Jay Ford, of Shine and Rise Farms, was kind enough to bring his two baby goats by the WPA office, to the delight of everyone around. Sonny and Judy entertained the WPA staff, other tenants in the Monticello Arcade, and passersby on the street. This is why we love downtown!

See more pictures below.

The Monticello Place project continues! Based on responses to the original studies for this property, the Downtown Norfolk Council asked WPA to come up with a design for one tenant to occupy the entire ground floor and the basement. Individual vendor stalls line the storefront windows along Monticello Place providing an ever-changing scene for pedestrians walking by on this soon-to-be very active street that connects MacArthur Center mall with Granby Street and the future Urban Outfitters.

The basement becomes a multi-purpose space with stadium seating, retail areas, a performance space, and storage.

The design livens up the corner of Monticello and Market making for a more inviting conduit between the two main shopping areas in downtown. Decorative elements climb the exterior walls drawing the eyes of eager customers to the new entrance.

The PLOT construction is well underway now that the containers have arrived and been erected on site. Many thanks to Maersk Lines for coming through with some beautiful containers for this project! This was a critical first step so that the site work can get underway. It was an exciting three days of hoisting, welding, and filling the containers to be sure they are in a stable position. In addition to being an abstraction of the tower that we hope to see built on this site in the near future, these upright containers will serve as a visual anchor for the corner of the PLOT as well as the mounting location for much of the signage telling passersby that this is a place for them and how it came to be that way. Now that the containers are out of the way, the rest of the site is being graded, sawn, excavated, and replanted. There should be some great volunteer opportunities to build benches, paint planters, and plant plants starting at the beginning of May.