A View from the Top No Longer Available

by Daniel Payne 07.2024

For roughly five decades Richmonders had enjoyed free and open access to the City Hall Observation Deck, one of our beautiful city’s great public amenities and a testament to the simple civic appeal that a local government can create with minimal investment.

Visitors to the 18th-floor observation deck were given a 360-degree panoramic view of downtown Richmond. One could see far into the West End, or across the Leigh Street Viaduct toward Fairmount and Mosby, past Church Hill and toward the oddly majestic landfills beyond Fulton Hill. Or one could pivot northwest to get a bird’s eye view of the low-slung streetcar suburbs of the early twentieth century.

For half a century no other public space in Richmond had provided such a breathtaking view of the expanse of the city, offering what one writer described as “a nonmedicinal high” and “a way to see Richmond as the pigeons do.”

That era appears to be over. The city shuttered public access to the observation deck around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and has not reopened it since. In May, city officials confirmed that the city government has no plans to reopen the observation deck to visitors. It will “remain unavailable to the public due to changes to the building's security protocols,” the Times-Dispatch reported, in part because of the 2019 mass shooting at a Virginia Beach municipal building.

But City Hall already requires all visitors to pass through a thorough security checkpoint when they enter the building, complete with a metal detector and armed guards. Surely this “protocol” is itself more than enough to satisfy the building’s security needs.

It’s worth stressing that the closure of the observation deck is not merely an annoyance or a modest disappointment, but rather the loss of a city feature that has been a source of pleasure and modest civic pride for fifty years. The deck has given Richmond citizens and visitors alike a view that no other public facility has ever offered. 

The facility was previously touted as a favorite spot of picnickers, who would haul up an al fresco lunch to eat on one of the picnic tables placed around the concourse. Richmond had even allowed the space to be used for wedding receptions. (“No equipment or catering furnished,” the city drily noted in a 1995 advertisement.)

The aesthetic and practical value of the deck shouldn’t be understated. Yet there is another, more vital and timely lesson here: the City Hall Observation Deck reminds us that our local leaders do not need to spend billions of dollars to create a city of beauty and appeal.

Parks, museums, robust public transport, well-maintained infrastructure, and—yes!—simple observation decks: These are things of lasting value that distinguish Richmond as a unique and congenial American city, certainly more so than boondoggle vanity projects that cost too much and do too little, if anything at all.

Other cities have similar attractions that are still open to the public: The Los Angeles City Hall allows visitors free access to its sky-high observation deck, as does the city hall in Buffalo. Surely if these cities have figured out a way to allow the public into government buildings while maintaining proper security, Richmond can too. Our city shouldn’t lose the observation deck; it’s simply a wonderful place to go and see the city from a different perspective—panoramic views “just too good to leave to the pigeons.”