Architect Alec Yuzhbabenko Shares His Vision for the Upcoming REVIVAL of the former Virginia Beach Dome Site

Just weeks after The Dome’s long-anticipated opening, over 60 guests gathered in The Garage VB to hear from Alec Yuzhbabenko, the visionary design architect whose vision for the REVIVAL of the storied venue’s former site is coming to life in the heart of the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.

To help introduce his vision for the future of Virginia Beach, Alec took us to his past in Odessa, Ukraine, where he found comfort on the beach, drew inspiration from the port city’s courtyard apartment blocks, Art Nouveau architecture, and nurtured his worldly outlook through travel.

When Alec’s father, a marine electrical engineer, accepted a job in Mobile, Ala., Alec was catapulted to a very different landscape from the one he’d been used to. Surrounded by American suburbia, Alec took up skateboarding and, eventually, surfing, wading into the emerald-green waters of Northwest Florida. By the time the family moved again – this time to Virginia Beach – Alec had come to recognize water as a throughline in his life.

Alec flourished in Virginia Beach, thanks largely to the city’s lively skateboarding and surfing scene and discovered a passion for the arts and for creating things with his hands, which ultimately led him to pursue a career in architecture. Internships at HBA Architecture & Design, Clark Nexsen and, notably, SOM in Chicago cemented Alec’s belief in the impact that architecture could have on urban planning and the future of cities across the world.

In 2015, Alec earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Virginia Tech, with a thesis that would have implications beyond his wildest dreams. At the heart of his project was a vision for the revitalization of the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Titled “Hybrid Typology,” the design proposal envisioned a surf park on the site of what had once been Virginia Beach’s storied entertainment venue, The Dome. Flanked by housing, lush natural elements and gathering spaces inspired by Odessa’s tree-lined cobble-stone streets and courtyard housing, the surf park would serve as the community’s heartbeat.

“I knew right then that I wanted to help create a place that I would want to come home to. I was serious about being able to make a difference through architecture.”

In 2017, Alec, was asked to present his thesis project at a meeting that would change his career and the landscape of Virginia Beach forever. Venture Realty Group was interested in responding to the City’s request for proposals for the revitalization of The Dome’s former site with a surf park as the development’s centerpiece.

Fast forward nearly a decade, and Atlantic Park – a first-of-its-kind mixed-use development in the heart of the Virginia Beach Oceanfront – has begun opening its doors. At the center of it all is a Wavegarden Cove surfing lagoon – the country’s first and the first in the world to be integrated into an urban environment. With 46 wave modules, the lagoon will make it possible for surfers of all levels to catch a wave, just steps from the Atlantic Ocean. And picking up where it left off more than three decades ago, The Dome opened its doors on May 4 as a state-of-the-art indoor-outdoor live entertainment venue operated by Live Nation.

“Every aspect of the space has been thoughtfully considered and designed. It was important for there to be a linear throughway to Virginia Beach’s culture. From carved motifs and natural landscapes to Pharrell’s musical imprint – quite literally – and nods to our history as a military town, everything has been sculpted with this community in mind.”

Now a Design Principal at Hanbury, Alec has worked with more than 40 consulting firms and 250+ individuals who have been involved in Atlantic Park’s planning, design, permitting and final execution. Components of the project will continue to open this summer and into the fall.

“It is humbling to be up here today to talk about this. I thought my thesis would be gathering dust on a bookshelf, but thanks to this community, we have been able to turn a dream into an evolving perpetual reality.”

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Written by CMVB volunteer blogger Valeria L. Palmertree

Join us every third Friday in 2025 as we explore, along with 236 other cities in 69 countries around the world, 12 new themes in a face-to-face community format. Past themes have included Cycle, Rhythm, Endurance, Ritual and Parallel. June’s theme is PUNK, and our speaker will be Jeff Tarkenton of The Artist’s Block.

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