Autumn Skies Over Raleigh by dtraleigh, on Flickr
Urban Design Lecture Series hosted by the City of Raleigh
There are some very interesting forums coming up on the topic of urban design in Raleigh. As the downtown Raleigh master plan gets a reboot from the one we are now experiencing, drawn up over ten years ago, these talks are great to get a little educated on the issues the city faces and how they plan to address them. The forums are also free and open to the public. Watch the video above for a previously recorded forum on the topic of “Housing in the 21st Century” hosted by the Urban Design Center.
Urban Design Education Forums
Time: 12 Noon – 1:30 pm
220 Fayetteville Street
Raleigh, NC 27601
(919)996-4641
Schedule of sessions
November 14, 2012 – “Downtown Planning-Then and Now.”
- Moderator will be Grant Meacci, planning and design manager at the Urban Design Center.
- Presenters will be Raleigh Assistant City Manager Dan Howe and David Diaz, president and CEO of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance
December 12, 2012 – “Return on Investment-Economics of Downtown Development.”
- The presenter will be Mitchell Silver, chief planning and development officer for the City of Raleigh and director of the City’s Department of City Planning
January 16, 2013 – “The Fine Art of Enjoying Downtown Living.”
- The host will be Brian Reece of Downtown Living Associates.
- Presenters will be Anne S. Franklin, urban advocate and community organizer, and Chris Roberts, associate principal and architect with LS3P Associates
February 13, 2013 – “Bike Share in Raleigh.”
- Presenters will be Jennifer Baldwin, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the City of Raleigh Office of Transportation Planning, and Mauricio Hernandez, transportation planner with Toole Design Group
March 20, 2013 – “Residual Raleigh-Tapping the Potential of Unused Space in Downtown.”
- Presenters will be Brett Hautop, an architect with Gensler, and Matthew Griffith and Erin Sterling Lewis, principals with in situ studio, a Raleigh architecture firm
April 17, 2013 – “Downtown Durham’s Open Space Plan.”
- Presenters will be Tom Dawson, urban designer, and Sara Young, Urban Design Center supervisor for the Durham City-County Planning Department
May 15, 2013 – “Raleigh, A Festival City.”
- The host will be David Diaz, President and CEO, Downtown Raleigh Alliance.
- Presenters will be Sarah Powers, executive director of Visual Art Exchange, an organizer of the SPARKcon festival, and Samantha Hatem, who handles media and outreach for Empire Eats
June 19 – “Raleigh’s Pedestrian Plan.”
- The host will be Eric Lamb, manager of the City of Raleigh Office of Transportation Planning.
- Presenters will be Lauren Blackburn and Helen Chaney of the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Fleming El-Amin, transportation planner for the City of Raleigh.
Renovation on Salisbury Uncovering History
I wanted to highlight this article about the renovation work going on at 200 South Salisbury Street. The News & Observer writes about some great work going on at the corner of Salisbury and Hargett:
Now, workers are pulling down that skin, revealing what developer James A. Goodnight hopes will become a striking historic piece of Raleigh’s revitalizing downtown.
“I don’t know why they did this to this building,” says project coordinator Chris Surrett, as workers cut pieces of the steel frame that was bolted to the building to hold up the stucco. “We’re going to take it back to where it’s pretty again.”
…….
He bought the two adjoining buildings through Paper Clip Properties LLC in July for $700,000 and hopes to turn the ground floor into a restaurant and lease the upper floors for offices.
*Classic downtown Raleigh building emerging from behind modern, stucco shell
Here’s an older photo of the building and while Goodnight’s work won’t bring it back exactly the same, it gives us an idea of what the team there is uncovering.
From the State Archives of North Carolina
Details Rise Up Seven Stories For The West Apartments
The 400 block of North West Street.
The Raleigh Planning Commission’s agenda for today’s meeting contains some new details worth sharing on the blog. The West Apartments is up for approval and may one day bring about 150 apartments to West Street in Glenwood South. The building, being designed by the same JDavis Architects that brought us the West at North tower, will sit adjacent to the same building you see in the picture above. You can see from the site map that the new building will remove the sales office along Harrington Street and the rest of the surface parking in the surrounding lot.
Screenshot from Google Maps
There’s nothing too exciting in the agenda as the 85′ tower will consist of two levels of parking (one above and one below ground) and five floors of residential. No rendering is included. The tower isn’t taking out anything anyone might miss but is bringing some retail space with it. The new development therefore brings upgraded 14′ sidewalks to West and Harrington Street. While not a requirement, 10 bicycle spaces will be provided. Check the agenda for floorplans also.
Private development is moving closer and closer to the county’s land along Capital Boulevard and while it will probably take awhile, I’m still hoping for Tucker Street to extend to the east towards Capital one day. I hope to see the east side of Glenwood South become a grid again so the neighborhood has room to grow.
Fall Backwards For The 2012 Fall Restaurant Roundup
The restaurant waves keep crashing in and this Fall, there are some new options for you and quite a few announcements of things to come in the Downtown Raleigh foodie pipeline. Most of the new places are setting up in previously empty retail spaces rather then closed spaces. Downtown just hasn’t tapped out yet.
