Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 3, 1993 TAG: 9304030207
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARION LENGTH: Medium
I-81 NEEDS HELP, ARCHITECT SAYS
A Roanoke landscape architect says Interstate 81 is influencing the area of Virginia it passes through more than any structure since the coming of the railroads 150 years ago.But localities along the superhighway have not taken full advantage of its potential, according to David P. Hill, who runs Hill Studios, a Roanoke-based architectural and landscape company.
Interstate 81 is pretty much the "host road" for Virginia, Hill told members of the Mount Rogers Planning District Commission at their 25th annual spring meeting Thursday night at Hemlock Haven. "It's our responsibility to see how we can preserve and even enhance that in the future."
It can be done by integrating the design of buildings that have grown up around the highway's interchanges, he said. Because much of the construction occurred two decades ago and is ripe for rebuilding, he said this is a good time to work on an imposed beautification pattern so each locality can show itself off without seeming tacky.
"Even if they're just passing through, we have the attention of visitors for at least eight hours," he said.
And few drivers are going to continue traveling that long without a break. "If you're driving the interstate, you're going to get off somewhere," he said.
But the hodgepodge of signs trying to lure travelers can be placed more strategically in some areas due to terrain and other factors, he said. "There is not a level playing field."
The sign advertising the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store in Waynesboro is so high that it can be seen 16 miles away on Afton Mountain, he said. But, even at 120 feet, it can hardly be seen by travelers close to it on the interstate.
The 70 towns and 14 cities along the highway need to coordinate what they show travelers in the same way the low country of South Carolina has done, he said.
"We have a lot more beautiful places to begin with, and we have a lot more history than they do," he said, but it gets lost in an uncoordinated mass of signs.
Using slides showing similarities in the appearance of interchanges in Cloverdale, Christiansburg and New Market, he said, "they all look the same." That's too bad, he said, because each town has its own identity.
Hill's slide presentation on the highway, fully scripted, is available for loan from the Planning Commission offices on Terrace Drive in Marion. For more information, call 703-783-5103.