Three-minute video of my proposal to convert the Landmark building into a vertical garden, delivered before Charlottesville City Council on July 21, 2014


above, the perpetually-unfinished Landmark Hotel
below, my rendering of the building as a vertical garden


The Landmark as Vertical Garden, 2014.
Acrylic painting on canvas, 30 x 20"
Price on request


guide to the above image


11 x 17" offset litho posters of the concept, made to disseminate the idea

The Landmark as Vertical Garden/ Farm
a proposal by Russell U. Richards

By 2050, the world’s population is projected to top off at about nine billion people, over half of whom will live in cities- yet the crops that sustain us have traditionally been grown in rural areas. Transport of food and agricultural products is a major source of carbon pollution, expansion of farmland contributes to deforestation, and the pesticides and fertilizers necessary to grow crops outdoors contaminate the soil and water.

Vertical farms were first proposed by Dickson Despommier, a professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University, as a means of growing and distributing food in the same cities where it will be consumed. Because it is a contained environment, a vertical farm would be unaffected by pests and extremes in weather. This model eliminates the need for shipping, clearcutting and pesticides, yielding sustainable crops year-round. The idea has caught on among architects, city planners and engineers, and many such projects are in the works all over the world now. In fact, vertical farms may be the only feasible way to feed a future population of nine billion people.

Should the current owners of the Landmark Hotel default on their commitment to finish it, I propose that we repurpose the building as a vertical farm. Imagine the possibilities: it could be a source of fresh food for the community, grown right in the heart of Charlottesville. Classes on farming and gardening could be held there. People could sign up for their own plots to cultivate. It could be a habitat for birds and pollinating insects like bees. And it’d be setting a great example what could be done with an abandoned structure- just imagine looking up at the thing and seeing a building covered with flowering plants and vines!

For further reading I recommend The Vertical Farm by Dickson Despommier.