{"id":358174,"date":"2025-12-19T14:27:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T14:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/358174\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T14:27:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T14:27:18","slug":"an-unparalleled-raconteur-richmond-architects-preservationists-remember-eddie-slipek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/358174\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018An unparalleled raconteur\u2019: Richmond architects, preservationists remember Eddie Slipek"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Ed<\/a><\/p>\n

Ed Slipek teaching a class for Historic Richmond. The longtime architectural historian and critic died Monday after a brief illness. (Photo courtesy Historic Richmond)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the asphalt could speak, it\u2019d remind us that this eastward sloping hillside was once a densely populated, mixed-use caldron of human activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

So wrote<\/a> Edwin \u201cEddie\u201d Slipek, in his signature eloquence, of the lost Council Chamber Hill neighborhood \u2013 an area just east of modern-day Capitol Square \u2013 in one of the dozens of guest commentaries and architectural reviews he contributed to Richmond BizSense since 2021.<\/p>\n

In those years and over decades prior to that, for publications such as Style Weekly and Richmond Mercury, Slipek gave voice to innumerable stories behind the buildings and places that make up Richmond, establishing along the way his earned reputation as an expert in architectural history \u2013 and in conveying that history in his writings and lectures.<\/p>\n

A native Richmonder and VCU alum, Slipek, who died Monday<\/a> at age 75, wrote scores of architectural reviews and critiques over the years, and led classes and seminars at his alma mater\u2019s arts school, at Maggie Walker Governor\u2019s School and for Historic Richmond, the preservation nonprofit that he served occasionally as a board member and where in recent years he kept an office.<\/p>\n

Cyane Crump, Historic Richmond\u2019s executive director, called Slipek\u2019s storytelling \u201cengaging and accessible\u201d and his contributions to the city \u201cimmense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was an unparalleled raconteur who could tell a story that was the hidden story behind the traditional history that you may have heard about a place\u2026which really helped you understand why places looked the way they do today and who the people were who helped shape the way they look today,\u201d Crump said.<\/p>\n

Slipek\u2019s journey into journalism and architectural history started in Ginter Park, where he grew up in a house on Seminary Avenue and attended John Marshall High School before studying at Boston University. He returned to Richmond to study architecture and art history at VCU, where he was also the head editor of the Commonwealth Times student newspaper, and went on to write for the Richmond Mercury, a short-lived alt weekly that ran from 1972-75.<\/p>\n

Edmund Rennolds, the Mercury\u2019s publisher, said Slipek\u2019s talents stood out among its staff, which he described as made up mainly of Ivy Leaguers and UVA journalism grads. Recruited to the paper by the Mercury\u2019s Garrett Epps, Slipek had skills that Rennolds said put to rest any debate over the value of a public college kid vs. Ivy League pedigree.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlipek more than held his own. He was one of the stars,\u201d Rennolds said.<\/p>\n

It was at the Mercury that Slipek got folks talking with his architectural reviews. Rennolds recalls Slipek coming to him with an idea for a piece titled: \u201cThe 10 ugliest buildings in Richmond.\u201d No. 1 on the list was City Hall, which had just been built in 1971. The Mercury ran it and the fallout from Slipek\u2019s take found its way to Rennolds in short order.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterally the next night I was at a banquet and I ended up sitting next to the guy who was the architect of City Hall. I was waiting for him to take a fork to me,\u201d Rennolds said, laughing.<\/p>\n

Those critiques would carry Slipek well beyond the Mercury and deep into a long career in journalism. He spent more than three decades writing such pieces at Style Weekly, before becoming a regular contributor to Richmond BizSense four years ago. Even in the weeks leading up to his sudden death, Slipek was working on two year-end columns that were set to be published in this publication.<\/p>\n

While his career kept him firmly planted in Richmond, Rennolds said Slipek\u2019s writing could have taken him anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was the best architectural reviewer in the country. I kept thinking, \u2018Why don\u2019t you go to Washington or New York, because you\u2019re better than those guys,\u2019\u201d Rennolds said. \u201cHe was just always devoted to Richmond. He just didn\u2019t want to leave. And thank God, because we were better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/a><\/p>\n

Slipek leading a discussion about Richmond\u2019s development over decades in relation to the river, topography and street grid. (Photo courtesy Historic Richmond)<\/p>\n

