Rendering for new storefront at 211 South Wilmington
There’s work taking place in the Moore Square Historic District that may see new life in older buildings.
Currently under review by the Raleigh Historic Development Commission is a new storefront for 211 South Wilmington. The building will be upfit with a new storefront that aims to maintain the scale of the district but with modern character. The plans, 128-17-CA, mention a two-story noodle bar for this space.
With the building being in a historic district yet featuring no major architectural features (from my unskilled eye anyway) I can’t see any major controversy here.
For reference, here are the row of buildings today.
211 South Wilmington, September 2017
It’s a shame that 211 South Wilmington didn’t maintain its facade from the 1960s. The story of this building and the tenants that have cycled through would make a great follow-up.
Around the corner at 107 East Martin, could something finally be moving in? This spot has been an empty shell since Raleigh Printing closed. (moved?) If anyone can remember when that happened, let me know but I want to say it was at least 10 years ago.
I’m happy to see some of the older buildings getting new life as these add diversity to our urban environment and play a huge role in keeping downtown more interesting.
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- None right now. Must be a new project.
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If the city had some balls, they’d make them restore the original facade. It’s a shame (of enormous magnitude) that that particular facade was removed. If any of that original facade remains behind that green cladding, it wouldn’t be impossible to restore it.
The old Raleigh Printing building is going to be a skinny high rise
(Or at least that’s what the plans for it were at one point)
http://www.hobgoodarchitects.com/e-martin-street/
@JosABank – that was never an actual plan, just a concept by the architect firm. Same with the Warehouse dist. Hotel they have on their site. Both would be awesome, but these aren’t legitimate proposals, far as I know.
^^ As much as I would like to see that trendy residential high-rise built. It isn’t going to happen, at least not in that location. This location will be a pizza shop,I saw the update on instagram a few weeks ago.
You can’t shake a stick without hitting a new pizza shop nowadays. Looks like everyone realized DTR was lacking pizza at the same time.
Smokey Hollow project has construction fencing up as of this past weekend. Demolition of Comedyworks, etc to start shortly?
@uncle jesse.
yes demo starting in next few weeks.
I think that the two pictures, the ornate original and what will become the most updated modern look are actually a good representation of what has happened to downtown Raleigh. It lost most of its soul by fires or the slow decay of time. In either case, the question before us is where do we go from here? And I for one would rather a developer try to redo the original look or do a larger more mixed use project. To me this version of a redo is quant but like the redo project of the old Hudson Belk building it is extremely lacking on many levels.
We definitely have a history of changing up the facades. Take for example one of my favorites, just posted by Olde Raleigh, https://www.instagram.com/p/BZBadiSAJnI/
Off topic but is the FNB “Tower” still a go? Haven’t heard anything on that since May and construction is supposed to start in 10-12 weeks.
Construction starts in November
Construction starts for FNB in Nov?
I had read that it was December?
@BC posted a comment a few days ago that said “FBN bank needs to get their plans in if they want to start north charter by December”.
Robert, downtown lost most of it’s soul through the willful demolition. The only value was in parking lots to support the white flight lifestyle so tear down, paved over city is what we got.
Re: the pizza place, I lived at 321 E Martin in 2002-2003 and it was vacant then, so at least 15 years vacant. My understanding on the Hobgood tower is that the Moore Sq historic boundary includes this property for some reason (I think in coordination with facade grants back in the 80’s..they were trying to make a pretty tunnel from Fayetteville St Mall to City Market) and that puts a cap on the height there, or subjects it to height restrictions. If I understand that correctly it’s pretty damn stupid if you ask me because those rules sure don’t stop historic demolitions at all….nothing like a historic district with no historic buildings but a bunch a new stuff built to comply with new historic guidelines. If I am wrong, someone please correct me on nay of that.
Re Wilmington St, the corrugated metal must be bolted to something, so while the ornate stonework might be hack up and/or removed, the supporting brick, window casings and the like, are probably still there and should have been saved. I’ll be watching like a hawk for the day the corrugated sheets come off so I can snap a few pics before whatever is remaining gets punched out.