by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week

Email readers: This blog post has a virtual reality image. Read the post on the blog to see it. Click Here.

Dillon. #downtownraleigh

A post shared by Leo Suarez (@dtraleigh) on

I’m getting lots of love on the above photo I posted on Instagram and wanted to share it here on the blog. The portico at the corner of West and Martin is pretty striking and screams industrial. It has a great look and feel, showing off the “guts” of the brick warehouse. It brings it outward for a passerby to enjoy.

In addition, I popped a 360 photo of the portico for readers to see also. Enjoy!

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35 Comments

  1. @ Leo
    Very cool, thank you!
    My favorite part is actually looking straight up and through the glass ceiling!

  2. Very cool pic. Maybe a stupid question but how do I view it in an actual VR headset? I seem to only have the option to download a single frame as a png file on my computer or navigate to the webpage in the VR headset, which doesn’t let the image be interactive.

  5. It’s the Gear one from Samsung with my Galaxy S8. I never really use the headset but I wanted to try it out for this one. It shows up great on my phone fullscreen at least! Lol

  6. Jeff, oh no! That’s what I use with S7. I’ll check it out, maybe I’m not creating them correctly. I am now using a gear 360 camera so jeez, it better work. ?

  7. I’m sure it’s me, not you. I just don’t know how to save the file from the webpage. Or how to have the browser app in the headset recognize the embdledded file should display in VR

  10. It’s amazing how much bigger that portico feels in the 3D image. I can’t really tell if the entire portico has a glass canopy or if that’s only partial near the entrance door/s.

  12. @The Nighthawk. That’s a good question. I wonder if the developer was running up against the height restriction associated with the 12 floors allowed by the UDO? 150 feet is rather tight for 12 floors in the first place and a grocery store floor is going to take up way more than its fare share of 150ft/12. That would be my guess as to why the building has fewer floors. Then again, residential floors won’t each need 150ft./12 each. So, who knows?

  13. @The Nighthawk Smokey Hollow was changed to Peace & West as developer didn’t want any reference or connection to the “fire” at Metropolitan.

  14. @BC, Seriously? Are you kidding me? While the fire was certainly enormous and the residents of The Quorum are still feeling the effects of it, it’s not anyone lost their lives in the fire. It’s not like there is some sort of inferred disrespect or insult to a memorial because of the name.
    So, instead we get stuck with the most unimaginative name he could come up with. Peace & West couldn’t be a more vanilla/boring name, and follows in the grand boring tradition of names like The Dawson, The West, The Wade, etc. Maybe he’ll change his mind again?
    Maybe the participants of this site can come up with some suggestions and have Leo deliver the suggestions to him?
    Hmmmm???? What could we offer? I’d like to keep the name historical. What could we do with Pigeon House Branch or Devereux Meadows? It’s annoying to me that Park Devereux is already taken because, with the park being restored across Peace, THIS is where that name should have been used, not next to Nash Square. Pigeon House might work, maybe Devereux House? That is probably too close in name to Park Devereux. The old baseball team was named the Raleigh Capitals. Maybe he could use Capital House? It references the team, the city and the boulevard. Any other ideas out there?

  15. I am surprised they went with “peace” considering Peace University is right down the street. I agree, they could have come up with a better name… oh well.. just happy to see it being developed.. regardless of what they call it.

  16. I like the idea of coming up with better names for buildings in Raleigh. They are extreme vanilla these days. Let me do a post on that and see if we can’t crowdsource something.

    John532, I’m happy to fix typos. Done and done.

  20. The respectful and just thing to do in my mind is to call this development “Smokey Hollow” in tribute to the historic black neighborhood that once existed here. In the name of urban renewal, 165 families were removed and 223 buildings demolished. These projects to improve housing conditions also facilitated the development of major thoroughfares to speed automobiles along their way through the city at the expense of established neighborhoods.

    See page 33
    http://www.rhdc.org/sites/default/files/EvolRaleighAfricanAmericanNeigh.pdf

    Perhaps because of this rather large blemish in Raleigh’s past Mr. Kane prefers to not associate his development with that time. I can only speculate as to the reasons and therefore don’t want to judge. However, just because we can’t change a shameful past doesn’t mean it’s okay to bury it. If he has not already done so I would ask Mr. Kane to consult with Black community leaders regarding this decision.

