Roanoke’s Best Buildings

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The story below is from our May/June 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you! 

One building is the best and the worst simultaneously, and our panel has some interesting selections, including food trucks.

The Roanoker asked a number of buildings professionals for their opinions on Roanoke’s Best Buildings recently and seven of them, representing various disciplines from architect to engineer, to interior designer and even to landscaping, for their opinions. Our panel was thus:

  • David Hill, landscape architect, Hill Studio
  • John Garland, engineer/developer, Garland Properties
  • Lenore Weiss, interior designer, Spectrum Designs
  • Monica Rokicki, architect, Better Building Works
  • Kevin Witter, architect/educator, Virginia Western Community College
  • Teresa Dorlini, interior designer/creative director, Circle Design Studio

Their opinions, and the reasons for them, varied widely. Here is the breakdown and commentary. 

Best New Building in Past Five Years

Hill picked the Greater Roanoke Transit Center because “In addition to the contemporary transformation of this unique site, the terminal features much safer and clearer boarding, and green design techniques. If you have the state museum of transportation next door, why not have a state-of-the art multimodal terminal right out front?”

Garland is partial to the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute almost by default. “Quite frankly,” he says, “there are precious few to pick from over the past five years because of COVID-19 and the economy, but this building was selected primarily because of its use. Biomedical Park, along with the Carilion Medical School have been transformational to our Valley. As a former City Manager said, we have gone from trains to brains.  It also brought VT a little closer to us, with all of its positive influence.”

Rokicki likes the STEM Building at Virginia Western Community College, as does Witter. She says, “This high-tech contemporary building is sited just across from the recently completed Fralin Life Science Institute. The STEM building was designed to foster collaboration while providing blended 21st century laboratory space and classrooms that also connect the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields of study. Simultaneous improvements to Colonial Avenue included roundabouts at each end of the campus. Together, these most recent three projects have place-making power for the college and the community.”

Dorlini favors New Hope Christian Church, where a “simple metal building construction has made a cool new home for a thriving church. Designers met the church’s budget, and there is an interesting use of gabion walls” (retaining walks composed of stacked and stone-filled materials tied with wire).

Best Renovation of an Historic Building

Hill couldn’t decide on one, so he picked three: “Liberty Trust is an example of taking your worst (obsolete) place and making it your best place. Mast General for revitalizing a whale of an empty building. St. Andrew’s Catholic Church for making this landmark the best it could be, contributing to raising its status to Minor Basilica.”

Similarly, Garland, who specializes in renovations, couldn’t settle on one. “The Number 1 Fire Station had decades of service but grew old and out of date. It sat empty for years but was maintained. When it was released to private hands and ideas, it was allowed a second life. The Fire Station’s second life has exceeded expectations and fostered a boutique hotel.

“Center in the Square was a bold move, using [creative funding].” An old renovation was aging and “life needed to be envisioned. The interior architecture was transformational, creative and stunning.

“The Higher Education Center brought back to life the former Norfolk & Western Office Building which was donated to the city. This building was one of [Roanoke’s] post cards back in the mid-1900s because of its significant architecture, grandeur and use.”

Weiss, who did the interior work at Center in the Square, selected the Liberty Trust Hotel, explaining that “I would’ve done a couple of things differently but it is still a solid, well done renovation.”

Rokicki also likes Liberty Trust. “The ashlar stone and classical proportions of the 1910 Liberty Trust Building have always been a favorite ‘what if’ daydream for me. The recent renovation into a boutique hotel did not disappoint. The Vault restaurant is world class with its celebration of the full height main level, colossal interior columns, original vault doors and sensitive interior design.”

Witter selected the Freedom First Warehouse renovation at the intersection of Elm Avenue and Williamson Road because of its “successful adaptive reuse.”

Dorlini was impressed by Fire Station No. 1’s “great job of keeping historic parts of the interior intact like the old blackboard from the original fire station, hay pulleys, etc.”

Best Institutional Building

Weiss was all over this one: “The Taubman Museum of Art is both the best and worst building in Roanoke. I applaud the innovation, particularly on the exterior (still find it to be a bit of a Frank Gehry knock-off) but except for the one awkward hooked ‘curve’ I think it’s successful. There are a lot of missed opportunities on the interior. With all of the dynamic shapes on the exterior, I think it would have been more successful if those forms were expressed three-dimensionally on the interior.”

Hill’s choice is Vinton Library, “a recent exemplary model of downtown planning implementation. It is a stunning architectural statement that brings the town, and beyond, together.”

Rokicki agrees, after a fashion. The Taubman “is truly a building to appreciate in any number of poses (you may have to experience this to understand it), but I’m now convinced that the building is the embodiment of the ‘Warrior Two’ yoga pose: firmly present between unsentimental memory and visionary possibility. A lot like Roanoke, come to think of it.”

