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Preservationists rally around building
Group protests proposal to demolish the Murphy Hotel at Eighth and Broad streets
BY DAVID RESS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Thursday, March 2, 2006
About three dozen preservationists gathered yesterday to protest a proposed amendment to the state budget to demolish the Murphy Hotel, once used as state offices.
The group, organized by the Association for the Conservation of Old Richmond Neighborhoods and joined by Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, called on Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to leave the landmark at Eighth and East Broad streets alone.
The group was protesting a state Senate budget amendment for $16.8 million to demolish the building. The money would also cover working drawings for renovation of the former Hotel Richmond, now the state's Ninth Street Office Building, and for a new building on Broad Street between Eighth and Ninth Streets, which would include the Murphy Hotel site. The two projects would cost $139.6 million to complete, the budget amendment said.
The House of Delegates version of the proposed budget does not include money for demolition of the Murphy Hotel. Any differences between the two chambers' budgets when they're finally adopted must be worked out in conference committee and voted on by both houses. The governor has the power to veto any budget items.
Wilder has proposed using the Murphy Hotel to house a campus and dormitory for law school and college students.
But it would be up to the governor and state legislature to decide if they want to turn the building over to the city.
The state Department of General Services has presented four options to the legislature for the Murphy and Richmond hotels, including renovating both and demolishing both.
Department director Richard F. Sliwoski has recommended to Kaine that the state build new offices and a parking deck on Broad Street between Eighth and Ninth streets, including the site of the Murphy Hotel and possibly retaining the Murphy's facade. Doing that would add $10 million to the project, he said.
Sliwoski said the state needs 350,000 square feet of office space and there is no other way to do it other than building a 20-story skyscraper at Ninth and Broad streets.
Contact staff writer David Ress at dress@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6051.