by Leo Suarez

RBC Deck Facade Does Not Impress

The RBC Deck is being built pretty fast so of course, we already need another update. The construction has topped out and now reached Blount St. At the current pace, this end of the deck will probably be done before April. There is enough of the brick facade up that we get an idea of what we are going to see. I’m really not too impressed but looking at all the other city decks around downtown, should I really expect something great?

This end of the deck has some advantages from what I can see. Blount St. is a one way street and this may prove favorable with traffic flow as cars can only take right turns into and leaving the deck. At first I was shocked at how wide the stairwell was but I’m going to guess there will also be an elevator. The center space will be for RalCon offices retail and in my opinion this is not a bad spot to set up shop. City Market and Moore Square are just across the street and there is no reason to complain about parking here with 1500+ spaces right above.

by Leo Suarez

EnviroCon: Green Square Project Moving Forward

Here is a sleeper project that I think is not talked about much. The Green Square project will involve two new buildings and a parking deck on the south side of Jones St. between Dawson and Salisbury St. The billboards placed around the site give the following details:

  • Headquarters for the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources
  • The Nature Research Center, an expansion of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences
  • Visitor and employee parking deck
  • Retail store and restaurant

They also mention the following actions in the near future:

  • Sustainable demolition of three existing buildings
  • Reuse of demolition materials
  • Recycling of construction material
  • Applied energy-efficient building technology
  • Monitoring for potential wind and solar energy
  • Monitoring for rainwater retention and runoff

A friend of mine is involved in a small aspect of this project and he told me that these buildings will be coming down very soon. So for those that want to see these brick boxes for one last time, you better make your way out there. Here are the three buildings being demolished and an area map in Google.

View Larger Map

From what I’ve heard about this project is that both buildings will be connected with a walkway over McDowell St. The Nature Center will also be connected to the existing Natural Science Museum with its own glass walkway over Salisbury St. There are no new renderings available except this one on the city’s Livable Streets website, which may be a little old.

Looks like this old rendering during “Bugfest 2004” supports some of the stated bullets. You can see a couple wind generators and lots of green rooftops. The rumor is that these buildings are seeking a Gold LEED standard. I really doubt that a couple of wind generators will be running this building; these will probably be on display as part of the museum. Just my guess though.

At this point, the only thing I’m curious to know about is the parking deck. Will it be well placed behind the office buildings such as The L? If it is put directly next to the sidewalk, will it have retail space on the street? We’ll wait and see.

by Leo Suarez

Raleigh Wide Open III on Sept. 5-6

RWO III has been announced and it all revolves around the opening of the new Raleigh Convention Center. Clear your calendars for a two-day party on September 5th and 6th. This new info comes from a news conference held this morning which the N&O has covered.

RALEIGH – A two-day downtown celebration Sept. 5 and 6 will mark the opening of Raleigh’s new convention center, officials said today.

At a news conference this morning, Mayor Charles Meeker and Wake commissioners’ chairman Joe Bryan announced plans for a street festival to be called “Raleigh Wide Open III” and an indoor “showcase extravaganza.” They expect 100,000 people to attend.

The events start with a ribbon-cutting at noon Friday, Sept. 5. The celebration will run from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. that day and from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6.

by Leo Suarez

City Plaza Will Not Be Ready For Convention Center Opening

I sent off a couple e-mails about the current state of the City Plaza project. I thought it was a no-brainer that getting this plaza done at the same time as the opening of the Raleigh Convention Center and Marriot Hotel was important. The response I got was not so pleasant.

Leo,
Thanks for your inquiry. In the City Plaza, we are completing the negotiation of the easement with the owners of the Bank of America building – this should get us ready for a full funding, design approval and authorization to proceed at the last Council meeting in March or the first of April, Which completes construction in May of 2009. I have enclosed a rendering. Thanks

Daniel T. Douglas AICP
Division Manager
Raleigh Urban Design Center & Communications Group
Department of City Planning

By the way, the attached rendering has already been posted on the city’s website. Here are more for your viewing pleasure.

The convention center and hotel will be open September of this year. It looks like we’ll have a nice construction site in the middle of Fayetteville St. for eight months after this. Before you start getting all upset like I did, you may need to think consider some other factors.

The perfect scenario would have been for the plaza to be ready for all the new visitors, and current residents, to see and enjoy. It can be argued that first impressions are important and getting this thing done on time should have been something to fight for. But honestly, this is only eight months and we have booked some conventions through 2020. Fayetteville St. is not the only district downtown. There are plenty of other areas that will be ready to serve visitors in the mean time. It is also important to note that this is out of the city’s hands as the owners of One Hannover (BoA building) are the major player in this little project.

