The Virginian-Pilot newspaper was founded in 1898 and is still the preeminent newspaper covering Hampton Roads.  The paper occupied the building until 2020 when TMC purchased the property for an adaptive reuse project.  The building sits on almost 4 acres in downtown Norfolk and is approximately 200,000 square feet. 

Entitlement was straight-forward as the zoning allowed the project by-right and the site had an abundance of parking.  However, a portion of the building was in the AE flood zone which prohibits residential construction.  To overcome this threshold issue, we worked with our civil engineering firm to creatively place a large pool and hardscaped recreation area at a portion of the building, providing a nice amenity for our tenants while also raising the elevation in the impacted areas.  FEMA agreed with this strategy and removed the building entirely from the AE flood zone allowing us to move forward with residential construction on the entire first floor. 

It was important to recognize the significance of the paper to the community, so rather than filling the historic lobby with a commercial tenant, we created a large lounge area for residents highlighting the history of the space.  We worked with Baskervill on the interior design of the space. Per Baskervill, the space was “delineated into distinct ‘departments’–coworking and lounge areas – affectionately termed ‘Copy Desk’ and ‘Lifestyle Editor’ zones.” A historic Linotype machine discovered in the building anchors one corner, and original “Virginian-Pilot” signage installed above the “stairs to nowhere” illuminates the space.