Richmond unveils design for $18M Lumpkin's Slave Jail Pavilion

• It also marks the second phase of the city's plan to transform 10 acres of Shockoe Bottom into a campus documenting Richmond's defining role in the domestic slave trade.
• The first was opening the Shockoe Institute earlier this year.

Zoom in: The 21,000-square-foot pavilion will be built over the archaeological remains of the jail, which was once dubbed the "Devil's Half Acre" and long buried beneath a parking lot.

• It'll also include exhibits, artwork and first-person accounts from people who witnessed or survived slavery.

What they're saying: "We cannot find our way to healing, or to thriving, without telling the full story of how we got here," Mayor Avula said at Wednesday's unveiling.

What's next: Following the Urban Design Committee's approval on Thursday, the designs now head to the Planning Commission this week.

• If the current schedule holds, the pavilion could be completed in 2028 or early 2029, per city documents.