Designed by architects Robert Winstead and Peter O’Shea, the Charlottesville Community Chalkboard and Podium is an interactive monument celebrating free expression and was designed to honor the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, August 4, 2009 - The 54-foot Community Chalkboard and Podium monument, located in front of the Charlottesville City Hall and adjacent to the civic amphitheatre in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been honored with two design awards for architectural excellence – a 2009 Silver Medal Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence and a 2009 Inform Honor Award from the Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA). Designed by architect Robert Winstead of SHW Group and landscape architect Pete O’ Shea of Siteworks, LLC, the interactive monument celebrates free expression and was built to honor the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Creating a tangible and enduring embodiment of the concept of free expression, the monument consists primarily of a two-sided wall of Buckingham slate, approximately 54 feet long (108′ of writing space) by 7.5 feet high, on which members of the public may express their views, in chalk, on any subject they choose. Permanently inscribed on one segment of the wall is the text of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. On the immediate opposite side is the following quote by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall:
“Above all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content. To permit the continued building of our politics and culture, and to assure self-fulfillment for each individual, our people are guaranteed the right to express any thought, free from government censorship.”
In addition, the monument’s design includes a podium intended to serve as a contemporary soapbox from which individuals may address both planned and impromptu public gatherings. Inscribed on the surface of the podium is the following quote by poet John Milton:
“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
With the completion of the monument in April 2006, the entire area outside Charlottesville City Hall became a First Amendment plaza unique among the cities of the United States – the “chalkboard” for written and artistic expression, the platform for verbal expression, and the amphitheater for musical expression.
“The monument’s greatest strength lies in the fact that it is both a fixed symbol of the right of free expression and a venue for the exercise of that right,” said Robert Winstead, AIA, LEED-AP, lead architect for the Charlottesville Community Chalkboard and Podium and design principal of SHW Group, one of the largest educational architecture firms in the U.S. “Individuals use the chalkboard to express ideas both political and whimsical, to respond to ideas already on the wall, to convey messages to members of city government, and to create temporary works of art.”
As with all chalkboards, what is written the monument’s chalkboard is constantly changing. The monument’s slate is cleaned in its entirety twice a week on a regularly scheduled basis. Private citizens may also clean all or part of the slate at anytime. Such cleaning does not implicate the First Amendment because it is not government action.
ABOUT THE RUDY BRUNER AWARD FOR URBAN EXCELLENCE
The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence is a national award for urban places that seeks to promote fresh and innovative thinking about cities and the urban built environment. Established in 1987, the Rudy Bruner Award celebrates urban places that are distinguished by quality design and by their social, economic, and environmental contributions to our nation’s cities. For more information, please visit www.brunerfoundation.org.
ABOUT THE VIRGINIA SOCIETY AIA
The American Institute of Architects is a professional society with component organizations at the national, state and local levels. The Virginia Society is a state component of the AIA, focused on delivering value to architects with statewide impact. Since 1914, the Virginia AIA has represented the professional interests of architects and allied professionals in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Society works in collaboration with five local chapters – Blue Ridge, Central Virginia, Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia, and Richmond. These six components join with West Virginia in forming the Region of the Virginia to elect a representative director to the national AIA board. Together with the national component and components across the country, we form one AIA. For more information, please visit www.virginiaarchitecture.org.
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Media Contact: Claire Bloxom
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