State board votes to raze 12-story portion of downtown’s Pocahontas Building for new courts complex

The Pocahontas Building’s West Tower is now planned to be demolished. (Mike Platania photos)

As it reimagines Capitol Square and all of its downtown real estate holdings, the state government is now set to tear down one of its taller buildings in the financial district. 

Last Friday the Commonwealth of Virginia received approval to demolish the 1920’s-era, 12-story West Tower of the Pocahontas Building complex at 900 E. Main St. 

That vote, along with a prior approval to raze the 60’s-era, eastern part of the property at 908 E. Main St., means the entirety of the 0.8-acre Pocahontas complex is on the chopping block to make way for the new “Commonwealth Courts Building.”

The future 300,000-square-foot structure will be the new home of the Supreme Court of Virginia and Virginia Court of Appeals.

Demolition is scheduled to begin in late 2025 or early 2026. The state is working with local architecture firm Baskervill on the design of the new courts building. look of the new courts building.

Last week’s vote was made by the Art and Architectural Review Board, a seven-person state board which makes recommendations to the governor’s office on proposed changes to state-owned properties. 

The East Tower of the building is also set to be demolished. The 8-story building was most recently the temporary home for the Virginia General Assembly.

The state’s Department of General Services, which owns and maintains the Commonwealth’s Richmond-area real estate, was directed to seek the demolition of the West Tower by the General Assembly in the recently approved state budget. 

The eastern portion of the Pocahontas complex is currently vacant and in recent years was the temporary home for the General Assembly while the governing body’s new building was under construction. 

As for the West Tower, a spokesperson for DGS said numerous structural and efficiency issues with the building were discovered during the design process last fall.

The structural issues included its existing floors being unable to support modern mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems. The efficiency issues included story heights that would have required special accommodations to connect the existing building with a new courts complex.

But not everyone was on board with the idea of demolition.

Cyane Crump, executive director of preservation nonprofit Historic Richmond, argued at last week’s meeting that the 101-year-old West Tower with its limestone façade and Ionic columns, was worth saving. 

Crump said the West Tower, along with the nearby First National Bank building at 825 E. Main St. and the recently redeveloped Mutual Building, mark Richmond’s transformation into a modern metropolis and banking center in the early 20th century. 

“These early skyscrapers not only make a significant contribution to Richmond’s architectural legacy, but also have proved eminently adaptable in recent years for modern office environments and as residential and hotel properties,” Crump told the AARB. “We believe this building also is suitable for rehabilitation and adaptive reuse.”

Crump also bemoaned a lack of public engagement around the decision to raze the building and said Historic Richmond would like to see the state more actively partner with the community and city in reshaping downtown. She pointed to the site of the former Virginia Employment Commission building at 703 E. Main St., where the state had previously been planning to build a 13-story office tower to house various state agencies, but those plans have been scrapped and the site is now a vacant gravel lot. 

“This area is already a sea of parking lots and underutilized space,” Crump said. “This pattern of demolition, de-densification and suburbanization by the state around Capitol Square is the giant sucking sound of life, people, jobs and prosperity being pulled out of downtown Richmond.”

Mary Ann Petry, DGS’s senior project manager overseeing the Commonwealth Courts Building project, said that the West Tower site will not become a parking lot. 

The AARB ultimately voted to approve DGS’ demolition request. Anne Smith, a member of the Virginia Museum of Fine Art’s Board of Trustees who also sits on the AARB, said of the West Tower, “It is beautiful, it’s just sad that it’s in the wrong place.”

The state recently began master planning the 46-acre Capitol Square district in the heart of downtown Richmond. (Courtesy SkyShots Photography)

The change of plans for the West Tower are the latest in the state’s yearlong process to reimagine its downtown real estate needs. 

Last year it began the process of master planning the 46-acre Capitol Square area, and the fate of many buildings in that area remains unclear, including the Department of Transportation headquarters at 1401 E. Broad St. Earlier this year VDOT bought a sizable office building in Hanover County, though the agency did not comment on what its plans for it are. 

The AARB meeting was held at the 26-story Monroe Building at 101 N. 14th St., whose own fate remains unclear. 

The latest state budget also included language that directs DGS to study both the former VEC parcel at 703 E. Main St. and VDOT building at 1401 E. Broad St. “for potential development of a new state employee office building.” That study is due to be reported the Senate and House Appropriations Committees by Nov. 1 of this year.

DGS is taking all this on under the tutelage of a new director, Banci Tewolde, who was appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in late June. Banci, whose background includes stints at the Virginia Department of Planning and Budget, Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Virginia Attorney General’s office, succeeds Joe Damico, who retired last year after over 20 years with DGS. 

Also approved at AARB’s meeting last week was VCU’s planned Center for Arts and Innovation that’s set to rise at the corner of Broad and Belvidere streets. Demolition for the $253 million project began in the spring. 

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