If any of you have driven or walked down Glenwood Ave. recently you may have felt the canyon effect given off by the presence of 222 Glenwood. This seven story condo building was slow to take off when the area was demolished but has made significant progress in recent months. The building shell should be complete soon and downtown will lose another crane. Residents will be able to move in next spring, 2008. No word yet on any of the retail going in on the bottom floor.
There has not been much talk over the construction progress of RBC Plaza so I’d like to update everyone on this. I believe the tower has finished the first phase of construction. The four phases of the tower are a RalCon exclusive so here is how I’m breaking up the construction progress:
Phase I: Floor 1-9, ground floor retail + 8 floors of parking deck
Phase II: Floor 10-21, office component
Phase III: Floor 22-33, residential component
Phase IV: Tower crown and final touches
Phase I is almost done. Currently the ground for the first office floor (floor 10) is being built. Once this has been finished we should really see the building take off as the need for concrete lessens and the tower slims down. As it grows, we will also see the tower crane grow alongside it. Temporarily, the crane will be the tallest structure ever to be in downtown Raleigh. Updated pics below.
Hopefully by now we are all done mourning the loss of King’s on McDowell St. I hate that an original place and music venue was destroyed to make room for government offices, but I guess that’s progress.
Anyway, King’s has been demolished and there are plans for the site at the corner of Davie St. and McDowell St. A mixed-use building with offices and ground floor shops will occupy the space. Here is some information from the city’s website:
The project would be on 1.74 acres in the northeast quadrant of the downtown block bounded by Davie Street on the north, McDowell Street to the east, Cabarrus Street on the south and Dawson Street to the west. Planned are a 989-space, nine-level parking deck and a mixed-use development consisting of 109,513 square feet of office space and 11,341 square feet of retail space. The site currently is mainly composed of surface parking lots, although a few buildings would have to be demolished to accommodate the project.
I remember the original plan included some condos but that has changed. I like the fact that there is ground floor retail, rather then a solid wall adding nothing to the street presence and livability of downtown. With a good mix of shops, this site could be the spot to pre-game before clubbing in the warehouse district. No plans for the shops have been announced but it is still early. Below are some updated pics of the demolished site as well as the renderings of the finished project, the deck should be open for use late 2008 with the entire project finished sometime in 2009.
The view walking down Davie St.
The view off of McDowell St.
There is some really good discussion going on over at the Urban Planet Forums over Site 1, a development project going up on Fayetteville St. These pair of towers are planned to be built across Fayetteville Street from the new Marriott Hotel. Currently, the site is being used as a staging area for the hotel and new convention center, so naturally no construction on Site 1 has started. While the City has approved Site 1 over and over again, new renderings have been brought up that change the design, slightly. Below are the new renderings that can be found on the Craig Davis Properties website.
I am really not sure which I like better because I like both renderings, however the new one is growing on me. The white and blue colors will match well with the currently under construction RBC Plaza. Its modern design will flush well with Progress Energy’s second tower across the street. When looking at the older design, I feel that it resembles the architecture used in the buildings on NC State’s Centennial Campus, maybe taken up a few levels. I’m not bashing my alma mater’s campus but prefer the more glassy, water-like towers when put up against the stronger brick-red pair of mid-rises. Plus with the mini spires on the tops, especially the blades on the shorter building, there may be a potential for some very cool lighting at night.
I’m very excited for this project and it’s obvious that it will make a huge impact on Fayetteville St. and the surrounding district. I hope the joined bottom floors will be the entertainment hub of the street; with talks of a movie theater here, it very well can be.
The One Eleven Seaboard condo project has been talked about lightly over the past few months. They just got their website up recently, which offers some information about the project. Right from the front page:
One Eleven Seaboard is being developed as a 53 unit condominium project with urban design located in the gateway to downtown Raleigh. Located in one of Raleigh’s trendiest and most desireable areas, this exciting mixed use infill project offers a truly unique place to live. Just steps away from Logan’s and Seaboard Station, 1 Eleven Seaboard is within walking distance of Cameron Village, Glenwood South, downtown Raleigh and Mordecai. With prices ranging from the low $200,000 to the mid $300,000s, anyone can find their place at 1 Eleven Seaboard
Might not be the nicest walk under the train tracks and Capital Blvd. coming back from Glenwood at night but living here does put you close to everything. There is even ground floor retail and with all the new shops in the Seaboard Station, a small community may be on the rise near this old train station.
Location
Here is some more information on the shimmer wall of the convention center, that was mentioned earlier here.
WHY A SHIMMER WALLThere is no entrance to the Raleigh Convention Center from the western side. The wall houses the 500,000-square-foot facility’s chillers and boilers that require significant air flow. Yet the wall facing McDowell Street is the most visible as motorists enter downtown Raleigh. Some 20,000 vehicles arrive downtown via the thoroughfare each day. Even those not destined for the center city are offered downtown’s most inviting vista as they motor east and west along Western Boulevard.
Lot more can be read here.
The city has announced a $1 million donation from Cree Inc. that will go toward a shimmer wall on the western side of the new convention center. This is the wall that overlooks McDowell St. and is certain to be very eye-catching as people drive by. The wall will be substantially large and at 9,000 square feet, should easily draw a crowd. Once it is done you can probably find me stumbling over from the warehouse district on Saturday nights to stare at it like a mesmerized fish.
Watch the WRAL video for a great visual of the design.
N&O story
About a week ago, the city council amended an agreement between the city of Raleigh, Highwoods Properties and Progress Energy to build a parking deck to support RBC plaza. They also selected Stewart Engineering to be the technical engineering rep for the parking deck. The deck will sit mid-block on Martin St. and will have retail space facing the street. Here is a list of the changes to the agreement.
Why do we care about this?
This is the first development that is moving forward on the PEIII block and future development must work around this huge parking deck. As was posted earlier this week, demolition of the old buildings here has already begun. I hope the rise in the number of spots for the deck is there for whatever is built around it. This will allow more room for developers to work with as they do not have to incorporate parking into their designs.
