Over the past few years Raleigh residents have enjoyed the excitement of a new building rendering on several occasions. The dreams and hopes of our next generation of buildings is typically energizing and builds expectations of a better tomorrow. As Raleigh’s tallest building takes form, we can now look back at a couple of artist renderings and see how close they were.

For best results, open each photo in a new tab, then switch back and forth to compare.

The popular skyline rendering can be compared to the picture on the right, taken on February 29, 2008. The nearly topped-off RBC Plaza stands in the center while the convention center and Marriott have completed their massing. It appears that the RBC Plaza’s rendering was the most accurate. While the building is actually farther to the right and is wider than portrayed, the size is fairly close. The building’s 22nd floor (marked by the yellow horizontal band) steps back at almost the same point relative to Two Hannover Square, but the residential floors will not be quite as tall as the rendering shows (the buidling’s highest inhabitable floor has been poured). I added a black triangle to the photo to show where the spire will top out (based on proportional measurements of lower floors compared to the cutaway diagram). Because the spire itself reaches the same height but the residential section is indeed shorter, the spire will proportionally be slightly larger than shown in the rendering. The error is minor, however. The rendering’s portrayal of the building’s blue glass is somewhat overly saturated in color. On the other hand, the shadows in the glass are full of errors. Overall, though, the RBC Plaza rendering is an accurate portrayal of what is being built.

The second project, the convention center, is also well portrayed. The rendering’s structural details are impressive, especially the NW corner’s glass protrusion and the roof’s support features. The building did not end up being as tall as hoped, though. The resulting roofline is about 40 feet lower (as compared to the Sheraton’s windows) and is much flatter than portrayed. Overall this is a good rendering, though.

…And then there is the Marriott. When the rendering was published, it was met with a chorus of boos. The insipid design in a prominent location was criticized as a missed opportunity. Critics at least were optimistic about the building’s massing and future contribution to the skyline’s density. In reality the building is an enormous disappointment and shows the rendering’s wild inaccuracies. The Marriott is vastly shorter and farther to the right than anticipated. Its windows are proportionally much smaller, making the building more similar to the high-rise jail than a second rate hotel design. Finally, is it me or does the photo show the hotel leaning to the left, somewhat, compared to One Hannover Square (Bank of America)? While the actual placement of the Marriott’s tower is much farther east than anticipated, the Progress One building is still visible and gives the appearance of more density. Perhaps we are lucky that more buildings appear in the “money shot”. Overall, though, the Marriott rendering turned out to be a poor one.

Another anticipated area this decade has been North Hills. Shown here is the Alexan rendering and a photo taken on February 20, 2008. Like the convention center, is it impressive how many details were included from the streetlight design and Storehouse awnings, to the black oval Alexan sign straight ahead. The artist did not anticipate the site’s terrain, though. In actuality The Alexan sits much farther back from and higher than Lassiter Mill Road. The error is most evident in the stairway that had to be built in front of the Alexan’s first storefront. The rendering shows a quite walkable, seamless site whereas reality offers pedestrians a busy street plus a flight of stairs to continue their experience. This is not a bad rendering, but the terrain issues prevent this from being a great one.

One of Raleigh’s most anticipated projects was the Entertainment and Sports Arena (RBC Center). The 1990s rendering and final product turned out to be extremely similar. There are several fairly minor differences, though. The rendering shows the building’s ovoid shape continuing, unbroken, at the main entrance. Some design changes by The Carolina Hurricanes included a bumped out entrance which allowed space for a ticketing lobby, retail store, club restaurant, Hurricanes offices, and the VIP entrance. The roof ring level is also bumped out, and houses the CanesVision video production studios. Another difference is the green glass and the absence of red in the actual structure. This is the exterior’s big failure . The original plan called for a rose-based smoked glass. Unfortunately the wrong color, green, was ordered and the result is ugly. Finally, high resolution versions of this renderings show multicolored uplighting on the roof’s ring. In actuality this aluminum crown is uplit with disappointing white light. Festive colored lighting (as shown in the rendering) would improve the building’s nighttime appearance. Overall, though, the artist did an excellent job with proportion, scale, and terrain and produced and excellent rendering.

