I just happened to be in Atlanta this past weekend and took a short detour into midtown. I found the currently under construction Skyhouse Apartments building, the same exact design that is being built in Downtown Raleigh.
I’ve posted more pictures over at the Raleigh Public Record here,
Here’s some very positive news for fans of The Edison, a multi-building development that was planned for the core downtown area. Skyhouse Apartments was up for review by the Raleigh Planning Commission yesterday, June 26, and was approved unanimously.
The 264 foot tower will sit at the southwest corner of Blount and Martin Streets and will consist of ground-floor retail as well 320 apartments. It’s a great location and turns an empty lot into an active, urban development with plans for one to four bedroom units.
Watch your Raleigh Planning Commission in action in the video below. Included are more renderings and conversation over a few concerns about the building.
As a little side note, I thought it was cool that the presenter mentioned the William Christmas plan.
“The applicants received a variance from additional right of way dedication as most all projects do in the historic Christmas plan for the City of Raleigh and this project is no different. No additional right-of-way was provided and no additional street widening is required.”
If you are unfamiliar with the southwest corner of Blount and Martin, for years it has been a grassy field with numerous whirligigs made by Vollis Simpson. You may have seen a bigger one, titled Wind Machine, at the North Carolina Museum of Art. In the video, there was discussion of incorporating one of Simpson’s pieces into the new building as public art, most likely for the outdoor pedestrian plaza.
Here is a snapshot of the plan for the ground floor, click for a more zoomed out view.
North is up in this picture so the intersection of Blount and Martin is in the top right corner of the image.
A couple of quick notes about the plan:
A concern about the building and it’s proximity to the historic structures in City Market and along Blount Street was brought up in the commission meeting. We’ve talked about building large towers next to small buildings before and I feel there is no issue as the corner of this block will accommodate all users adequately.
Earlier news reports claim that groundbreaking could occur as early as this year.
The Wake County Justice Center dominates the intersection of McDowell and Martin Streets. Almost three years ago, there was just a hole at this site.
For more trips down memory lane, over four years ago we’ve discussed the project and what buildings it has replaced.
The ugly parking deck, the Garland Jones building, and the Lawyers Building are all coming down for the expansion of the current site right next door.
via Justice Center Expansion, $200+ Million and a Historic Raleigh Cost.
The North Carolina State Bar building under construction at the corner of Blount and Edenton Streets. We’ve discussed the building before. (with a rendering)
During a walk this past gloomy weekend, I got a chance to see some of the demolition going on along St. Mary’s and Tucker Street. The rental market is huge these days and developers are reacting not far from the main drag of Glenwood South. About 400 apartments between two new developments will start to be put together after the land has been fully cleared.
The now called St. Mary’s Square will bring about 145 apartments along the southern block bounded by St. Mary’s Street, Johnson, and Gaston Street. We’ve gone over the site plan before and now that land clearing looks almost done, construction should begin soon.
Click on the image below for a gallery of before and after photos of parts of the 600 block of St. Mary’s Street.
E-mail and RSS readers, jump to the post on the web to see the full gallery of images.
Across the Street from the currently completed apartment building, 712 Tucker, 425 Boylan will be built. Currently, houses have been removed along the south side of the 700 block of Tucker Street and once the land is cleared, the 7-story, 250 apartment building will be put together. The mixed-use building also includes 13,000 square feet of commercial space along the ground floor.
Below is another gallery of images.
Glenwood South may have the highest population density in Raleigh in a few years. Take Note.
Hotel space seems to be a lacking resource for downtown Raleigh but reading through the city’s Budget and Economic Development (BED) Committee agenda yesterday shows more rooms may be on the horizon. Longtime readers will remember The Lafayette project proposed for what is called “Site 4”, the parcel of land along Salisbury Street that butts up against the Performing Arts Deck. That project is officially out the door and the city is ready for new blood to come into town.
Looking through the agenda, City Manager Russell Allen sent a letter to the BED committee to suggest they consider Request For Proposals (RFP) of the site. He mentions multiple requests have come in from interested parties. He includes a copy of one such letter of interest, copied again by me and pasted below:
October 27, 2011
Mr. J Russell Allen
City Manager
City of Raleigh
P.O. Box 590
Raleigh, NC 27602Dear Mr Allen:
Summit Hospitality Group, Ltd. would like to engage with the City of Raleigh in the appropriate process to acquire the three parcels of city property on South Salisbury Street at its intersection with Lenoir and South Streets. I believe this is generally referred to by the city as their “Site 4”.
The intent for the property would be the development of an upscale mixed use property, the largest tenant being a MArriott extended stay hotel. The hotel would be similar in scope and scale to a similar property located on Mint Street in Charlotte, NC. For purposes of illustration, I have enclosed photos simulating the hotel situation on the Raleigh site as well as photos of the Charlotte hotel.
We have a verbal approval for a Residence Inn by Marriott franchise and tentative financing from local conventional sources contingent on the strength of a market study by a nationally recognized form. As soon as we could enter into a Letter of Intent or Memorandum of Understanding with the city, we are poised to immediately contract for the market study and begin the design phase for the presentation to the city.
Regards,
R. Doyle Parrish
President
The attached pictures are shown in this blog post. Here’s a Google Streetview link to the hotel in Charlotte. I’ll emphasize that the pictures here are not final and no designs exist at all. This is just a model, made up for visualization.