It is unfortunate that we have to wait even longer to do a drive or walk from one end of Fayetteville St. to the other. I would have preferred it to be ready for the September opening, but if eight more months is needed then I’ll deal with it.

by Leo Suarez

Justice Center Expansion, $200+ Million and a Historic Raleigh Cost


The needs of the county are growing and Wake must provide proper justice services to all of us. To do this, Wake is expanding the current Public Safety Center with this new $214 million project pictured above. Here is the site in Google maps:

View Larger Map

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. You may recognize these two buildings shown below.

The N&O has an article with more information. Here are some highlights:

Dubbed the Wake County Justice Center, the 11-story building will house criminal courtrooms as well as a number of county offices, including the Board of Commissioners’ meeting room, the county manager’s offices, the Register of Deeds and the Revenue Department. The current county courthouse will become the home for civil legal matters.

WHEN IT’LL BE DONE: Demolition is slated to begin by the end of this year, and the building is slated to be in use by 2013, according to a timeline of the project.

Wake County also has some information on their website, with more renderings of the building here.

I went out and got this picture yesterday. This is the current view from Nash square.


Before. Current justice center is tower in the back right

In 5 years, we’ll have this.


After. Replaces the deck and connects to current justice center

It is nothing too exciting. I guess this is one place I hope I never have to go inside? The building is a service to our county so if we do need this then I have no problem with expanded government services. The building is seeking a LEED certification, so I’m happy that there will be environmentally friendly elements to this new structure. The current parking deck being built on the site of The L will be used for employees commuting to work here. That means a rise in downtown workers and hopefully a rise in restaurants, shops, and living options in and near downtown for this increasing workforce.

by Leo Suarez

State of the City [UPDATE]

Mayor Meeker’s speech is today at noon over at the Progress Energy Center of the Performing Arts. I’m going to update this post later with some thoughts after I watch it. Unfortunately, I cannot go to it so I may have to wait until I get home from work so leave comments on your predictions or for those that went, please leave any reactions or reviews.

It is open to the public and they are also selling lunch.

[UPDATE 3:15pm]
I was able to watch the ‘State of the City’ speech given today by Mayor Meeker online while at work. The speech was nice and short and hit on key topics; some relative to downtown. The drought was the biggest topic, as it should be, and affects everyone in Raleigh. The mayor said that a study with the army corps of engineers has revealed that Falls Lake may be dry by this summer. I know I’ve been watching my water consumption but will start to see if I can do even more. I encourage everyone to do the same.

Here are some downtown highlights:

  • The mayor mentioned the amount of cranes downtown, showing tremendous new developments as well as renovation projects.
  • The Convention Center will open in August; it is fully booked through 2008 and mostly 2009.
  • Transportation will be very important this year. It is time to “get serious” about improving the bus service and creating a rail system.
  • Transit will also change “the old-fashioned way” starting with improvements to sidewalks, lights, and creating pedestrian friendly environments. The mayor mentioned complete streets as a model
  • There will be a focus on urban growth in downtown and along major corridors in the city.
  • The African American Cultural Center is currently in its design phase. Financial details as well as location are still being discussed.
  • There is a downtown parking study underway, results are still a few months away.
  • The mayor stressed energy efficiency in our city lights. There are over 30,000 incandescent bulbs around the city that are planned to be switched over to LED lighting.
  • There will be an Arts Foundation starting with the city putting up to $100,000 a year. The mayor used the new art pieces in Chavis Park and Fred Fletcher Park as examples of what would appear around the city.
  • Dorothea Dix is planning to move most of its beds to the site in Butner in 2Q 2008, but some operations will remain on the site for a little longer. The Dix master plan is favoring a park but it will really come down to what our state officials decide to do with the site (it is state owned property after all).
  • Affordable housing downtown was brought up and it is currently being looked at. No plans as of yet.

The mayor also made a small note about creating destinations around Raleigh, downtown, North Hills, Crabtree were some example. He wanted to light these places up to let people know that this is an important area of the city. He mentioned that the dome of the capitol building is now lit up as of about 2 weeks ago. This explains why I have been looking at the Capitol building at night so funny lately, I never caught this.

It sounds like Raleigh is doing great but our water supply is the biggest concern. If we all can battle through this drought and the city can come up with a plan to solve this issue, then we can finally move on from this 10 month war. It sounds like the mayor has ideas to slow sprawl and attack traffic problems now before they get out of hand. He used Charlotte as an example when talking about transit and how their model was good. I’m glad they got the chance to go out there and see the light rail line personally.

You can watch or read more about the speech (as of 3:07pm) at WRAL and ABC11.