ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606090026
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
THE LATEST announcement of redevelopment plans in downtown Roanoke adds steam to efforts to make the Roanoke Valley a tourist draw by preserving and showcasing its rich natural and cultural assets.
The trick is to develop projects that people will be willing to travel to visit, and at the same time enhance rather than detract from the quality of life for the region's residents. Norfolk Southern Corp.'s generous gift of its old railroad freight station and Shenandoah Division office building to the Virginia Museum of Transportation fits nicely with this vision.
Among the principal lures of the Roanoke Valley are its beautiful natural landscape and its lively, clean and safe downtown - which mostly means the City Market area and Center in the Square.
Roanoke's recent unveiling of plans for the first phase of Railwalk, a raised pedestrian walkway that will be built from Market Street west to the Transportation Museum, was one step toward a strategy to expand on the Market's success and cultivate another asset - the city's rail history.
The museum, which has occupied part of the old freight station for a decade, already has many interesting exhibits that draw busloads of schoolchildren. The promise of Railwalk is that it will bring more people from the Market who might otherwise be unaware there is much to see beyond the Market Square.
Norfolk Southern's gift helps ensure that the museum not only will be worth a visit, but worth visiting from time to time. With ownership of the building and three acres of land, the museum can proceed with plans to expand its exhibit space and remodel, adding a diner and outdoor dining area, an observation tower and more train sheds. Design of a new front entrance - with a locomotive jutting out of the building - sounds like a sure attraction.
We'd also like to see a major model-train exhibit showcasing the history of rail in Virginia. That would be a draw as well, and there is surely space for it now.
Linking various pieces of the city's past and present in such pleasing ways can create a synergy generating more excitement and interest in the whole than any one part could. Greenways and walkways connecting attractions can help. Henry Street, just across the First Street bridge, would add greatly to the appeal if some way could be found to make it vital again as a commercial and entertainment district.
And the city could further exploit Roanoke's history as a railroad town with other NS buildings that loom large on the city's physical and historical landscape. City officials need to move on developing a plan for the old Norfolk and Western General Office Buildings and passenger train station. The latter was designed by renowned industrial designer Raymond Loewy, and all of the buildings are architectural beauties from the days when Norfolk Southern's precursor was headquartered in Roanoke.
The city's downtown is charming, but still just a dim glow of what it can be when more of its treasures are burnished to reveal the richness of Roanoke's story.
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