The Raleigh Convention Center needs more of this in order to host some of the much larger conventions that it can handle but are not getting because of lack of hotel rooms. Skyline fans may be disappointed as a building of this scale is nothing to cheer about.
For me, it’s a great project really. The building should make a great compliment to the Performing Arts deck, helping make use of the extreme oversupply of parking that we have in downtown Raleigh. Also, while not unique in character, the urban form is a fine addition to the sidewalks of Salisbury Street. If you take our Marriott hotel on Fayetteville Street for example, the street trees, tables, and chairs are inviting. I see people sitting and relaxing there on many occasions.
The location of this hotel is also primo. It’s easy to get in and out of downtown by car and visitors can experience the Fayetteville Street/City Plaza area with much ease.
We’ll stay tuned for updates.
Dirt is being moved at the corner of Blount and Edenton Streets for the new headquarters of the North Carolina State Bar. The four story, 60,000 square foot building will have a classical exterior with a rotunda entrance to its lobby on the corner of the intersection. The new workplace for the Bar’s seventy-five employees will also seek a LEED silver certification.
According to an old post in September of 2009, the original plans were to begin construction in 2010 with everything up and running within the first half of 2012. Clearly that did not happen but assuming a similar timeline, we can estimate construction to be complete around the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014.
Corner of Blount and Edenton Streets.
State owned surface parking lots will now become offices so from an urban perspective, we’re moving in the right direction. But as typical of NC State Government, their building habits seem to disrespect more of Raleigh’s history.
The Times of Baptist University in Raleigh
Now let’s look a bit deeper as the site to this new State Bar Headquarters has a bit of history to it that I have been interested in over the last few years.
In the 2009 post linked to earlier, commenter Karl points out that this site contains the brick pillar entranceways of the former Baptist University for Women (BUW). Eventually, the university became Meredith College before moving to a new site to the west in 1925. After that, the building became the Mansion Hotel up to 1951. For a great writeup as well as some phenomenal pictures of the building, jump over to Goodnight, Raleigh at the link below:
Raleigh’s Own Castle via GoodnightRaleigh.com
In the 1960s and 70s, the state government went on a building spree with their complex along the former Halifax street north of the Capitol building. In these times, the great mansions of Blount Street were bought up with many being destroyed. The BUW building came down in 1967 but the brick pillars will stand along the sidewalk of Blount Street for another forty-four years.
In April of 2008, I visited the site of the former BUW building and found the brick pillars. This 2008 post shows an old Google Map image that still has the driveway of the former building as well. The current Google Map imagery for Raleigh has been updated with bus parking wiping out the driveway but the pillars still can be seen. (until the next update)
Sticking to its reputation of little or no historic preservation, the state government has finished off the last trace of the BUW building and now the brick pillars are no more.
The former Baptist University for Women
New NC State Bar headquarters
The apartment trend continues with Glenwood South landing another pack of density. The Gramercy is a seven story, 209 unit apartment building planned along North Street between Glenwood Avenue and Boylan Avenue. The building will be on the north side of North Street and partially along Anson Place. The site plan is available here.
If you are wondering how this building conforms to the 2030 Comprehensive Plan, the plan tells us in its own words:
The comprehensive plans designates the site as Central Business district which supports mixed use buildings. The proposed plan provides the following on the ground floor; retail along Glenwood, leasing/club space and services areas on North Street, and residential with stoops and planters on Boylan Street. Residential will be provided above all ground floor uses. The comprehensive plan policy DT 1.11 calls for appropriate transitions in height, scale and design along the downtown edges. The proposed development will be XX stories and provides the transition in height between the North at West building and the Wiley school and Cameron Park neighborhood. The site is within 1/4 mile of a proposed light rail transit stops, has a CAT stop 1 block away, Less than 1 block to an existing R-line stop and providing 14′ sidewalks to comply with M.2 transportation Policy’s.
It’s a good thing site plans aren’t approved based on copyediting.
The corner of Glenwood Avenue and North Street in December 2011.
The building will add retail spaces which only helps fill in the gaps within Glenwood South. There is currently nothing there now that contributes to the pedestrian experience starting at the corner of Glenwood and North, past the always changing two-floor, club building and up to Cafe Helios. Plus, retail spaces along North Street will add more shop and restaurant density to Glenwood South giving it potential to lengthen its entertainment resumé.
Looking at the floor plan for the ground level, the vehicle entrance to the 209 parking, ten bicycle spaces will be on North Street. The plan indeed does include the fourteen foot sidewalks along North Street and Glenwood Avenue. The Glenwood facing retail spaces also appear to have their front doors and windows recessed a bit to create outdoor spaces similar to what 510 Glenwood’s Red Room restaurant currently has.
The corner of Boylan Avenue and North Street in December 2011.
The site plan doesn’t contain much on the looks of the building but it looks very similar to the now under construction Hampton Inn only a few blocks to the north. It seems like this is another example of the present day “starchitecture” that is making our city look like others. The density and infill is welcome but it’s not a long, lasting iconic building by any means.
630 North
Long time readers may remember that at once this section of downtown had a project proposed at the corner of North Street and Boylan Avenue. 630 North was planned here and could have brought ten stories worth of offices and condos. How times have changed since 2007. Click the link below to check it out.
630 North sneaks up on us (April 13, 2007)