Ska/punk fans rejoice! Less Than Jake is coming to the Lincoln Theatre on May 1.  Anyone know the story behind the song "Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts"?

Newraleigh.com posted a nice editorial today about the horrible new poster campaign in downtown Raleigh. Posters with this graphic are displayed to remind people to secure their belongings. The message sent, however, is completely counterproductive to everything the City and the Downtown Alliance are trying to accomplish. See the NR editorial for more.

North Carolina Theatre welcomes Larry Gatlin and Raleigh native Lauren Kennedy for their production of Annie Get Your Gun. If you haven’t seen Lauren Kennedy live, you really are missing out. That’s all there really is to it. She’s so good, that even the N&O gives glowing praise.

The North Carolina Museum of Art will welcome the Carolina Chocolate Drops  (music link) to the outdoor amphitheater on August 1. The piedmont-borne Drops have been touring heavily and will surely be glad to be back home in the Summer.

The first ever Bank of America Raleigh Rocks Half Marathon is coming April 5 to downtown Raleigh. Bands will be playing at various points along the course, and Seven Mary Three will play on Fayetteville Street following the race. After the race there will also be a kid’s festival with inflatables and vendors. 

In addition to the half marathon, there is a 5K, 1mile run run, and a 100 yard kid’s dash. The half marathon route (.pdf) begins in the Peace area, stretches out to Meredith College, and returns to Fayetteville Street. Registration is now open. Interested runners can register online.

Bloom, Food Lion’s techie grocery concept, is coming to Raleigh, according to an article by Sue Stock this morning. The store offers personal handheld barcode scanners that let you scan as you shop with no checkout line. They also are aiming at a totally different feel and experience in their stores. The store will be located in a new strip center at Ray and Strickland Roads (map it).

It is surprising that Food Lion took so long to migrate their concept store to our little nerdistan. I am excited about having another shopping option, however the complaint I hear about the store is that it is supplied by the same regional distribution hubs as Food Lion uses for their main stores, so the store’s inventory is not different than a good Food Lion store’s.

A new report by U.S. News & World Report is out ranking America’s airports. RDU ranks 10th out of 47. The survey accounted for flight delays and crowded planes. On average 77.8% of flights were on time and the airport was at a 75.3% full load. See the other airports’ statistics here.

AAA’s latest list of the top 20 worst bridges in North Carolina is out and it contains two bridges in Raleigh. One is the Pullen Road bridge which was built in 1952 (map it). Carrying 33,000 cars a day, the bridge ranks 14th on the list, and it not slated for any service.

The state’s 4th worst bridge is the I-440 bridge over Hillsborough Street and the railroad (map it). At 47 years old, the bridge carries 84,000 cars per day. Interestingly its status is "Located on widening project in 2009".

I have not heard of specific I-440 widening plans for the western portion of the 440 "loop". The Western Blvd interchange needs to be improved. Unfortunately the state will probably take the easy way out by putting a diamond interchange with dual (artery-clogging) traffic signals on Western Blvd. Stay tuned on this project.

Schoolkids Records, Chapel Hill location, will be closing it’s doors in March, 2008. It may be coincidence or not….but after 33 1/3 years, this long playing music retail institution will be closed. All Triangle retail business will be handled in the Raleigh location, which is located at 2712-100 Hillsborough St., while it still maintains a retail presence in Athens, Ga.

The business climate for music retail has changed so drastically since our beginnings, but so has the concept of locally owned businesses. We are faced with many more obstacles, that even 6 years ago were virtually not present. For all those in the Triangle area, who have supported all the Schoolkids Records location throughout the years and especially those in the Chapel Hill area, we would like to extend our many thanks and kudos for helping to keep this institution alive for so many years.

We would especially like to thank the University of North Carolina, the Cat’s Cradle, Local 506, WXYC, WXDU and The Merch, for their continuing support of our Chapel Hill location through the years. Now as we begin to flip the LP to side 2 of our existence, our goals have not changed nor has our commitment. We just hope that music retail will always be a part of your shopping experience, now and in the future.

Sorry for the late notice, but Tift Merritt will appear on tonight’s Tonight Show with With Jay Leno. The episode will likely be rerun soon during the 3:00 am rerun time slot.

