Fan Area Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
A street in Fan
Location:	Roughly bounded by N. Harrison, W. Main, W. Grace and N. Mullberry Sts., Richmond, Virginia
Coordinates:	37°33′9″N 77°27′56″W / 37.5525°N 77.46556°W / 37.5525; -77.46556Coordinates: 37°33′9″N 77°27′56″W / 37.5525°N 77.46556°W / 37.5525; -77.46556
Area:	228 acres (92 ha)
Architect:	Multiple
Architectural style:	Mid 19th Century Revival, Late 19th-20th Century Revivals, Late Victorian
Governing body:	Local
NRHP Reference#:	85002243[1]
Added to NRHP:	September 12, 1985

The Fan is a district of Richmond, Virginia, so named because of the "fan" shape of the array of streets that extend west from Belvidere Street, on the eastern edge of Monroe Park, westward to the Boulevard. (Though the streets rapidly resemble a grid after moving through what is now Virginia Commonwealth University). The Fan is one of the easterly points of the city's West End section, and is bordered to the north by Broad Street and to the south by I-95). The western side is sometimes called the Upper Fan and the eastern side the Lower Fan, though confusingly the Uptown district is located near VCU in the Lower Fan. Many cafes and locally owned restaurants are located here, as well as historic Monument Avenue. Development of the Fan district was strongly influenced by the City Beautiful movement of the late 19th century.

The Fan District is primarily a residential neighborhood consisting of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century homes. It is also home to VCU's Monroe Park Campus, several parks, tree-lined avenues and three of the city's historical monuments. The District also has numerous houses of worship, and locally owned businesses and commercial establishments. The Fan borders and blends with the Boulevard, the Museum District, and the Carytown district.

Main east-west thoroughfares include Broad Street, Grace Street, Monument Avenue, Patterson Avenue, Grove Avenue, Main Street, Parkwood Ave, and Cary Street.

Architecture[link]

Richmond is often subdivided into North Side, Southside, East End and West End

The Fan is often incorrectly described as significant for having one of the longest intact stretches of Victorian architecture in the United States, but most of it was actually built after the end of the Victorian era (Victorian Architecture) and is arguably more Edwardian and Revival in style. Almost all of the housing stock was constructed in the first decades of the twentieth century and exhibits the pared back victorianism of Edwardian architecture. Colonial Revival and American Craftsman architecture is common as well, with Revival architectural types arguably the most common (as was common to the time period) Revivalism (architecture).

Primary architectural styles represented include:

• Italianate
• Richardsonian Romanesque
• Queen Anne
• Colonial Revival

Other architectural styles include:

• Tudor Revival
• Second Empire
• Beaux-Arts
• Art Deco
• Spanish
• Gothic Revival
• Bungalow
• American Arts and Crafts Movement
• James River Georgian
• Southern Colonial
• Jacobethan (Jacobean Revival)

Following a succession of owners, an architecture museum, the Virginia Center for Architecture, took occupancy in 2005 of Branch House on Monument Avenue a residence designed in the Tudor style by the firm of John Russell Pope in 1914.

History[link]

In 1817, the Fan was plotted as the village of Sydney on land formerly owned by William Byrd II. Primary development of the Fan occurred after the Civil War through about 1920. Streetcar lines leading from downtown influenced development; the nation's first electric streetcar system was inaugurated in Richmond in 1888.

As development increased from downtown at the turn of the 20th century, Franklin street became a fashionable "West End" address. A desire for a West End address drove rapid real estate development of the area, changing the area from rural tobacco fields in 1900 to being almost fully developed land by the 1930s. As development accelerated, the University of Richmond (then located on Lombardy Street) was moved west to a more rural location (its present Westhampton location). During the Great Depression, many of the single-family homes in the area were converted to apartments.

The term "the Fan" was coined in the mid 20th century by a Richmond Times Dispatch editorial, as the appellation "West End" no longer applied.

Maps[link]

• Wikimapia

References[link]

External links[link]

• http://www.fandistrict.org/
• http://www.historicrichmond.com/fan.html
• The Fan on Myspace.com
• The Fan neighbors on Yahoo!Groups
• Fan District Hub
• Fan of the Fan (community news blog)
• Fan of the Fan: A look at the history and architecture of the Fan Area Historic District

Neill Blomkamp
Blomkamp at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International
Born	(1979-09-17) September 17, 1979 (age 32) Johannesburg, South Africa
Occupation	Director
Years active	1996–present
Spouse	Terri Tatchell

Neill Blomkamp (born 17 September 1979) is a South African-Canadian^[1] film and advertisement writer and director. Blomkamp employs a documentary-style, hand-held, cinéma vérité technique, blending naturalistic and photo-realistic computer-generated effects. He is best known as the co-writer and director of critically acclaimed District 9, his only feature film to date. He is based out of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Time named Blomkamp as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2009.^[2] Forbes magazine named him as the 21st most powerful celebrity from Africa.

