Brick runs beneath you along the Downtown Mall on Main Street in Charlottesville, Virginia. This long, brick-and-concrete pedestrian mall is one of the longest in the United States, stretching eight blocks from 6th St. N.E. to Old Preston Ave., where it extends to Water St. Around you are an array of restaurants, shops, offices and art galleries, and several side streets here are likewise paved in brick and closed to traffic. On Fridays in the spring, summer and fall the Mall hosts Fridays After Five, a weekly concert series that brings music to this open, civic room.
At the east end stands the Ting Pavilion, an outdoor concert venue; at the west end you will find the Omni Hotel. The block also houses the Paramount Theater and the historic Jefferson Theater. The Mall you are walking was shaped in 1976 when East Main Street was converted into a pedestrian mall designed by Lawrence Halprin.
A comprehensive rehabilitation was planned in 2007; construction on the Mall Renovation began on Sunday, January 7, 2009 and was completed that summer. The Mall's history also includes the 2017 Charlottesville car attack, in which a car was deliberately rammed into a crowd during a peaceful protest. Notice the brick underfoot, then glance east toward the Ting Pavilion and west toward the Omni Hotel.