by Leo Suarez

Muffled Liberty? [UPDATE: 11-10 All good]

Raleigh's Liberty Bell replica

Just a quick one today. On a recent walk around downtown Raleigh, I saw that our Liberty Bell replica, located on the bicentennial mall, has been muffled. Hopefully this isn’t a permanent thing. There’s a bad joke out there, for some anyway, because the liberty bell is located across the street from the state legislature building. :P

While looking up some history about the bell, I found this nice WRAL segment about it. If the video doesn’t load for you, jump to the source.

[UPDATE: 11-10-13]
On a recent walk today, I noticed the bell was not muffled anymore. So we rang that thing as loud as we could.

by Leo Suarez

The Glenwood South and Carolina Ale House Saga Looking Positive

500 Glenwood Avenue, soon to be demolished for the new Carolina Ale House on Glenwood South

You almost don’t want to believe this until you see it. The story that has really turned me, and others I talk to, into pessimists is the one about the upcoming new building at 500 Glenwood Avenue. It is planned to house, in addition to other businesses, a Carolina Ale House and after almost five years, it looks like this project will finally get started.

In the coming days, we should see the building at the corner of Tucker and Glenwood Avenue come down and make room for a new, three-story building for a rooftop Carolina Ale House restaurant and additional retail space in the other floors. Some construction fencing is now up and even the R-Line stop at this corner has been moved down a bit along Tucker Street.

I have no doubt that the Ale House here will do some pretty good business as the brand has over 20 other locations to bring experience from. If you’ve never been, the Ale House is a sports restaurant with a “something for everyone” menu and an extensive beer list with enough choices for safe beer drinkers to try something new but not enough to satisfy the craft palate.

500 Glenwood Avenue, soon to be demolished for the new Carolina Ale House on Glenwood South

The beginning of the demolition to the building.

Let’s hope for smooth sailing ahead on this project so that doors will open in late 2014. Jump to this link to the Triangle Business Journal for a rendering of the upcoming building.

by Leo Suarez

Upcoming Urban Design Center Education Forums

The Raleigh Urban Design Center has a new schedule of urban-related lecture forums and they stick with the theme of, “Raleigh 2025 – What’s Downtown Got To Do With It?” Last season, there were some pretty good ones related to bike sharing, downtown living, and open space. Here are some that you can watch again.

Lecture Forums

Urban Design Center
220 Fayetteville Street
12 Noon – 1:30 pm

While adding these events to my calendar, I decided to tweak them so I could share them with readers. Here are the XML, iCal, and HTML links for sharing. Hopefully they work with your personal calendars.

The events are all free and take place during weekday lunch hours. Go over to the city’s website to see all the topics but here are a select few that really focus on downtown Raleigh.

The Great American Downtown – 2025
October 23, 2013
Mitchell J. Silver, Chief Planning & Development Officer and Planning Director, City of Raleigh

  • What is the experience of place in great cities of the future?
  • How can Raleigh make it happen?
  • Who will be living in Raleigh in 2025?

Jobs + Talent 2025
December 4, 2013
James Sauls, Director, Economic Development, and Derrick Minor, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Manager, City of Raleigh, Economic Development Department

  • What types of industries are we trying to grow locally and recruit nationally?
  • How important is talent recruitment and retention to a community?
  • How do you establish a culture of innovation and creativity?

Back to the Future in Raleigh
February 12, 2014
Eric Lamb, PE, Transportation Planning Manager, City of Raleigh

  • How will people move in the City of Tomorrow?
  • How will the evolution of technology change the way we need to travel?
  • Are there places around the world today where we can glimpse the future?

Population Growth, Sustainability, and the Need for Urban Greenspace
April 23, 2014
Danesha Seth Carley, PhD., Assistant Professor, Department of Crop Science, NC State University

  • Is there a place for “green space” in the city of the future?
  • How can we increase and protect our green space and what value does that bring to our community?
  • How will the city be feeding itself in an era of diminishing resources and increasing carbon footprint?

Downtown: An Engine for Wake County’s Tourism Strategy
May 21, 2014
David Diaz, CEO, Downtown Raleigh Alliance, and Julie Brakenbury, Director of Services, Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau

  • What is the role of a downtown in attracting visitors?
  • What are downtown Raleigh’s key strengths challenges as a center for tourism?
  • How does the visitor bureau quantify the economic impact of downtown Raleigh’s tourism assets?

by Leo Suarez

Paddy O’Beers Bottle Shop Coming To Fayetteville Street

The downtown Raleigh beer drinking scene is a varied one and the next group to step in are the folks behind Isaac Hunter’s Oak City Tavern and Coglin’s. They are planning to open a bottle shop for the retail spaces in the Alexander Square parking deck facing Fayetteville Street, across the street from Isaac Hunter’s, a popular weekend spot.

Paddy O’Beers (Patio beers???) will sell craft beers in bottles and kegs. They also plan to set up some outdoor seating in front (a Paddy O’ perhaps?) and a tasting bar so drinkers can hang for a bit.

The beer options in downtown Raleigh are extensive and continuing to grow. Expect Paddy O’Beers to open within a few months.

by Leo Suarez

Plans For 220 The Saint Bring Condos and Townhouses To Glenwood South

Rendering of 220 The Saint

There’s a development plan on the city’s website that shows some new residential in the works for Glenwood South. 220 The Saint as it’s called has a combination of 49 condos and townhomes for an awkward lot on the block bounded by Jones, Lane, Boylan, and St. Mary’s Street. (see the map)

Map of the proposed 220 The Saint

Indeed, the tetris piece you see there is one lot and is currently very underutilized. The development will replace two houses along St. Mary’s street in exchange for on-site parking and 49 units spread across three buildings, some being condos and others townhomes.

The renderings in the submitted site plan are very preliminary but do show something that’s less dense than what we may have been used to in Glenwood South. I’m referring to the nearby apartment buildings at 712 Tucker and St. Mary’s Square.

Rendering of 220 The Saint

If you look at the proposal on the city’s website, you can see that a new driveway on Lane Street will be built for access into the development, the larger building includes the parking underneath.

Other things to note from the development proposal are that the units will be 1 bedroom and the density is now raised to about 30 units per acre. (up from just 1) There are two houses that will be demolished for the development that front St. Mary’s Street and no historic significance seems to exist.

Houses along St. Mary's Street

Houses currently along St. Mary’s Street.

While not too exciting on paper, this is infill development that Glenwood South continues to attract and we may see more and more of this if the larger apartment developments continue to be successful.

by Leo Suarez

Gringo A Go-Go Coming Soon to North Person Street

Ben Shelton, the chef behind Lily’s Pizza in Five Points, is opening up a new place at the corner of Person and Edenton Streets. Gringo A Go-Go will be a taqueria with some pretty authentic Mexican dishes.

Finally, this space is being given some real TLC as the former convenience store and Reuben’s diner kind of put in half the effort. I wonder too if the new thing to do is build a unique bicycle rack out front that represents your place a bit. When I walked by to take the above photo the place looks almost finished so expect it open sometime in the near future.

As always, you can see the ever growing list of downtown food and drink on DT Raleigh Eats.

by Leo Suarez

Pic of the Week


The new North Carolina State Bar headquarters building has been completed on the corner of Edenton and Blount Streets.

What was just a surface parking lot a few years ago is now a building with classical architecture. The state bar moves out from their offices on Fayetteville Street to this new building a few blocks away. You can see a before photo of the site at this 2011 blog post when ground was broken.

New NC State Bar HQ Construction Begins, Deals Final Blow To Former Baptist University