The University’s School of Architecture is kicking off the spring semester with its fifth annual Vortex workshop.
Vortex is a week-long design workshop which allows students and faculty to collaborate and reimagine areas of Charlottesville. This year’s focus is Preston Avenue.
More than 300 undergraduate and graduate students are participating in the workshop this year. The concept was founded by Iñaki Alday Sanz, department chair in the School of Architecture. Organizing Vortex this year are faculty members Genevieve Keller and Manuel Bailo. The all-school design workshop is unique to the University and an asset to the school, Dean Elizabeth Meyer said.
“The Vortex is one of the most innovative and distinguishing characteristics of the school of architecture,” Meyer said.
The Vortex tends to focus on areas of “transition,” Meyer said. Previous sites include the Belmont Bridge, the I-29 Strip and the Rivanna River. This year is the first year the Vortex is focusing on the center of the city.
“We’ve always been trying to find issues that are popping up in Charlottesville that are exemplary of what students would see in other places,” Meyer said.
One of the main issues with Preston Avenue is the divisiveness it imposes between the two neighborhoods on either side, Rose Hill and 10th and Page, Keller said. The Vortex aims to reimagine Preston Avenue as a link between the two.
“[Preston Avenue has become a] divider rather than a connector,” Keller said. “It’s an area in transition which is now receiving attention from developers...It’s been an industrial area but those industries are gone.”
Joining the Vortex initiative is Sarad Davenport, director of City of Promise and Charlottesville native. City of Promise is an initiative dedicated to solutions which benefit the education and development of youth in the 10th and Page, Westhaven and Star Hill neighborhoods. Preston Avenue is the north border of the “Promise Neighborhood Footprint.”
Davenport said he supports the notion of reconnection and inclusiveness.
“Preston is definitely a barrier,” Davenport said. “I think reconnecting both sides of Preston would be a good thing.”
Davenport said he also believes the Vortex and future urban design endeavors have the potential to benefit Preston Avenue and the surrounding areas as well as foster inclusiveness and equity.
“We are focused on creating an environment that is inclusive and provides equity at every level,” Davenport said. “This is an opportunity to create good inclusive and equitable social policy through design.”
The Vortex workshop is scheduled to conclude Jan. 24.
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