The historic Hotel John Marshall in Richmond, Va., was designed in 1928 by local architect Marcellus Wright and opened October 30, 1929, the day after the stock market crash that signaled the start of the Great Depression. Despite the bankruptcy that soon followed, the hotel managed to survive for another six decades, until it closed in 1988.
In 2007 Virginia Atlantic Development and Dominion Realty Partners formed John Marshall Building LLC to redevelop the vacant property. Starting in April 2010, the Building Team of Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio, Stanley D. Lindsey & Associates, Leppard Johnson & Associates, and Choate Interior Construction restored the 16-story, 310,537-sf building into the Residences at the John Marshall, a new mixed-use facility offering apartments, street-level retail, a catering kitchen, and two restored ballrooms.
Special attention was given to restoring the building’s historical elements. In the grand Virginia Room, three of the original ballroom chandeliers, weighing 600 pounds each, underwent two years of intensive restoration, including hand polishing and restringing 18,000 individual crystal beads.
PROJECT SUMMARY
RESIDENCES AT THE JOHN MARSHALL
Richmond, Va.Building Team
Submitting firm: Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio (architect)
Owner/developer: Dominion Realty Partners
Structural engineer: Stanley D. Lindsey & Associates
MEP engineer: Leppard Johnson & Associates
General contractor: Choate Interior ConstructionGeneral Information
Size: 310,537 gsf
Construction cost: $39 million
Construction period: April 2010 to June 2012
Delivery method: Cost-plus
The Building Team worked with specialty exterior restoration engineer Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates and the local historic society to restore the limestone façade, the supports of which had deteriorated over the years. Every limestone panel was reanchored with stainless steel fittings bolted into the building and then patched. Terra cotta details at the top of the building were also restored, or in some cases recreated with glass-fiber-reinforced concrete to match the original. “The restoration of the façade was notable, when you consider they had to reattach every piece,” said Reconstruction Awards Judge Daniel Moser, SE, PE.
For its sustainability efforts, the Residences at John Marshall earned three out of four Green Globes through the Green Building Initiative.
The Hotel John Marshall reopened this past summer with 77% of its commercial space leased and more than 85 events booked prior to occupancy. As of early August, 202 of the 238 apartments were leased. “That’s a very good real estate story,” said Judge Martha Bell, FAIA. +
Related Stories
Multifamily Housing | Jul 15, 2021
Economic rebound leads to record increase in multifamily asking rents
Across the country, multifamily rents have skyrocketed. Year-over-year rents are up by double digits in nine of the top 30 markets, while national YoY rent growth is up 6.3%. Emerging from the pandemic, a perfect storm of migration, enhanced government stimulus and a hot housing market, among other factors, has enabled this extremely strong growth.
AEC Business Innovation | Jul 11, 2021
Staffing, office changes at SCB, SmithGroup, RKTB, Ryan Cos., Jacobsen, Boldt, and Adolfson & Peterson
AEC firms take strategic action as construction picks up steam with Covid openings.
K-12 Schools | Jul 9, 2021
LPA Architects' STEM high school post-occupancy evaluation
LPA Architects conducted a post-occupancy evaluation, or POE, of the eSTEM Academy, a new high school specializing in health/medical and design/engineering Career Technical Education, in Eastvale, Calif. The POE helped LPA, the Riverside County Office of Education, and the Corona-Norco Unified School District gain a better understanding of which design innovations—such as movable walls, flex furniture, collaborative spaces, indoor-outdoor activity areas, and a student union—enhanced the education program, and how well students and teachers used these innovations.
Multifamily Housing | Jul 7, 2021
Make sure to get your multifamily amenities mix right
One of the hardest decisions multifamily developers and their design teams have to make is what mix of amenities they’re going to put into each project. A lot of squiggly factors go into that decision: the type of community, the geographic market, local recreation preferences, climate/weather conditions, physical parameters, and of course the budget. The permutations are mind-boggling.
Industrial Facilities | Jul 2, 2021
A new approach to cold storage buildings
Cameron Trefry and Kate Lyle of Ware Malcomb talk about their firm's cold storage building prototype that is serving a market that is rapidly expanding across the supply chain.
Multifamily Housing | Jun 30, 2021
A post-pandemic ‘new normal’ for apartment buildings
Grimm + Parker’s vision foresees buildings with rentable offices and refrigerated package storage.
Architects | Jun 30, 2021
Perkins Eastman joins forces with MEIS
MEIS’ work on stadiums and entertainment centers spans the globe with state-of-the-art designs in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Architects | Jun 25, 2021
AIA announces Small Project Award recipients
Now in its 18th year, the AIA Small Project Awards program recognizes small-project practitioners for the high quality of their work.
Architects | Jun 24, 2021
Post-pandemic, architects need to advocate harder for project sustainability
An AIA-Oldcastle report looks closer at the coronavirus’s impact on design and construction
![Oceanographer John Englander talks resiliency and buildings [new on HorizonTV]](/sites/default/files/styles/list_big/public/Oceanographer%20John%20Englander%20Talks%20Resiliency%20and%20Buildings%20YT%20new_0.jpg?itok=enJ1TWJ8 "Oceanographer John Englander talks resiliency and buildings [new on HorizonTV]")
Resiliency | Jun 24, 2021
Oceanographer John Englander talks resiliency and buildings [new on HorizonTV]
New on HorizonTV, oceanographer John Englander discusses his latest book, which warns that, regardless of resilience efforts, sea levels will rise by meters in the coming decades. Adaptation, he says, is the key to future building design and construction.
