Richmond's strategic location on the
James River, built on undulating hills at the rocky
fall line separating the
Piedmont and
Tidewater regions
of Virginia, provided a natural nexus for the development of commerce.
Throughout these three centuries and three modes of transportation, the
downtown has always been a hub, with the Great Turning Basin for boats,
the world's only triple crossing of rail lines, and the intersection of
two major interstates.
Law and finance have long been driving forces in the economy.
[88] The city is home to both the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, one of 13
United States courts of appeals, and the
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, one of 12
Federal Reserve Banks, as well as offices for international companies such as
Genworth Financial,
CapitalOne,
Philip Morris USA, and numerous other banks and brokerages. Richmond is also home to four of the largest law firms in the United States:
Hunton & Williams,
McGuireWoods,
Williams Mullen, and
LeClairRyan. Another law firm with a major Richmond presence is
Troutman Sanders, which merged with Richmond-based Mays & Valentine LLP in 2001.
Since the 1960s Richmond has been a prominent hub for advertising agencies and advertising related businesses, including
The Martin Agency, named 2009 U.S. Agency of the Year by AdWeek. As a result of local advertising agency support,
VCU's graduate advertising school (VCU Brandcenter) is consistently ranked the No. 1 advertising graduate program in the country.
[89]
Richmond is home to the rapidly developing Virginia BioTechnology Research Park,
[90]
which opened in 1995 as an incubator facility for biotechnology and
pharmaceutical companies. Located adjacent to the Medical College of
Virginia (MCV) Campus of
Virginia Commonwealth University, the park currently
[when?] has more than 575,000 square feet (53,400 m
2)
of research, laboratory and office space for a diverse tenant mix of
companies, research institutes, government laboratories and non-profit
organizations. The
United Network for Organ Sharing, which maintains the nation's
organ transplant waiting list, occupies one building in the park.
Philip Morris USA
opened a $350 million research and development facility in the park in
2007. Once fully developed, park officials expect the site to employ
roughly 3,000 scientists, technicians and engineers.
Richmond's revitalized downtown includes the Canal Walk, a new Greater Richmond Convention Center, and expansion on both
VCU campuses. A new performing arts center,
Richmond CenterStage,
[91] opened on September 12, 2009.
[92]
The complex included a renovation of the Carpenter Center and
construction of a new multipurpose hall, community playhouse, and arts
education center in parts of the old Thalhimers department store.
[93]
Richmond is also fast-becoming known for its food scene, with several
restaurants in the Fan, Church Hill, Jackson Ward and elsewhere around
the city generating regional and national attention for their fare.
Departures magazine named Richmond "The Next Great American Food City" in August 2014.
[94][95] Also in 2014,
Southern Living
magazine named three Richmond restaurants – Comfort, Heritage and The
Roosevelt – among its "100 Best Restaurants in the South",
[96] while Metzger Bar & Butchery made its "Best New Restaurants: 12 To Watch" list.
[97] Craft beer and
liquor
production is also growing in the River City, with twelve
micro-breweries in city proper; the oldest is Legend Brewery, founded in
1994. Three
distilleries,
Reservoir Distillery, Belle Isle Craft Spirits and James River
Distillery, were established in 2010, 2013 and 2014, respectively.
Additionally, Richmond is gaining attention from the film and
television industry, with several high-profile films shot in the metro
region in the past few years, including the major motion picture
Lincoln which led to
Daniel Day-Lewis's third Oscar,
Killing Kennedy with
Rob Lowe, airing on the
National Geographic Channel and
Turn, starring
Jamie Bell and airing on
AMC. In 2015 Richmond will be the main filming location for the upcoming
PBS drama series
Mercy Street,
which will premiere in Winter 2016. Several organizations, including
the Virginia Film Office and the Virginia Production Alliance, along
with events like the Richmond International Film Festival and French
Film Festival, continue to put draw supporters of film and media to the
region.
Fortune 500 companies and other large corporations
Six
Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the Richmond area
The Greater Richmond area was named the third-best city for business by
MarketWatch in September 2007, ranking behind only the Minneapolis and Denver areas and just above Boston. The area is home to six
Fortune 500 companies: electric utility
Dominion Resources;
CarMax;
Owens & Minor;
Genworth Financial;
WestRock Company;
McKesson Medical-Surgical,
Markel Corporation, and
Altria Group.
[8]
However, only Dominion Resources and WestRock Company are headquartered
within the city of Richmond; the others are located in the neighboring
counties of
Henrico and
Hanover.
In 2008, Altria moved its corporate HQ from New York City to Henrico
County, adding another Fortune 500 corporation to Richmond's list. In
February 2006,
MeadWestvaco announced that they would move from
Stamford, Connecticut, to Richmond in 2008 with the help of the Greater Richmond Partnership,
[98] a regional economic development organization that also helped locate
Aditya Birla Minacs,
[99] Amazon.com,
[100] and
Honeywell International,
[101] to the region. In July 2015, MeadWestvaco merged with Georgia-based Rock-Tenn Company creating WestRock Company.