Early life and career[link]

Blomkamp was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. At 16, he met Sharlto Copley who had also attended Redhill High School in Johannesburg. Copley provided Blomkamp with the use of computers at his production company in order to pursue his passion and talent for 3D animation and design - in return, Blomkamp assisted Copley in creating 3D work for pitches on various projects. His family moved to Vancouver when Blomkamp was 18, where he enrolled in Vancouver Film School. In 2003, Blomkamp was hired to illustrate photo-real future aircraft for Popular Science's "Next century in Aviation" and in 2004 was hired to illustrate "The Future of the Automobile".^[3] Blomkamp worked as a visual effects artist at The Embassy Visual Effects in Vancouver as well as Rainmaker Digital Effects. Blomkamp was signed by Toronto commercial house Spy Films.

In 2007, Blomkamp directed a trilogy of live-action short films (known collectively as Landfall) set in the Halo universe, to promote the release of Halo 3. In 2008, Halo: Combat Evolved, the first of the three installments, won the Cannes Lions 2008 – Film Lions Grand Prix.

Blomkamp was then slated to direct his first feature-length film, an adaptation of the Halo series of video games, produced by Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson had come to know about Blomkamp after viewing a reel of his commercial work and shorts shot in his off time. The four shorts that got him noticed included Tetra Vaal, a faux advertisement for a third-world robotic police that established Neill Blomkamp's signature style of mixing lo-fi production with seamless CGI; Alive in Joburg, a gritty "documentary" about extraterrestrials marooned in Johannesburg; Tempbot, an Office Space-esque spoof; and Yellow, a short film based on the colour yellow for Adidas' "Adicolor" campaign, which portrays a globe-trotting AI gone rogue.

When funding for the Halo film collapsed,^[4] Peter Jackson decided to produce District 9 instead, an adaptation of Blomkamp's earlier short film Alive in Joburg, which had been produced by Hansen and Copley. The film, directed by Blomkamp and starring Copley, was released in mid-August 2009, to positive reviews.^[5]

On October 2010, a video was released on the iPad version of the Wired Magazine, credited to Neill Blomkamp, which shows an amateur recording of two young men who find a dead mutated creature in a puddle of mud while driving down a countryside road. The creature, a dog-sized mix between a pig and a lizard, presents a tattooed seal on its side that reads "18.12 AGM Heartland Pat. Pend. USA".^[6] Also, "AGM Heartland" was trademarked for its use in an entertainment-oriented website. It is yet unknown whether this video holds any relation to Blomkamp's current project, Elysium.^[7]

Filmography[link]

Feature films[link]

• District 9 (2009) (co-writer, director)
• Elysium (2013) (writer, director)
• Chappie (N/A)

Short films[link]

• Tetra Vaal (2004) (director, visual FX)
• Alive in Joburg (2005) (director, writer, visual FX)
• Yellow (2006) (director, visual FX)
• Tempbot (2006) (director)
• Halo: Landfall (2007) (director)

Commercials[link]

• Nike - Crab (2003)^[8] / Evolution (2004)^[9]
• Citroën C4 - Alive with technology (2004)^[10]
• Gatorade - Rain (2006)^[11]

Other credits[link]

• Stargate SG-1 (1998) (3D animator)
• First Wave (1998) (3D animator)
• Mercy Point (1998) (3D animator)
• Aftershock: Earthquake in New York (1999) (3D animator)
• Dark Angel (2000) (lead animator)
• Art of Dying music video - Day Survive (2001) (director, visual FX)^[12]
• 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) (lead 3D animator)
• Smallville (2001) (3D animator)
• BV-01 (2005) (special thanks)
• Best Ever Ads 2 (2006) (himself)
• Crossing the Line (2008) (additional director)

Recognition[link]

• 2004, First Boards Awards - "One of the top five directors to watch"
• 2004, Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival - "Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase"
• 2004, Shark Awards (shortlisted)
• 2005, VES awards "Outstanding VFX in a commercial" for Citroen - Alive with technology
• 2008, Cannes Lions 2008 - Film Lions- Grand Prix - Halo: Combat
• 2009, Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Director & Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay - District 9
• 2009, Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - District 9
• 2009, Won - Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America - District 9^[13]
• 2010, Nominated - Academy Award for Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Nomination for Academy Award for Best Picture 2009 - District 9 (Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)

In popular culture[link]

• Blomkamp is mentioned in the song "Baby's On Fire" from the South African group Die Antwoord's 2012 album Ten$Ion.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Neill Blomkamp at the Internet Movie Database
• Website for Spy Films productions
• Neill Blomkamp talking District 9 at FEARnet
• Alive in Joburg at www.spyfilms.com
• Neill Blomkamp interview at AMCtv.com
• Neill Blomkamp interview with Comic-Con