Appomattox Downtown Revitalization
Appomattox, VA
The Town of Appomattox, located in the Piedmont area of central Virginia, is a small locale just west of the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains. Though its population remains small, its location remains adjacent to numerous points of interest throughout Virginia, from the Blue Ridge Parkway to Colonial Williamsburg. To improve visitors’ and residents’ overall experience, the Town of Appomattox worked alongside Summit to revitalize its historic downtown. The initiative involved the coordination and cooperation of several service departments within the Summit’s sphere, including Planning, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Grant Management.
Preserving the Town’s local character was one of this project’s primary goals. Because of this, our Planning department conducted community outreach to get to know and understand the needs and desires of residents in Appomattox. Following this outreach, the Planning department assisted in developing an Economic Restructuring Plan and Blight Elimination Plan. Our team was also tasked with assessing the existing conditions of the current building facades and amenities.
Finally, they assisted the Town in compiling and submitting a CDBG grant application, for which the Town was awarded $700,000 towards this effort. The Planning Department is now collaborating with the Town to administer the project’s goals, including building façade and streetscape improvements.
Did you know? Summit’s planning department can help your municipality win grants and manage project funds. Learn more about project planning grants, such as Community Development Block Grants, from our blog!
When tasked with designing improvements to Appomattox’s downtown, the focus became providing residents and visitors with a more enjoyable downtown experience. To this end, Summit’s landscape architecture team designed several streetscape improvements for the Town, paying particular attention to its historic character.
The department selected building materials vital to the Town’s history, prioritizing the preservation of Appomattox’s nature. Design solutions included sidewalk pocket parks with seating, historically appropriate sidewalk lighting, gateway signage, and additional accessibility infrastructure.
After their impressive work with the Appomattox Downtown Revitalization renders, the Town of Appomattox retained Summit Design and Engineering Services to continue work on the project. As a result, Summit produced a Streetscape Study and provided Landscape Architectural Design Services to the Town, including plans, specifications, and engineering drawings for installing new Gateway Signage.
Also included were new “small plaza” sitting areas at various locations; decorative pedestrian streetlights on Main Street and adjacent streets; improvements of alley streets (Harrell Street) with streetscape elements (new bulb-outs with street trees and pedestrian light poles); and on-street parking in the historic part of Downtown area. Finally, our team created renders depicting the widening of sidewalks on Church Street, which would enhance pedestrian movement without compromising the small-town ambiance.
Learn more about our landscape architecture department’s contributions to projects like the Appomattox Downtown Revitalization from our landscape architecture department overview!
