More of a rendering or cross-section this week. As I was looking through the RUSbus grant application, I noticed this diagram of how the mixed-use project could look like. Now this isn’t set in stone by any means but I take it as what the planners have in mind including market-rate and affordable housing, hotel, office, and retail space. Being a transit hub as well, this may be the most mixed-use project in downtown Raleigh.
See more at rusbusnc.com.
Rendering of Smokey Hollow Phase 2. Click for larger.
While the community actively watches the first phase of Smokey Hollow rise out of the ground along Peace Street, plans for more buildings have been submitted. Phase 2 will contain additional buildings along West and Harrington Streets with residential and office components.
The highlights:
The rendering above shows the key pieces of the second phase of the three-phase project for the area. With phase 1 (currently under construction) delivering the anchor, a Publix grocery store, phase 2 brings more community and placemaking around it with an office tower, more retail spaces, and overall just a more interesting place to be.
It looks like West Street will become a residential street with the addition of a five-story building. The new building will stretch from the West at North tower all the way to the new Johnson Street intersection. Retail spaces will be mixed along West with even more along a new private drive that goes through the development.
The “intersection” of Tucker and West will have a private drive that cuts through to Harrington as well as pedestrian-only plaza towards Johnson. Here, more retail and outdoor spaces will be made to create a sense of place. The renderings below will help to visualize the concept.
Rendering of Smokey Hollow Phase 2, West Street at Tucker St. Click for larger.
Rendering of Smokey Hollow Phase 2, Retail along the “interior”. Click for larger.
Rendering of Smokey Hollow Phase 2, Retail along the “interior”. Click for larger.
All of this should drastically improve the sidewalk experience in the area. West and Harrington will become two key urban streets, something we’ve discussed before, and Smokey Hollow basically becomes the northern gateway to downtown Raleigh. In the future, as a BRT line goes through this area, the flow of people through it will become more obvious.
Rendering of Smokey Hollow Phase 2. Click for larger.
Tightening the fabric between Smokey Hollow and the rest of Glenwood South would really make the area lively and I’m hoping that the office tower does very well. More workers could really bring more streetlife to the daytime hours here and give Glenwood South that 24-7 feel. Mix in the future Devereux Meadow park north of Peace and the area should really take off!
More to come on this one for sure!
The city has posted the latest version of the master plan for the downtown civic campus. This would involve a significant update to the municipal buildings to the north of Nash Square. Over time, it’s possible that the existing buildings will all be demolished and up to 20-story towers for city workers will be built on this block.
Jump into the plan (pdf doc) here on the city’s website.
The Avery C. Upchurch block, or municipal block as I’m calling it, consists of the former Raleigh Police Headquarters building, the Raleigh municipal building (RMB) currently in use, and a 3-story parking deck. The police HQ is currently vacant and we’ve outgrown the RMB to the point where extensive maintenance is needed in the next few years.
From the executive summary in the master plan:
The future Raleigh Civic Campus will be a mixed-use, walkable destination consisting of a New City Hall with public-facing government functions, expanded municipal departmental space, and pedestrian-connected public spaces. Other land uses may be arranged around the campus, including urban retail, commercial office, housing, and a combination of below-grade and structured parking. The total potential of the Civic Campus is approximately 2.2 million gross square feet, excluding underground parking and services. The full build-out of the campus is dependent upon the execution of several capital projects over three phases and employing a suite of delivery methods, including City-owned and managed development, private capital-led development, and potentially a collaborative public-private partnership.
The full implementation of the campus will take place over 3 phases, generally broken down into these projects:
The additional space on this campus will be for current workers who are spread across downtown as well as new hires in the future. The civic campus aims to consolidate offices and bring together departments as a way to make the campus more secure and more customer-friendly in a cost-conscious manner.
The master plan lays out the costs of doing nothing and just maintaining buildings and the difference is in the tens of millions of dollars. See page 18 for more details.
As each department continues to grow, accommodation of the City’s expanding workforce in an organized and fiscally responsible manner will become increasingly difficult. City staff has conservatively estimated the need to invest more than $245 Million (in today’s dollars) over the next 30 years just to maintain the status quo.
The master plan really focuses on delivering the needs of the city for the next 30-40 years between these two towers, the East Building, and West Building. (Phases 1 and 2) Mixed-use development through collaboration with a private developer for phase 3 isn’t quite set in stone, which makes sense. It’s a good opportunity to provide something that’s needed on the northern end of the block such as housing or hospitality but those needs haven’t been identified just yet.
There’s plenty of opportunities to build as the entire block is zoned DX-20-SH, or downtown mixed-use with a 20-story height limit, shopfront design. This is significantly mroe dense than what we have today.
With a much larger presence here on the municipal block, the civic campus becomes a destination and should help connect downtown districts. This is touched on more in the master plan where the design team has thought about connecting it along the east-west streets of Morgan and Hargett from the Warehouse District to Fayetteville Street. Nash Square should not feel isolated from the campus but rather become an extension.