Chapel Hill native James Taylor will make his return to Walnut Creek Amphitheater on May 28. Taylor is bringing his full band and will be supporting his upcoming covers CD which will be released in the Fall.

The Soleil Center and the RBC Plaza are currently under construction and will soon be Raleigh’s tallest two towers. Which will be taller? If you read the News & Observer’s articles (such as today’s "Triangle Skylines Evolve") you’ll believe a recurring misnomer that Soleil will be taller. The 41-story Soleil Center will be 480 feet tall and will contain hotel and condo floors. The RBC Plaza has a different structure. It will include retail, parking garage, office space, and residential. Its 32 floors will reach 538 feet tall, capped with a 23 foot spire. The difference is in the height of the floors, and hotels and residential traditionally have shorter floors.

The N&O story reads: "What other metropolis would put its tallest building - the 43-story Soleil Center…- in one of its deepest valleys." The word tallest implies sheer height, and the RBC Plaza wins by at least 58 feet. In fact the bulk of the building is going to be 12% taller than the Soleil Center, so it is incorrect to assert that we are "putting" our tallest building at Crabtree.

Locopops’ Raleigh location is now open in the former Weatherman’s Jewelers space on Hillsborough St. (map it)

Part II - Walling Ourselves In

In Part One of this series we toured a section of downtown Atlanta that contains some of the nation’s most stunning towers. Unfortunately most of these buildings left pedestrians with nothing to do, and the streets for many consecutive blocks look like a ghost town. The lesson is important as Raleigh is not immune to this problem.

There are a couple of canyonesque areas in downtown Raleigh that are already evolving this aforementioned way. One is Wilmington Street. The new Progress Two plaza creatively incorporates a large parking garage for people seeking SE downtown. The garage is topped with an office tower, and is skirted by many personalities. The project’s north face is lined with retail, mostly food outlets, while the East face is wrapped in new low-rise condominiums. The South side faces the Lincoln Theatre and features exposed parking garage that can be converted to retail space at some point.  In fact, Charlie Goodnight’s Comedy Club almost relocated to this space when the deck was new. The facade germane to this analysis is the west facade, a blank wall. Unfortunately the wall exists on Wilmington Street, one of Raleigh’s historic retail corridors. Compounding problems, directly across the street is a blank wall formed by the bases of both Progress One and One Hannover Square (Bank of America). (map it) How unfortunate that the gateway to one of Raleigh’s most walkable streets is a one block canyon of emptiness. Thankfully designs for the east facade of the Site One project incorporate retail/entertainment space in more than 50% of the east side space.

A second problematic area exists near Nash Square. One way streets McDowell and Dawson form the square’s eastern and western boundaries, and are meant for moving traffic quickly from S. Saunders to Capital Blvd. As a driver these streets work, but as a pedestrian they are similar to that windy, unpleasant block of Spring St. in Atlanta.

As one travels north on McDowell from Poole’s Diner (map it), the left side of the street’s first block is lined by garage-oriented businesses that will eventually be replaced with new development. The right side is lined by the sterile rear wall of the Public Safety Center (pictured), a parking garage entrance, and a city parking garage. The block of McDowell bordering the park is lined on the right by a surface parking lot, the News & Observer offices, and the professional building. The third block is lined on the left by the police headquarters (future Enforcement Center site) and a city parking deck. The right side of the street is a block-long, blank grey wall formed by AT&T’s windowless switching center (pictured).

As one can imagine from the photos, pedestrians in two of the blocks nearest Nash Square have a boring, miserable experience. There is nothing to do, traffic is roaring, and wind howels down through the concrete canyon.

The City of Raleigh released concepts for a new high-rise Enforcement Center to be located across from this long blank wall. While the planned facility is intended for functional municipal uses, the City finds itself in a position to start correcting one of downtown’s biggest missed opportunities.  Design of the east facade of the center should contain space for items pedestrians can use. This block between Hargett and Morgan will be heavily traveled by Campbell Law students en route to courthouse activities, so there will soon be demand for cafes, book stores, coffee shops, office supply stores, and the like.

A second step toward correcting this block is for AT&T to move their operations to another site. Certainly today’s microtechnology doesn’t require such a massive complex, and could either be rearranged on site or relocated off-site. The classic building at McDowell and Morgan could either be renovated or replaced with something more conducive to downtown life.

