the mall years ago.