I’m pulling out some interesting factoids from the 2016 State of Downtown Raleigh report. There is over $1.1 billion worth of completed, under construction, or planned developments in downtown Raleigh. What does that look like? Below is the list.
I’m proud to say that this blog has hit almost every one of them. I’ll try and wrap up the last few in the near future.
The Gramercy Apartments in Glenwood South is marching along and is planning to open in late June. In addition to the apartments, the retail space at the corner of Glenwood and North Street will have a grocery store and pharmacy. The plan is to open that close to the building’s opening so work inside that space is taking place now.
As always parking will be a concern to most folks but there is a plan for that. The parking lot across North Street, behind the building with Plates, Sushi Blues, and Thaiphoon, will be converted to a public lot run with Passport Parking. The first 30 minutes are free and you can use it any time for stopping by in the area.
It’ll be great to see some real resident-based services like this. The 7,000 square-foot grocery, the entirety of the retail space in The Gramercy by the way, will also have weekend farmer’s markets.
Construction site for the future Residence Inn.
The future Residence Inn is showing a few floors of progress here on Salisbury Street. The nine-story hotel comes after years of delays and changes so it’s great to see this moving.
Setting up for the official opening of the new Exchange and Market Plazas
The new Exchange and Market Plazas are finally complete and the city held a ribbon cutting ceremony for them in late April. To the best of my knowledge, the last traces of the former Fayetteville Street Mall are now gone.
The plazas really are a fantastic space and for those that don’t know, these areas are city right-of-way and not privately owned. At one point in time, they were streets connecting Fayetteville and Wilmington Streets but have since been converted to pedestrian-only areas.
Below are five before and after photos. Enjoy!
Exchange Plaza
Market Plaza
This year, Artsplosure is taking place May 20-22 in downtown Raleigh. The 37-year-old “art for all” festival will, as always, be free and aims to have something for everyone. Between the Fayetteville Street Art Market and the Moore Square festival area, there will be plenty taking place that weekend.
The stage on Fayetteville Street will feature performances each night including Futurebirds, Zack Mexico, Doyle Bramhall II, and Sonny Landreth. There will be plenty of other performances throughout the day on both stages on Fayetteville Street and Moore Square.
As you wander around the event, be on the look out for the artlets. These pop-up artistic experiences will be seen around each cross street along Fayetteville Street and should get you stopping to watch.
Moore Square will have Art Putt open all weekend. Each hole was creatively designed by local artists and you can experience them by putting through all nine holes.
Does anyone know all of Raleigh’s sister cities? At Artsplosure, you can see art inspired by the cultures from each of those cities. They are:
Kidsplosure will be just as great as always this year. It includes a variety of activities and crafts for children to play and learn from. It all starts on Saturday May 21 with performances by Meredith College’s Suzuki Violin group, One Tribe Drum Circle and lots of other talent from around the Triangle.
For me, there will be the hundreds of stalls showcasing local art and crafts to walk around and look at. There are always the nicest artists from around North Carolina with their crafts. With great May weather, it’s a great time to be in downtown Raleigh and “window” shop.
For all the details, check out the event at raleighartsfestival.com
Fayetteville St. Art Market and City Plaza Stage:
Moore Square and Park Stage:
More matching the already built south tower, the Raleigh appearance commission will be reviewing the latest renderings of the Charter Square north tower with this rendering above. The 23-story, mixed-use tower has been in the planning stages for quite a few years so could this finally be the final design?
I personally was a fan of the previous renderings. This newest one “smooths out” the edges a bit by removing the vertical “fins” which I thought added some upward “interestingness.” (sorry for all the quotes)
Should make for a great project though.
The Boylan Wye, April 2016. Click for larger
I call it the “Boiling” Wye as the activity has really heated up!
The photo above was taken from the Boylan Avenue bridge and ahead of the Raleigh skyline, you can see the construction site of the upcoming Raleigh Union Station. More than the building itself, work is/will be taking place for the parking lot, concourse, and new platforms at the tracks.
Looking west down Martin Street
I was walking down Fayetteville Street recently on a gorgeous Spring afternoon. On this particular day, a Saturday with no major events taking place, people were wandering the sidewalks enjoying the same comfortable weather. I’ve done the walk thousands of times but it was when I noticed a small, new detail that refreshed my perspective and sense of where I was just a tiny, little bit more.
I was crossing Martin Street and to my right, way in the distance, I could see the newly placed dome of the large Catholic church being built to the west of downtown. For a quick second, I had a new perspective of where downtown was located in relation to other areas of my city.
This has nothing to do with the church itself, I’m not a very religious person. It’s the idea of being able to view, in the distance, other parts of our city that gave me a sense of place in relation to other places in Raleigh.
I want to think this feeling is an aspect of the term “sense of place.” (or at least that’s how I interpret it)
The same could be said of the towers in North Hills as you cross Dawson Street. When walking, I always look north up Dawson and can see where North Hills is located.
On Peace Street, you can see the apartments at Cameron Village.
There may be more examples of this but I thought it was cool to kind of reflect on what downtown is also a part of. We follow what is happening in downtown but while out walking, it is nice to see (literally) the city we’re a part of taking shape around us.
I feel like these are little details that make it special to be in downtown Raleigh.