As always, make sure to bookmark the DT Raleigh Eats list when you need to find something new. Onto the roundup.
- Pictured above is the signage for an upcoming 100% vegetarian restaurant on Dawson Street. Fiction Kitchen hopes to open within the next few months and could use your help through their Kickstarter campaign.
- Zinda has now opened in one of the ground floor spaces in PNC Plaza. The new Asian restaurant expands Eschelon Hospitality’s takeover of the 300 block of Fayetteville Street.
- Bida Manda, a Laotian restaurant, is now open on Blount Street across from Moore Square. Bida Manda replaces the former Fai Thai restaurant in the same space that closed in July 2011.
- Work continues on the new spaces at Seaboard Station where a coffee shop, Blend and Grind, and a burger shop, Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar, are planned.
- A collaboration between the folks behind Dos Taquitos and The Hibernian will result in Dos Taquitos Xoco which will open in the former space of The Diner in Glenwood South. The new restaurant is being worked on today and expected to open this fall.
- Not satisfied yet, those behind The Hibernian are working on another pub along Person Street near Piebird. Work on the former Rosie’s Plate will bring a neighborhood beer and wine bar around Spring of next year.
- Bolt Bistro and Bar is really taking shape and the sign is up on the space along Fayetteville Street. The sign still says opening Summer 2012 so hopefully the slip in the schedule isn’t too bad.
- The house at 610 Glenwood Avenue has had major renovation work done to it and a new bar, View Bar, is set to open there. You can follow the progress up until opening on their Facebook page.
- Across the street at 603 Glenwood Avenue, work continues on another bar for the renovated house at the corner of Glenwood and Johnson Street.
Union Station Fully Funded, Could Be Open In 2016
This is a short one but a good one. Some great news out of the future Raleigh Union Station last week.
Mayor Nancy McFarlane welcomed Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo to Raleigh today for the announcement that the Union Station Project will receive the full $60 million in funding.
*Full Funding for Raleigh’s Union Station Project Is Announced
The video of the announcement can be seen below or on Youtube.
Pic of the Week
Capital Area Transit (CAT) is currently working on a new branding scheme which will include updated brochures, information, and even a bus paint job. CAT painted a single bus in order to get a real-world look at the design. If approved, the whole fleet may one day sport this red and white design. What do you think?
Municipography: Union Station and R-Line Changes
Municipography is a summary of current issues going through the Raleigh City Council and other municipal departments in the city. The point is to try to deliver any video, photos, and text associated with the discussions happening at City Hall or elsewhere. Since this is a downtown Raleigh blog, the focus is on the center of the city.
I recommend email readers click through to the website to see the embedded video.
At the Raleigh City Council meeting on September 4, 2012, the council discussed funding for the Union Station project as well as approved some changes at the Moore Square Bus Station that will effect the R-Line.
Union Station
During the meeting, council discussed a future commitment of $3 million towards the Union Station project. Comments were generally positive about the station and it really feels that Raleigh and NCDOT want this project to succeed. With a 6-1 vote, the council approved the additional funds.
The city also approved the allocation of funds towards development of a schematic design for the project.
Bus Traffic at Moore Square Station
We haven’t talked about it on this blog before but there have been grumblings about the bus and pedestrian traffic along Wilmington Street and the effect it has on nearby businesses. To catch readers up, I’ll point you to a few articles from the local news media:
Business owners and residents in the Moore Square area met with the City of Raleigh on Tuesday, trying to come up with ways to address loitering, panhandling and bus congestion in the Moore Square District.
*Downtown Raleigh residents decry loitering, panhandling, ‘riff-raff’
Business owners say the crowds, coupled with bus congestion along the street, create an uninviting atmosphere for customers.
*New merchants chafe at crowds from Moore Square bus terminal
Here’s an alternative viewpoint from Barry Saunders at the N&O.
Here’s my advice to the business owners who are so dismayed that a city’s downtown transit center has people occupying various rungs of the social ladder: go out and meet them and talk to them. You may find that they are just like you, except they don’t have a car.
*Saunders: Respect needed among Moore Square’s old and new
Now that you are caught up, at the city council meeting this week, the recommendations from the Law and Public Safety Committee were unanimously approved. Those include:
- Expand the bus zone on Wilmington Street to relieve bus congestion.
- Move the R-16 Moore Square Deck station south of Martin Street.
- The R-Line will now always run along the nighttime route that rounds Moore Square.
- Immediate upgrades to the Moore Square Station including better pedestrian access, lighting, and safety upgrades.
While this may or may not solve the bus traffic issue on Wilmington Street, the R-Line may be the victim. R-Line riders could potentially experience added wait time as the bus will always make the trip around Moore Square rather than driving straight up Wilmington Street during the daytime operating hours. However, this may be a temporary solution until the Moore Square Bus Station is significantly upgraded for more bus capacity.