Regional Developments

New Multi-Generational Recreation Facility Planned

New recreational opportunities are on the way for the Roanoke Region. Roanoke County officials broke ground June 10 on the Roanoke Valley’s first multi-generational recreation center. When completed in late 2009, the facility will be located at the intersection of Valleypointe Parkway and Woodhaven Road near Interstate-81. The $30 million facility will provide recreational opportunities, programs and meeting space for the community.

Roanoke County’s multi-gen center will meet the needs of persons of all ages, abilities and incomes.  The design of Roanoke County’s facility was developed by First Choice Public Private Partners, LLC under the guidelines of the Public Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act (PPEA).  It will feature two gymnasiums, three multi-purpose program rooms, two aerobic/dance rooms, an indoor walking track, fitness area, 1/8 mile indoor walking track, teen game room, aquatic birthday party room, an indoor family leisure pool, and outdoor family leisure pool with a small lazy river, slides, and water playground.

The 96,000-square-foot multi-gen center will serve as the anchor for a new signature business park owned and operated by English Construction.  The entire complex is strategically located at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 581 and will provide easy access for county citizens and prospective businesses alike.  In addition, the recreation center will serve as an attraction for sports marketing – both in the facilities it will make available for national tournaments and in the opportunities for leisure it will offer to visitors.

Art Museum of Western Virginia is Now the Taubman Museum of Art

The Art Museum of Western Virginia has unveiled a new distinctive logo that will represent the institution from this point forward.  The institution also changed its name to the Taubman Museum of Art, in recognition of the remarkable gift made to support the Art Museum by U.S. Ambassador Nicholas F. and Mrs. Eugenia L. Taubman.

The logo for the Taubman Museum of Art reflects the strong flow of the new museum through the visualization of the atrium peak as well as the symbolic emergence of the mountains.  The logo incorporates a steel grey color representing the stainless steel material used in the structure and a zinc patina color representing the zinc material used throughout the building.  The typography used in the logo conveys that the brand is clean, well organized and efficient.  The logo evokes an overall elegant, bold and timeless feel. 

 “The new logo acknowledges our region and history, while at the same time reflecting the dynamic institution that the Taubman Museum of Art will be,” said Georganne Bingham, executive director of the museum.  “It is modern and understated, stable yet energetic.  We are thrilled to begin using it.”

The museum also announced that the new building’s dramatic atrium will be named in honor of the City of Roanoke’s $4 million and land contribution to the capital project.   The Board of Trustees presented a resolution to Roanoke Mayor C. Nelson Harris.

Construction for the new museum is on schedule.  The building’s interior is more than 90% complete and the exterior is nearly 95% complete.  Installation of the zinc panels on the north elevation is finished.  Floors are being installed throughout the building.  The travertine marble floor is being installed in the first floor auditorium and atrium, and maple flooring is being installed and finished in the second floor gallery spaces and central hall.  Drywall installation continues in certain first floor spaces including the café and coatroom.  Painting continues throughout the building and is nearly complete on the second floor.  The second floor luminous ceiling has been installed in American art galleries A and B.

The Art Museum, located in downtown Roanoke, features nineteenth and twentieth century American art, decorative arts, modern and contemporary art, and works on paper, and presents exhibitions of both regional and national significance.  Tours, gallery talks, family days, special events, classes, and camps are part of the Art Museum’s regular programming.  The Art Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums (AAM).

Scheduled to open to the public in the fall of 2008, the new Taubman Museum of Art building will be a dramatic composition of flowing, layered forms in steel, patinated zinc and high-performance glass paying sculptural tribute to the famous Blue Ridge Mountains that
provide Roanoke’s backdrop and shape the region’s spirit.  The 81,000 square foot structure designed by Los Angeles architect Randall Stout will be the first purpose-built art museum ever constructed in Roanoke.  The new facility will house significantly larger exhibition and education spaces, a flexible theater/programming space, a multi-purpose auditorium, a research library, a book and gift shop, a studio classroom, a works on paper study room, and a café with indoor and outdoor seating.  All exhibition and education spaces will be wired to provide real-time, interactive distance learning experiences via high speed network to classrooms across the region and the state.