Mr. Mayor, tear down these walls.

As other projects are constructed throughout downtown, designers need to be mindful of the puzzle piece they are designing. The next part of this series will identify potential problem areas for pedestrian design throughout downtown.

During the nights of March 6 thru March 9, Charlie Goodnight’s welcomes D.L. Hughley. Tickets go on sale through the Goodnight’s website on Monday at 8:55am.

April 24 marks the return of Son Volt, playing at the Lincoln Theatre.

TBJ is reporting that both Yancy’s and The Longbranch filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this week. This is the same situation that Amedeo’s on Western Blvd. is in where their credit is locked down, but they can stay in business.

Word on the street is that Yancy’s is moving their live music operation out to the former Hideaway BBQ site. Located on the first level of The Hudson, Yancy’s aimed to be a great southern cooking site by day, great jazz site by night. They installed expensive computerized lighting equipment and spend a small fortune trying to soundproof their operation from condos above. This was a miserable failure as complaints from condos soon ensued. Apparently we’ve found one of mixed use’s limitations.

Part I - What’s Wrong With Atlanta?

Downtown Raleigh is experiencing an enormous amount of change. New projects are being proposed by the month, and the amount of investment proposed is staggering. In order to maximize this opportunity, we must ask what type of downtown we want. While each project may be exciting, none stands alone in its neighborhood. As evidenced by our existing facilities, there are collateral, systemic effects of each project.

One way to experiment with development styles is to look inward. We have several examples of successes and failures in our own downtown, and I’ll take a look at those later in this series. Another important tool is to learn from similar cities. There probably isn’t a more similar city out there than Atlanta, GA.

Atlanta bashers are a dime-a-dozen, but if we filter out the noise and look at some decisions Atlanta has made, we can learn from their experience. Atlanta is a Southern city with a similar climate to Raleigh’s. It is the state capital, is home of the state’s engineering school, and experienced much of the same developmental patterns over the last 50 years as Raleigh. Atlanta is a great lab for us because money has been abundant and the city has been able to experiment with many ideas.

Before the 1960’s Atlanta’s downtown was concentrated; full of businesses, government, and residents. During the 1960’s, however, American culture turned toward individual rights and urban crime rose dramatically. With an influx of investment came a new approach to protecting investments and citizens; the great indoors. For a period of nearly 30 years, one of the world’s most gorgeous skylines grew. Impressive interior spaces were created, and then connected above street level by enclosed tubes so as to create an safety-enforceable, climate-independent series of habitrails.

As the building tops told stories of success to those out in the burbs, the buildings’ feet were telling a different story. The streets were treating new investments poorly, so the investments responded by turning their back on the streets. New projects showed only blank concrete walls, parking garage entrances, and service entrances to the sidewalks. Gone were storefronts. Gone was the outdoor experience. Gone was life. With only a collection of blank walls and indoor labyrinths to greet Atlantans, downtown faded as a destination.

Take a walking tour and see for yourself. Let’s follow this map, and start at Centennial Olympic Park moving East on Harris Street.

Our tour is greeted with a blank corner across the street. To the right the first block features a surface parking lot on the right and left side of the street greets us with a blank concrete wall and a garage entrance to the former Inforum building. Where are the people?

read more…

The sixth season of ABC’s "Dancing With the Stars" begins on March 17. One of this year’s stars is Raleigh’s Kristi Yamaguchi. The Dancing… website reads:

KRISTI YAMAGUCHI - An Olympic Gold medalist and World Champion, Kristi Yamaguchi is one of the most popular and successful figure skaters of our time. Since winning the 1992 Winter Olympics, Yamaguchi retired from competitive skating, performing in numerous television specials and traveling the globe on Stars on Ice tour. Along with her many awards and accomplishments, she is a member of the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame, World Figure Skating Hall of Fame and the US Olympic Hall of Fame. In 1996, she founded the Always Dream Foundation dedicated to fundraising and supporting children’s charities. Yamaguchi is married to Stanley Cup Champion and Carolina Hurricanes star, Bret Hedican. Together, they have two young daughters.