To me the Greater Richmond Convention Center has always been architectural and human dead-space. It is architecturally cold and unappealing, and hugely, in an out-of-place sort of way, looming over Broad Street (“Empty Promises,” Cover Story, Feb. 28). It’s human dead-space because it does not entice visitors to come and venture into Richmond by its very design and monstrosity.
There are no outside shops or no-driving zones where pedestrians can mingle and sit outside enjoying the scenery or a beer. Visitors can walk along a very uninteresting sidewalk and enjoy the screech from speeding vehicles and their boomboxes. That is it. I would immediately get in my car and go somewhere else.
Actually, I have never been inside the convention center and never, ever had any desire to visit despite driving by it almost daily. It’s just a boring thoroughfare along Marshall on my way to work. Thanks, Richmond!
Andrea Steegmayer