A crane has shown up at the site of The Metropolitan. The parking deck is being put together and foundation work has begun. It’s great to see the site being rebuilt after the fire in March of this year. The area nearby is undergoing a lot of change so it’s nice to see planned residential come through.
Hopefully, the roads will reopen sometime soon. Feels doubtful though as the Quorum Center is still in pretty bad shape from what can be seen on the outside.
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I was perusing through the latest updates for the city’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan when I spotted this beauty of a map. Technically, it’s not new but just a revised (better looking) map of proposed retail streets in downtown Raleigh.
I wanted to post it here for reference. New developments along these identified streets should be encouraged to provide continuous, ground-floor retail and/or active spaces. That’s something to keep in mind for new proposals.
If you can’t see the embedded video, click here.
During the November 8, 2017 city council meeting, city staff and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance gave a nice update on plans to bring interactive wayfinding kiosks to downtown Raleigh.
Negotiations are ongoing with Orange Barrel Media, producers of IKE, an “interactive kiosk experience” and if all goes well, the rollout of the system could take place in Spring 2018.
The presentation to council is embedded above for your viewing pleasure but some of the highlights include:
Since downtown Raleigh doesn’t have a designated shopping street these kiosks can only help direct folks to the right places or even find ones they didn’t know about. With transit info alongside this information, it may make users aware of the system and consider an alternative method.
The kiosks may be outside as well as inside some locations including the convention center and union station. Other proposed locations include City Plaza, Moore Square, Seaboard Station, and Shaw.
Council approved the proposal and we just might see these pop up in 2018.
The construction site at Boylan Flats is really moving now. The 48-unit apartment building on the 600 block of North Boylan will most likely finish sometime next year.
I wonder if those south facing units may one-day be just a few feet away from a future development on the corner of Boylan and Johnson. That may just be a risk when building a narrow development mid-block with interior windows I guess.
Here’s a pretty cool project that popped up on the city’s development site. SR-103-17 gives us hints at what is planned for the building at 107 West Hargett, the current location of Father and Son. The shop will be moving over to the warehouse district in the near future but until then plans for additional floors and renovations to the current building are underway.
Currently, the property at 107 West Hargett has a single floor from “front to back” with a second and third floor on the front half facing Hargett. There’s also a basement in there but the plans do not indicate anything about it right now.
Here’s a Google Maps “aerial” of the building.
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Clearscapes is the architect behind this project and they want to renovate the three-story building while adding five stories in the back. The fourth and fifth floors will actually go over the front older section and face the street with balconies. See the rendering below.
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If that’s not quite clear, here is a shot of the back of the Father and Son building. You can see the one-story rear and floors 2 and 3 of the “front” half as seen through this surface parking lot along Salisbury Street.
The site plan suggests that offices will be used in the upper floors with a restaurant on the ground-floor. Maybe that basement can be put to use also for more restaurant or bar space too.
This sounds like a great project that maintains a little character in downtown while also adding space for more uses.
Email readers: This blog post has a virtual reality image. Read the post on the blog to see it.
Plans submitted to the city for The Willard are showing a 7-story building for the southwest corner of Glenwood Avenue and Willard Place. It will consist of 121 hotel rooms, 16 condos, and ground-floor retail. The hotel will be an AC Hotel by Marriott brand.
Let’s get into the maps.
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The brick office buildings and associated surface parking lots will be cleared out for The Willard. I want to say some residential units are here also but I can’t confirm. Maybe a reader knows more about the makeup of these current buildings and can share.
The Willard will have its own parking with an attached deck containing 61 spaces. The entrance/exit will be on Willard Place in the rear of the building.
When looking at the site plan for the first floor, there’s a bit too many walls and glass for my taste. Glenwood South is one of our more intense pedestrian corridors so if this is the final layout I would consider this poor support for street life activity.
Here it is below with only the lobby and one 3,100 square foot retail space on the corner of Willard and Glenwood.
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I’ll admit though that I have no experience with this “higher end” brand of hotel. The bar/lounge area may be a site in itself so maybe it’s not that bad.
I’ve always felt that Glenwood South needs a solid southern bookend and One Glenwood is probably going to be it. The addition of a hotel on the southern end will help make the street feel longer with a variety of activity.
Here’s a bonus, a VR view of Willard and Glenwood from November 2017.
Fencing is going up around Moore Square making it officially closed for the renovation. Art should be placed along the fencing soon as a way to keep the area looking lively.
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.
The City of Raleigh government’s latest logo
During this week’s city council meeting, a major update was announced and approved in the long-time process of revamping the city’s brand. The city government now has its first logo, shown above, and will be implemented across the city’s departments.
Not to be confused with the City of Raleigh seal acting as a logo, the new logo will be used in a variety of ways complimented with custom typography (Raleigh Bold) and even future icons that represent the new mission and vision statement.
The logo is for the city’s government and not for tourism.
The presentation given during the council meeting is a good one to watch for more details and I have it embedded below. If you can’t see it, click here to go to YouTube.
Social and news media certainly likes to highlight the plethora of criticism about the new logo. You can’t help but comment when you consider that $226,000 went into the process of creating it.
I don’t have the eye to criticize the logo itself but I do want to elaborate a bit on this cost, a cost that I see well worth it and there are critical things I think folks are missing.
If Raleigh wants to be a national player in business recruitment and even be well represented at some international conversations, a well-thought-out and high-quality brand is a must. To get that, a thorough process that takes community feedback to guide the design team towards this logo “package” is an equitable approach.
The cost wasn’t just for that tree at the top of this post but for an in-depth process to get the pulse of Raleighites and represent that in a simple and effective logo. The feedback collection process was actually a larger share of the cost compared to the actual design work.
For me, I felt like I saw huge value in the logo’s versatility with this video that shows how it can be used in a variety of ways. I can picture print, media, and video incorporating it in consistent yet slightly different ways than the next. If you can’t see it, click here to go to YouTube.
As the branding package rolls out, I think then that more and more people will see the value here. I’m happy to see us tackle a topic that is so subjective and come forward with something strong.
Bravo to city staff who played a role in getting this out there! (and how can I get Raleigh Bold on this website!)