This makes pedestrians number one along Hargett Street and the public plaza must emphasize that. Taking cues from the 2015 Downtown Plan, this vision supports Hargett Street having an attractive and livelier streetscape.
The master plan continues with details about a central gathering space and plaza within the site and possible uses for the mixed-use portion on the northern half. The examples from other cities are helpful in visualizing what is possible so I encourage readers to check it out.
I’m very happy with what’s in this master plan and feel it’s got all the right elements put together for this area. In my opinion, some points really need to be hammered home once the city gets into the details. I would want to really emphasize the need to make the municipal buildings along Hargett welcoming and engaged with the sidewalk rather than being stale, public buildings.
The SECU tower is a good example of how a modern tower can engage the sidewalk, provide outdoor spaces for gathering and mix it with retail. (if they had any so I have to pretend) The county’s justice center seems to have missed the mark with their monolithic presence along Martin Street and their foreboding main entrance along Salisbury. (I love the art deco look from afar though)
I’d love to see Hargett Street get the “City Plaza” treatment. Between the East and West buildings and Nash Square, let’s create an even street separated with bollards (trees?) where pedestrians and vehicles are on an equal plane. Transparency through the ground-floor of these sites all the way to Nash Square might just give you that park-like feeling even if you’re a block away.
Retail spaces along Hargett should be plentiful since there is only space on one side. I’d like to see the city take a less traditional approach to it also. For example, businesses may not be clamoring for space here right away so as spaces are empty, pop-up concepts should be welcomed. That approach can help new businesses kickstart themselves and down the road, move on to a more established home nearby or elsewhere in Raleigh.
With phase 3 being so far out, it’s probably best to comment on that piece down the road. This project will be fun to watch and I’m hoping for something that Raleigh can be proud of.
The newest owners of the 1850s mansion in Boylan Heights are making moves to turn it into a boutique hotel. Located at the edge of the neighborhood at Boylan and Mountford Avenue, the hotel is in a great location and offers a unique stay.
The owners are currently going through the rezoning process and if that goes as planned, renovation work will take place after that. What a great way to save some of Raleigh’s historic houses on the edge of downtown. I’m excited to see it finished one day.
Follow the progress and see some great photos of the interior on their Instagram page.
Click for larger
It’s starting to get fun when you build a catalog of photos over a long time.
The two photos above are from the Boylan Avenue Bridge with one photo taken in September 2007 and another September 2018. Over 11 years, things have filled in just a bit.
In the foreground, Raleigh Union Station has really made the Boylan Wye look cleaner with a lot of that overgrowth being pulled out. With such an odd space to develop, I’m hoping for the day that new streets and buildings can just be built on top of all these railroads tracks to create new downtown spaces.
The Dillon is front and center no doubt when seen from the Boylan Avenue bridge. Around it, Citrix really presents a new view of the warehouse district from the bridge.
In the distance, the southern end of Fayetteville Street is mostly the same as the Marriott Hotel, while still under construction, was topped off in 2007. One exception might be the Residence Inn and the Justice Center is there but can be easily missed.
It’s fun to look but a well-formed skyline isn’t at the top of my list, sidewalk experiences are my numero uno, but it’s fun to take a look at how our downtown core is changing in its built form. Enjoy the photos and come chat about it on our community.
A second dockless scooter company is now operating in Raleigh. Lime has brought their electric scooters to the area and just like Bird have them concentrated in the downtown area.
Lime technically gets the award for the first dockless provider in Raleigh with the launch of their bikes around the NC State area. You might occasionally see them downtown but not reliably from my experience. That’s kind of by design since they were launched in a partnership with the university and not the city.
This makes two scooter companies operating in the area which expands the overall number of vehicles, providing more choice to the end user. As of this writing, the city is drafting dockless scooter regulations so the drama over this new form of transportation may not be over.
Welcome to the newest version of the blog!
By my count, this would be the fourth major overhaul (and cleanup) of this site. Yes, I’m still running on WordPress but I’ve retired the custom theme that I have been using since 2012. With a strong affinity for web development, I wanted to run my own theme on this blog but just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. With that, I’m going with this cleaner, simpler look that’s modern under-the-covers.
The blog will always be about trying to tell stories with photos and text and I think this new look still captures that. As expected, the blog works on all devices so you can read and search the site wherever you are with whatever you have. Make sure to sign up for emails in case that’s your preferred method of staying in touch.
New or veteran, I thank you for visiting the site especially my core group who have been emailing me as the new site has been coming online over the past few days.
It’s meetup time! Come join us for our fourth reader/listener meetup!
This is a casual, social event where you can chitchat about downtown Raleigh, transit, development and more. Each time we’ll choose a slightly different mix of area bloggers/podcasters related to Raleigh. We have a lot of fun conversation with amazing people doing cool things in Raleigh!
In addition to yours truly, come meet the people behind:
And maybe more?
Date/Time: Wed., Oct. 3 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
London Bridge Pub