Category / New Construction

by Leo Suarez

New Design Surfaces For Site 1

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.

by Leo Suarez

111 Seaboard moving along

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

by Leo Suarez

Shimmer wall details

Here is some more information on the shimmer wall of the convention center, that was mentioned earlier here.

WHY A SHIMMER WALL
There 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.

The convention center’s design team of TVS, O’Brien Atkins and Clearscapes saw the wall as a canvas yearning for artwork that defined the essence of Raleigh.
“The design team wanted to do something that would add visually to downtown,” Clearscapes’ Stephen Shuster said.

In addition to the wall’s visibility, it also benefits from spectacular southern and western sunlight.

So what would make maximum use of this visibility and light?
Shimmer wall thought the design team; the ultimate coupling of these two natural elements.

“To gleam; to shine with an unsteady light; to glimmer” is the definition of shimmer. So how to make a wall do that? The design team, working with artistic inventor Ned Kahn, decided to put 79,464 4-inch by 4-inch aluminum pixels hinged on louvers to allow for free motion on 4-foot by 4-foot grids. The design is 211-feet by 44-feet. To aid nighttime “shimmering,” backlight the 9,284-square-foot wall with 56 LED fixtures.

But not just a shimmer wall, the design team demanded. Rather a shimmer wall that offered an iconic image of our city. The oak tree, the design team exclaimed.
The oak tree – the symbol borne on the Great Seal of the City of Raleigh; Raleigh’s unofficial tag line – the “City of Oaks.” But the oak tree for oh so much more.
“We wanted an image that could be understood and appreciated by all – children and techies,” Mr. Shuster said. “A tree is a complex system. It symbolizes growth. It symbolizes the environment.”

At rest the almost 80,000 4-inch by 4-inch pixels will offer a clear depiction of a mighty oak in shades of silver. And yet this oak tree will be ever changing. The flow from the boilers and chillers; the natural breeze, the whoosh of the stream of cars along McDowell will keep the image at flux. As will the shifting slant of sun rays. Adding further to the uniqueness of this shimmer wall will be the back lighting from Cree’s LEDs. And the LED colors will vary, depending on the season, the celebration – whenever and whatever!

Lot more can be read here.

by Leo Suarez

Shimmer wall to distract drivers; entertain the kiddies

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

by Leo Suarez

Large parking deck upgraded to Massive

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.

  • The eight-story parking deck will now have 1,242 instead of 1,050 as originally agreed upon
  • The deck will be built for future abutting developments.
  • Total cost increases from $14.17 million to $20.93 million.
  • The city will own two shelled spaces instead of one, probably for storage purposes.

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.

by Leo Suarez

Historic Raleigh Gets Served

Over the past week, there has been some considerable work going on across the street from the Progress II building, the block we refer to as Progress III. Progress Energy owns the majority of the block and has major plans for this area. Possible plans may include a pair of 30 story towers but no renderings or announcements have been made.

Currently the block is being razed except for the storefronts facing Wilmington St. Most of them are closed and I expect them to be either destroyed or heavily renovated to be incorporated into whatever is built on the land behind the shops.

Witness the destruction for yourself. The map I have used earlier to show the construction on this block has been updated as well.


red – razed area, yellow – construction fences


That building used to have a middle section


Soon will bite the dust


Both those buildings used to connect

by Leo Suarez

Master list of projects

I’m working on a couple longer posts that highlight some of the projects that are going on around the convention center area. This mainly includes the plans on sites 1-6. Keep checking the site for those entries. They will probably pop up next week after I take some pictures this weekend.

Until then I want to highlight the link below. It is for a webpage on the Raleigh Livable Streets website that has all the public and private projects listed with information on each one. Just glancing at this list will give you an idea of what is going on in the area. Check it out when you have some time to kill.

Livable Streets Public and Private Projects