Garland chose a couple of high schools, Cave Spring and Glenvar. “Both took stodgy 1950s, ‘60s buildings, brought new life and vitality and endorsed the fact that better architecture could also be a teaching tool, an art to be respected. Both buildings incorporated modern teaching tools and standards. Both departed from low ceilings and monolithic floor/wall/ceiling finishes. They allowed them to soar to new heights, providing cool inspirational spaces in which to learn.”

Witter liked “the innovative design” of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science.

Best Commercial Building

Rokicki enthusiastically selected “food trucks, any and all of them,” but asked, “Is a food truck a building? What is a building anyway? Any place with an inside and an outside where people do/make/store/sell qualifies, in my view. And food trucks are the most diminutive, most modest, most versatile kind of modern building there is. Inside, it’s all function and process. Outside it’s all invitation and yum.”

Weiss likes furniture company TXTUR and Mast General Store. Dorlini chose MKB and First Choice Title in Daleville for reasons unspecified. Witter picked Hampton Inn Downtown Roanoke because of its “innovation in urban design and adaptive reuse of the parking garage. It provided a much needed downtown hospitality destination.”

Best Energy Conserving Building

Garland picked Mason’s Cove Elementary School (as did Dorlini) and Cave Spring Middle School “based solely on their Certification as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) projects by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED has become a national standard for exceptional energy conserving buildings.

Hill finds Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech/Carilion to be “as complex as the program and design of the 4 Riverside Circle building. It still pulled off LEED Silver status.”

Weiss says, “I really like the number of residential units added downtown over the last decade. It makes Roanoke more of a 24-hour city, which is critical to revitalization.”

Rokicki goes to a second fire station, this one No. 7 in Grandin Village. “The re-invention of the 1922 Fire Station No. 7 was completed in 2021, with sensitively-designed additions to LEED Silver Certification Standards. [It] isn’t just energy efficient, but also features exemplary indoor air quality and environmentally sustainable site development and materials selection. And completing it is my favorite feature of all: the Trojan Dog, sculpted by Anne Glover in 2011.”

Best New Home Built

Hill picked two: 175 27th Street, Southeast and 642 Walnut Ave., Southeast because “both houses are infill houses, which is very important in keeping a city vibrant. 175 27th Street achieves an extraordinary level of context sensitivity, while 642 Walnut blends well into nature.”

Dorlini picked a former Roanoker-featured home, Catawba House, because of the use of “green addendum strategy, cohesive architecture and interior design that takes advantage of the rural setting and views” and emphasizes “modern living.”

There are more great buildings and interesting categories in the Roanoke Valley. Turn on the car, drive around and you’ll see them.

David Hill’s List That Should Have Been

David Hill, who has his own mind about things, came up with a different, quite interesting, list of categories, which he responded to. Herewith:

Hottest Downtown Progress:

Vinton. Despite the fire tragedy, Vinton has continued to build on success in the downtown, transforming a sleepy crossroads into a de facto entertainment district.

Best Downtown 2.0 Progress:

Salem. Salem Public Works continues to build on its successes, featuring new parklets and outdoor dining along Main Street and College Ave.

Best Community Art Campaign:

Roanoke, especially Downtown. From Art on the Bus to the Gateway Mural, to Roanoke Rising sculptures in Elmwood Park, to restoring decades-old murals and new brilliant murals in downtown Roanoke, there is a movement going on, contributing immeasurably to our sense of community.

Best New Mural:

“Keep Climbing to Success” on Freedom First building. German Artist James Bullough figured out Roanoke Valley’s secret ingredients and displayed it to be experienced by 70,000 people a day at 55 MPH.

Best Renovation of an Historic Building

Allison Blanton of the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation picked Fire Station No. 1, explaining, “The Georgian-Revival style landmark with its bell tower stood as testimony to the rapid growth and prosperity of the city. After 100 years in operation, the fire station closed in 2007 and stood vacant for more than a decade. In 2019, Old School Partners purchased the landmark building from the City of Roanoke and proceeded with a $2.725 million renovation project to return the building to public use.

“Utilizing state and federal historic tax credits, the team carefully preserved the interior and exterior of the building including the character-defining plan elements of the open apparatus and repair bays on the first floor and fire chief’s office and bedroom and the crew bunkroom on the second floor.

“Historic features and fabric such as the brass firepoles, the bricks gnawed by horses in the early days, grooved concrete floors for traction, the decorative tin ceilings, floating stairs and steel hoists in the original second floor haylofts, as well as original lockers and wood trim throughout were preserved while sensitively providing upgrades to accommodate the new use and meet current building code.

“Old School Partners donated a preservation easement on the building to the Virginia Historic Resources Board to ensure perpetual protection of this local landmark. Today, the iconic Fire Station No. 1 has a new life with retail space for TXTUR, a local furniture company, and Stock, a restaurant on the first floor, as well as lodging on the second floor.”

The story above is from our May/June 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!