by Leo Suarez

Hillsborough St. Gets Taller

I realized something yesterday as I was driving home on capital into downtown. There is no real skyline that greets you as you drive in on southbound capital blvd. The newly finished Quorum Center is up which is a plus and later on next year we’ll have the West at North condo tower over in Glenwood South but there are no significantly tall buildings close by and its hard to see the cluster of towers over on Fayetteville St. I realized that I was not thinking too deeply and all that will change in the coming years.

A new 32 story tower will be built on the Dawson/Morgan/Hillsborough block. It’s across the street from The Dawson, behind The Flying Saucer, and across the street from the Clarion Hotel. This tower will add to that northern skyline that I was talking about. I like the placement of the building because it helps to connect the areas of downtown better. If more density grows around it, it will create a lively scene from Fayetteville St. all the way to Glenwood.

The current residence at the site, set to be demolished this summer

The tower does not have an official name so everyone calls it the Reynolds tower. This is because the father and son developers, Ted and David Reynolds, are behind it. They were also behind the Quorum Center, so they have strong Raleigh ties.

The tower is mixed use with 133 hotel rooms, 25 condos, office space, and ground floor retail (3 shops to be exact). No word on the brand of hotel in the building or plans for the stores on the ground. There will also be a 5 story parking deck right up next to the building.

I really like this building and I think it is the one that I am most excited about. Now that the ball is rolling, this project will move fast. It has been an almost 5 year struggle for the Reynolds to land the property and get all the paperwork figured out. I believe because of the need for the office space by the city, the tower’s construction is on a tight schedule. We can all expect this building to be completed no later than July 2009!

N&O Article


the Clarion hotel won’t be the tallest in the area pretty soon


32 stories on the left, with a 5 story deck on the right


enjoy it while it lasts

by Leo Suarez

Downtown Transportation Center In-Depth

Transportation is always a big issue in the triangle. With so many towns and different counties all part of the region, it is important to have a strong transportation infrastructure connecting us all. Hopefully you’ve heard about the TTA regional rail system that is being proposed and should get underway in the coming years. It is simply not feasible and not smart to simply add more highways or widen current ones to allow more traffic. There must be alternatives in place and the regional rail will attempt to do just that.

The main hub, or grand central station as named in this WRAL article, will be in downtown Raleigh. It will be in the area of the old train track station and warehouses that are old, worn out and unused on Hargett St. and behind the warehouses on West St.

Yellow – vehicle traffic
Red – mass transit
Purple – foot traffic
Blue – developments

The transportation center at this site will incorporate all transportation elements the city offers. Along with the rail system, there will be buses and taxis ready to move people to other locations. By looking at the current model, they plan on extending Glenwood Ave. as the entrance to the station that will feed into a round about for dropping off passengers. If you plan on parking here, then you must make your way down West St. and into the parking deck shown. The proposal also plans for development around the station which will probably be shops in the immediate area and condos close by.

I think the transportation center is a great idea. With a central hub of transportation it will be very easy for people to use an alternative mode of travel. With an easier way to get downtown, we will also see less parking decks being built, as more people will choose to ride the train into downtown. I’m sure the fairgrounds station will be a popular park and ride location for downtown and NCSU workers. It is only a five block walk from the downtown transportation center to Fayetteville St. and as the use of the station increases and with current growth downtown, some sort of trolley system will be implemented to move people around the area. The entire train system should not be built only because of pure necessity but towards smart growth and the future of the area.

by Leo Suarez

Something BIG is brewing……..

This will be a short one, sort of a follow up to this post about the almost 4 acre block north of Progress Energy’s newest building. I saw this on Raleigh’s livable streets plan website.

RFP Process results in Hamilton Merritt proposal being accepted – Mixed use hotel, movie theatre, condominiums, parking deck two 30-story towers – development agreement pending.

Such an important piece of information would not be announced this way. Who knows what this could mean or what is being planned. It may even be a leak of information or someone is playing a hoax. Either way when more information is available, I’ll be sure to post it.

by Leo Suarez

Downtown Construction Updates

I’m finally getting around to posting the pics I took last weekend. These are pictures of current construction projects and future sites.