    In my view the name “Peace” is not only hollow but perhaps also shameful. Again, I am not willing to stake out an opinion on this matter because I am far from knowing all the circumstances as it relates to the “Peace” moniker. I think it would be great if considerations behind this name choice could be brought to light.

  21. ^^
    “However, just because we can’t change a shameful past doesn’t mean it’s okay to bury it.”

    -Welcome to 2018, where sadly people are doing this across the country with EVERYTHING.

  22. @Stew – “I can only speculate as to the reasons and therefore don’t want to judge.” Followed by the sentence “However, just because we can’t change a shameful past doesn’t mean it’s okay to bury it.” is an awfully accusatory follow-up when you admit in the sentence before you have no direct knowledge of the rationale of changing the name.

    That aside Peace is a horribly vanilla name and wish it had something better but don’t see how you can tackle the issue when its the developers option to name their projects.

  23. @Robert. Thanks for your feedback. Looking back at this I can acknowledge that what I said wasn’t the best. I sincerely apologize to anyone I have offended.

  24. Hey Jeff. I tinkered around with the Gear VR this evening and found out I was wrong! The way I’m hosting the photos, it only works with the Google Cardboard. I’m going to have to take another look at how I’m hosting this stuff and see if I can get it working with all the major headsets. Stay tuned.

  25. Maybe Kane just liked the name Peace, maybe he thinks sleepy hollow is a creepy name for marketing purposes, maybe there just was not that much thought being put into the name, after spending all that money to revitalize that blighted area you get to name it any dang thing you want. Does not mean the guy has some evil intent, I think he puts more thought into making his projects very inclusive of people, services, shopping, eating and relaxation in close proximity of your residence at a fairly decent price.

  26. @Drew re: Union Station, this certainly is worth the hype. If Raleigh is serious about joining the big leagues, this is a good way to do it. We’re probably looking at what will be the finest intercity rail station on the eastern seaboard south of Washington, DC.

  27. @Kevin,

    No kidding, Atlanta’s Amtrak station is even smaller than the outgoing Raleigh station and the new Charlotte Amtrak station will be station-less–they’re just building a platform and a canopy until they get ‘private’ investors to get ‘creative’.

  28. Maybe the residents can just call the neighborhood Smokey Hollow regardless of what the building is called. Historically, most buildings don’t have names at all, just addresses. Naming new buildings is purely a marketing convention, and it will probably change once Kane sells the apartments to something like Bainbridge, Marq, Alexan or Camden after the corporate entity that buys it.

  30. @David. That’s a valid point, and there really is an ambiguity to the area that’s east of Glenwood South proper and the Capital district to the east. Maybe a new DT neighborhood????

  31. Yeah, to some extent neighborhoods are organically named. That being said, I think once West St is filled in from Morgan to Peace, it will feel like it’s part of Glenwood South. The people who live in GS (and Brooklyn) will be a core client base for the Publix.

    Also, let’s be honest, the average person on the street probably won’t know the name of Kane’s development, regardless of what it is. Lots of people will probably just call it Glenwood South.

  33. That’s …. odd. Though, honestly I’m curious to see how long these districts retain their identity. I actually live in Boston right now (getting an MBA) and some districts like the North End (little Italy) have a very strong identity, while others like the West End, have almost none because whatever defining characteristic once existed has been redeveloped. I don’t see most of DT’s districts retaining a strong character.

    Fayetteville Street was once the only area with tall buildings.

    Glenwood South was once the “entertainment center”

    The Warehouse District was once either the gayborhood or dominated by warehouses.

    The Capital District remains horribly boring and uninviting.

    Given that the kind of construction we’re going to see will be fairly uniform across these districts, I wonder how strong any distinctive identity will remain. I feel like at one point it was clear when you moved from one district to another because you either passed through a dead zone or there was a distinctive change in character, but I doubt that will be true in 15 years.

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