Other
Fortune 500 companies, while not headquartered in the area, do have a major presence. These include
SunTrust Bank (based in
Atlanta),
Capital One Financial Corporation (officially based in
McLean, Virginia,
but founded in Richmond with its operations center and most employees
in the Richmond area), and the medical and pharmaceutical giant
McKesson
(based in San Francisco). Capital One and Altria company's Philip
Morris USA are two of the largest private Richmond-area employers.
DuPont maintains a production facility in South Richmond known as the Spruance Plant.
UPS Freight, the less-than-truckload division of
UPS and formerly known as
Overnite Transportation, has its corporate headquarters in Richmond.
Other companies based in Richmond include chemical company
NewMarket;
Brink's, a security and armored car company;
Estes Express Lines, a freight carrier,
Universal Corporation, a tobacco merchant;
Cavalier Telephone, now Windstream, a telephone, internet, and digital television provider formed in Richmond in 1998;
Cherry Bekaert & Holland, a top 30 accounting firm serving the
Southeast; the law firm of
McGuireWoods; and
Media General, a company specializing in broadcast media.
Arts and culture
Museums and monuments
Several of the city's large general museums are located near the Boulevard. On Boulevard proper are the
Virginia Historical Society and the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, lending their name to what is sometimes called the Museum District. Nearby on Broad Street is the
Science Museum of Virginia, housed in the
neoclassical former 1919 Broad Street Union Station. Immediately adjacent is the
Children's Museum of Richmond, and two blocks away, the
Virginia Center for Architecture. Within the downtown are the
Library of Virginia and the
Valentine Richmond History Center. Elsewhere are the
Virginia Holocaust Museum and the
Old Dominion Railway Museum.
As the primary former Capital of the Confederate States of America,
Richmond is home to many museums and battlefields of the American Civil
War. Near the riverfront is the
Richmond National Battlefield Park Visitors Center and the
American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, both housed in the former buildings of the
Tredegar Iron Works, where much of the ordnance for the war was produced. In
Court End, near the
Virginia State Capitol, is the
Museum of the Confederacy,
along with the Davis Mansion, also known as the White House of the
Confederacy; both feature a wide variety of objects and material from
the era. The temporary home of former Confederate General Robert E. Lee
still stands on Franklin Street in downtown Richmond. The history of
slavery and emancipation are also increasingly represented: there is a
former slave trail along the river that leads to Ancarrow's Boat Ramp
and Historic Site which has been developed with interpretive signage,
and in 2007, the Reconciliation Statue was placed in Shockoe Bottom,
with parallel statues placed in
Liverpool and
Benin representing points of the
Triangle Trade.
Other historical points of interest include
St. John's Church, the site of
Patrick Henry's famous "
Give me liberty or give me death" speech, and the
Edgar Allan Poe Museum,
features many of his writings and other artifacts of his life,
particularly when he lived in the city as a child, a student, and a
successful writer. The
John Marshall House, the home of the former
Chief Justice of the United States, is also located downtown and features many of his writings and objects from his life.
Hollywood Cemetery is the burial grounds of two
U.S. Presidents as well as many Civil War officers and soldiers.
The city is home to many monuments and memorials, most notably those along
Monument Avenue. Other monuments include the
A.P. Hill monument, the
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson monument in Jackson Ward, the
Christopher Columbus monument near Byrd Park, and the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Libby Hill. Located near Byrd Park is the famous
World War I Memorial Carillon, a 56-bell
carillon tower. Dedicated in 1956, the
Virginia War Memorial is located on Belvedere overlooking the river, and is a monument to Virginians who died in battle in World War II, the
Korean War, the
Vietnam War, the
Gulf War, the
War in Afghanistan, and the
Iraq War.
Agecroft Hall is a
Tudor manor house and estate located on the James River in the
Windsor Farms
neighborhood of Richmond. The manor house was built in the late 15th
century, and was originally located in the Agecroft area of
Pendlebury, in the
historic county of
Lancashire in
England.
Visual and performing arts
Richmond
has a significant arts community, some of which is contained in formal
public-supported venues, and some of which is more
DIY,
such as local privately owned galleries, and private music venues,
nonprofit arts organizations, or organic and venueless arts movements
(e.g., house shows,
busking,
itinerant folk shows). This has led to tensions, as the city Richmond
City levied an "admissions tax" to fund large arts projects like
CentreStage, leading to criticism that it is funding civic initiatives on the backs of the organic local culture.
[102] Traditional Virginian folk music, including
blues,
country, and
bluegrass
are also notably present, and play a large part in the annual Richmond
Folk Festival. The following is a list of the more formal arts
establishments (Companies, theaters, galleries, and other large venues)
in Richmond. Richmond is also the home and birthplace of famous metal
act
GWAR.
This is a fact members of the band consistently allude to with pride.
GWAR is run by an art collective known as Slavepit Incorporated, which
has over the years involved hundreds of Richmond locals.
[103]