Bloomsbury Estates

The fourth floor is rising up on the Bloomsbury Estates project. This building shown is the first of two 7 story buildings that will occupy the lot.


222 Glenwood, view from Glenwwod Ave


222 Glenwood, view from West St.

The parking deck is almost done at 222 Glenwood. The deck is in the back of the property and it looks like the condos on the front, facing Glenwood Ave, haven’t really been touched just yet.


West at North

The lot for West at North has been cleared. Hopefully we will start seeing some progress in a few months unlike 222 which seemed to take forever before any real work was done.

by Leo Suarez

Solas coming to Glenwood South

For all of you Glenwood groupies, including myself, this one is exciting. The group, Hibernia Entertainment, is opening Solas at the site of the old brake repair shop. You may have notice it vanish recently and now is the barren wasteland next to Helios. What you’ll see there soon is a 3 story building with a restaurant on the ground floor, a club on the second and a patio lounge on the third. The patio on the top floor will be pretty open and should give people a great view of the city over The Creamery located across the street.

The rendering looks pretty good and I think it will fit nicely into the Glenwood South scene. The building will probably be built right up to Helios and add some much needed density to the area. Hopefully the company backing this can land a great restaurant that draws a good lunch crowd. I’d like to see Glenwood busy at all times of the day. I already know that this will be a hit at night. I like the fact that there are lots of windows facing the street, showing the activity inside. Expect to be rooftop drinking at Solas sometime in spring 2008.

For more information, make sure to read the story in the N&O

by Leo Suarez

Raleigh’s City Plaza

Yesterday the Raleigh City Council approved the design for the city plaza that will go on the 500 block of Fayetteville St. This is the space between One Hannover Square (Bank of America building) and Two Hannover Square (BB&T building). Currently, Fayetteville Street ends at this space because construction on the Marriott Hotel and what is called Site 1 are underway. It’s all part of the Fayetteville street phase II project (phase I being completed last summer ’06)

Make sure to read the list of components in the design schematic as I feel they are important and do a good job summarizing how the space should be. As you can see from the map above, if the street continues south there will be more space on the sides because of the buildings’ placements. I like the plans for retail and restaurants to be planned along the front of the buildings along Fayetteville Street. They are even planning wireless internet for the plaza. There were a couple of stories about it on WRAL and I recall them mentioning a video monitor placed somewhere.


Digital Rendering

This city plaza comes after the downfall of the design by Jaume Plensa. His design involved a grid of lights and a stream of water. The failure of this project all came with the implosion of the old convention center, at that point the view from Memorial Auditorium down to the Capitol building was restored and city leaders did not want it touched. The project turned into a huge controversy and eventually because of the city’s mishandling, constant bickering with the design, and never accepting the artist’s changes to the work (insulting maybe?) the project was dropped. Should Raleigh have gone ahead and approved the design? We will save that discussion for another day.


Plensa’s Design

I believe the new plaza will have much potential and in a few years after it is completed it will easily see activity for 18 hours of the day. It is located in the heart of downtown and in the core business district. With Site 1 and the new Marriott hotel under construction a block away, it will be immersed in activity and should easily succeed.

by Leo Suarez

Introduction

So with all the wealth of knowledge I have acquired about the city of Raleigh, I’ve decided to put it all together on this blog. What I really want to do is follow developments as they progress throughout the city, especially in the downtown area. What you’ll see on this blog is a lot of pictures of buildings, lots, construction sites, and perhaps some other general images.

On top of all the cool buildings going up that define the downtown Raleigh structure I want to talk about some of the other cultural aspects of the city. You will be seeing lots of music posts as well. I support the local music venues and try and get out to shows as often as I can. Expect pictures and reviews of random shows throughout Raleigh.

The blog is pretty straightforward and we’ll start things off with events happening this week. Make sure to leave comments and suggestions as I am open for new ideas and projects.