Mitchell Row, 307-311 N Sycamore Street

Building Documentation & Scanning
Historic Building Renovation
Historic Research
Historic Tax Credit Consulting

Mitchell Row, 307-311 N Sycamore Street

Location

Petersburg, VA

Partners

The Yellow Room, Inc.

Virginia Department of Historic Resources

National Park Service

Project Goals

Mitchell Row is a collection of three c1815 commercial buildings, which were in a nearly unsalvageable state at the start of the project due to prolonged deferred maintenance and neglect.

The buildings needed to be stabilized and fully rehabilitated to take them from the verge of collapse to reactivated usable spaces.

Project Design

A delicate balance had to be struck when designing the modern stair tower, as it needed to fit in with the scale and massing of the project buildings, while also reading as a clearly modern feature.

Close coordination with DHR during the design process resulted in a new feature that met the aesthetic goals of the tax credit program while also achieving the functional requirements of the owner.

Challenges & Accomplishments

The project included rehabilitating the first floor storefronts as well as inserting office space into upper floors.

Due to the poor condition of the three buildings at the start of the project, there was flexibility regarding plan changes that allowed the three buildings to be internally combined by a new central corridor. In addition, a modern elevator tower was constructed on an adjacent vacant lot to provide code compliant access to all floors.