In our neighborhood, the last two vacant lots have been built-on in the past year, and there are multiple new subdivisions at Pantops, Rio Road, Crozet and elsewhere.
The commercial real estate business seems particularly strong. It started with Stonefield a few years ago (I'm still not a fan of this shopping center -- it's too crowded and feels like generic northern Virginia), and a current focus of construction is West Main Street.
The Flats at West Village is all out-of-proportion and too close to the street, but the cancer wing of UVa Hospital (named after Emily Couric) is the opposite: beautiful architecture and built to scale. There's a massive new hotel being built on the corner of West Main and Ridge/McIntire, and I'm worried that it might have the same overbearing effect as The Flats.
One major success has been the Bypass / Meadowcreek Parkway interchange. The landscaping there has been really nice (lots of trees and vegetation), and I like the views you get when you drive up and over McIntire Road. I'm curious to see whether the Rio / 29 North interchange will be equally successful (the lawsuit attempting to stop the project was rejected this week by Judge Moon).
This is a picture I took yesterday of the new Marriott (corner of Ridge and West Main).
I'm a little worried it's going to completely swallow Lewis & Clark.
