By Missy Schrott | mschrott@alextimes.com
Partners for Livable Communities, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, presented the City of Alexandria Archaeology and developer EYA, LLC with the Culture Builds Community Award for their partnership preserving Alexandria’s historic waterfront.
The national award recognizes projects that foster community engagement “using the arts and heritage as building blocks for community value and participation,” according to an EYA news release.
EYA and Alexandria Archaeology embodied these principles while developing Robinson Landing, a new condo and townhouse complex on South Union Street. During excavations, EYA uncovered three 18th-century ships that had been used as fill to help create the Alexandria waterfront.
Recognizing the historic importance of the site, the two organizations and EYA contractor WSSI Thunderbird Archaeology worked to investigate, document and preserve their finds. EYA funded a team of archaeologists to excavate the site over an 18-month period, the effort resulting in the discovery of more than 150 individual features and more than 100,000 artifacts, according to the release.
EYA also coordinated public viewings of the site during excavations and plans to gift all of the artifacts, including the three ships, to the city to study and eventually exhibit.
“For more than 40 years, Partners has been the leading force in defining what livability means in communities throughout the U.S., so we are truly honored to receive this recognition for our archaeological work at Robinson Landing,” Evan Goldman, EYA senior vice president of land acquisition and development, said.