Bob Steele, a local architect who was introduced to Slipek after moving from New York in 1986, said Slipek\u2019s critiques helped heighten the standard for architecture in Richmond in the decades that followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work that was being done in those decades was shameful, and Ed\u2019s voice elevated the game. It takes decades, but look at where we are today. I have to attribute that to Ed,\u201d Steele said. \u201cSlowly but surely, he turned the ship, and I will be eternally grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennie Dotts, a local real estate agent who focuses on historic preservation, said Slipek was skilled at balancing his critiques with a desire to help the city improve. She recalled as an example Slipek\u2019s writings about Union Hill long before the neighborhood became one of the city\u2019s hotspots.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, it was crime-ridden and had lots of vacant buildings and was just not a pretty sight. But he just wrote lyrically about it, about the pattern of the street grid, and the charm of the old raised cottages<\/a>. He helped amplify the importance of preserving it,\u201d Dotts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was an educator. He always wanted to inform and enlighten people, and that\u2019s not easy if you\u2019re a critic and you have opinions,\u201d she said. \u201cHe always had a way of tempering that criticism with his impulse to improve. He was never deprecatory or meanspirited. He was always looking to make things better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Architect Joe Yates<\/a>, who befriended Slipek over the years as members of Second Presbyterian Church, visited Slipek the morning before he died. He said the two had been planning a trip to England next year to view country houses, and despite his speech being limited after a recent stroke, Yates said Slipek was in good spirits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wound up by saying it was a pretty cheeky way to get out of going to England. He laughed and grabbed my hand,\u201d Yates recalled.\u00a0\u201cHe knew everything about Richmond and Richmond history, and was obviously such an advocate for the built environment in the city. He and I had our differences about certain buildings and projects, but we could joke with each other about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steele agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he could blister in his reviews or his critiques, it was for the right reasons. He wasn\u2019t a mean-spirited person at all. He did it in a way that nobody felt hurt or harmed, other than perhaps a few egos of real estate developers who cut corners or didn\u2019t ask the right questions, or perhaps just frankly didn\u2019t care.\u00a0\u201d Steele said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t self-righteous or egotistical. He stuck by his principals of what was good and bad, and how could any architect not respect him for doing that? His opinion mattered to architects. They used his words to inspire our clients to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Architect Walter Parks said he ran into Slipek in recent weeks and, while he had somewhere he needed to be, ended up spending over an hour talking with Slipek \u2013 a conversation he especially cherishes now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very insightful. He was straightforward. He looked at the architecture holistically, how it sat in its neighborhood, how it related to its surroundings, how it existed for itself,\u201d Parks said. \u201cHe was phenomenal at that, and he looked at architecture from very different perspectives: what is it to the city, what is it to somebody who\u2019s lived here for years, what is it to somebody\u2019s who\u2019s new, how it affects people.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a big proponent of not losing the Richmond he loved, to not lose all the little buildings,\u201d Parks added. \u201cI think there\u2019s so many great articles that he had left to write that were in that kind of vein.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"slipek\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Slipek was a regular contributor to BizSense\u2019s guest commentary section since 2021.<\/p>\n

That begs the question: who might take up the mantle for Slipek and write those unwritten articles?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m heartbroken for the city, because we don\u2019t have another Eddie Slipek,\u201d said Dotts. \u201cWe don\u2019t have another person who is advocating for the beautiful sense of space and excellence in architecture. There\u2019s lots of wonderful people out there who are writing about architecture and architectural history, but he was an advocate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe helped generations of people understand and appreciate Richmond\u2019s historic built environment,\u201d Crump added. \u201cHis legacy is that love of Richmond\u2019s architecture. I can\u2019t think of anyone out there with those same qualities, so he\u2019s going to leave a big hole in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

In what ended up being his last column for BizSense, Slipek in June reviewed<\/a> the University of Richmond\u2019s Burying Ground Memorial, which features, as he described: \u201cstencil-like, cut-out forms\u201d that, while appearing to be modernist and abstract, \u201care graphic symbols of African spiritual expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThemes represented include the existence of a supreme being, knowing the past as preparation for the future, and the bonds between family and community,\u201d Slipek wrote.<\/p>\n

To those who were close to him, those bonds continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t talk about it, but you could just tell he was a very spiritual person,\u201d Yates said. \u201cHe was just such a good man. He just lit up a room. He wasn\u2019t bombastic, he never touted himself or his accomplishments; it was always about somebody else and somebody else\u2019s achievements, and he was just so modest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just so alive,\u201d Dotts added, describing Slipek as \u201calways smiling, his eyes twinkling and always on the verge of saying something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just can\u2019t even imagine him static. His feet were moving, his mouth, his eyes, ears always open to what he was saying,\u201d she said. \u201cI just can\u2019t even think of him not being alive. He\u2019s very alive to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A memorial service for Slipek is scheduled to be held Jan. 24 at 2 p.m. at Second Presbyterian Church. A visitation will be held the day before, details of which were being finalized.<\/p>\n

BizSense editor Michael Schwartz contributed reporting. <\/p>\n

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