Sep

Jarrett Bay Store Coming to Crabtree

The latest brand to jump on the wave of nautical-themed clothing comes from yachtmaker Jarrett Bay. The company will open a pop-up store for the holidays on October 3rd in the area of Crabtree Valley Mall’s food court. The store will carry merchandise similar to their popular Beaufort store (shirts, jackets, bags, gifts, and more).

Posted by Dana on September 25, 2014 | Tags: Crabtree, Retail. | ( 0 ) Comments

Sep

FirstWatch Coming to Glenwood Avenue

In a few months the state’s first location for FirstWatch will open in the former Boston Market location on Glenwood Avenue. The 126-store chain features a fresh selection of breakfast and lunch options including omelets, “Power Bowls”, waffles, eggs, soups, sandwiches.

The “daytime café’s” branding is upscale, somewhat along the lines of Panera Bread and Corner Bakery, so don’t confuse this place with Waffle House. The restaurants’ hours are 7am – 2:30pm, so the help wanted pitch is “No night hours, ever!” The store space is currently gutted so it looks like a project that will likely open late in the Fall, perhaps.

Posted by Dana on September 9, 2014 | Tags: Crabtree, Food. | ( 3 ) Comments

Sep

Big Shindig Releases Set Times

The 95X Big Shindig on Sunday brings the best full day of alternative rock music of the summer to Walnut Creek Amphitheater. Impressively, nearly every Shindig artist has had a song in heavy rotation on Alternative Nation (Sirius/XM) this year (the same cannot be said for the event’s chief sponsor, however).

The day can be divided into 3 chapters. IAMDYNAMITE (“Stereo”) opens the new alternative chapter with their driving, jangly sound. However the day really gets going with the performer of one of Alternative’s best, tertiary songs of the year, Sir Sly (Gold), takes the stage. Brit pop Wolf Gang (”The King and All Of His Men”) follows, then Big Data takes the stage (“Dangerous”). “Dangerous” will probably be the big hit song of the afternoon. Bear Hands (“Giants”) and the outrageous Foxy Shazam (“Oh Lord”) round out the first chapter.

The sound takes a more Modern Rock feel at 4:45 when The Pretty Reckless (“Heaven Knows”) takes the stage with the day’s only female lead singer. They are followed by 90s Modern Rock kings Fuel (“Shimmer”, “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)”). Fuel is, ironically, the band that has gotten the most airplay of this event on Raleigh radio through the years.

This decade returns with a gigantic tub of “happy” at 7pm when Fitz & the Tantrums (“Out Of My League”, “The Walker”, “MoneyGrabber”) take the stage. Their April 2003 release, “More Than Just A Dream”, was one of the year’s best CDs.

At 8:10 Foster the People will take the stage and probably mark the entire event’s apex. Best known for “Pumped Up Kicks”, Foster… has snuck in eleven other hits since, and stands as one of the most significant bands of this decade. (“Best Friend”, “Houdini”, “Helena Beat”)

Headliner Weezer takes the stage at 9:25. With their 15+ hits, Weezer is one of the most important Alternative Rock bands in the wake of Nirvana. However the bulk of their excellence came in the 90s, and while I’m sure their show will be as good as it was in the DPAC earlier this year, this is a school night, so forgive us for leaving early. (“Say It Ain’t So”, “Island In The Sun”, “Back to the Shack”)

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Parking Lots Open: 11:00 AM
Gates Open: 12:30 PM
1:30 PM: IAMDYNAMITE
2:20 PM: Sir Sly
3:00 PM: Wolf Gang
3:35 PM: Big Data
4:10 PM: Bear Hands
4:45 PM: Foxy Shazam
5:20 PM: The Pretty Reckless
6:10 PM: Fuel
7:00 PM: Fitz & The Tantrums
8:10 PM: Foster The People
9:25 PM: Weezer

Posted by Dana on September 5, 2014 | Tags: Music. | ( 1 ) Comment

Sep

Appearance Commission to Review Residence Inn

The Raleigh Appearance Commission meets tomorrow, and among the items on their agenda is the planned Residence Inn for downtown Raleigh. The 9-story hotel is rumored to feature a “rooftop” bar, but will primary serve as a secondary hotel for those attending events in the adjacent convention center.

The building will use four materials on the surface: EFIS and three tones of brick. The street level tone of brick will be beige while the upper floors will feature brick of red and hulking grey tones. The building only gets EFIS treatments on its crown.

Overall the look is modern, urban, boxy with surfaces broken up by varying textures and materials. There are no vast expanses of a single material. Instead, the architects have presented a very busy looking building that is neither an eyesore nor a beauty nor bland.

I really like that the design continues the dedicated 2-story façade for the first two floors, as we have seen in so many projects in the last decade. The effect is that the streetspace feels wider than it would if the building were the same material from sidewalk to roof. (The rule is that the façade needs to change before it gets to the height that matches the width of the street, btw).

While I appreciate that this building is not a stark, unimaginative box, I do think the designers have gone a bit overboard with the heterogeneity of materials. I am not a fan of brick red and gray together, so obviously I don’t like the material choices. Also, I like the signage at street level, especially the vertically-oriented signs. However whoever designed the “Residence Inn” sign for the building’s crown must have happy-clicked on the kerning settings because it looks like a giant mistake.

We all wanted Greg Hatem’s dream of a skyline-impacting, boutique hotel with a signature rooftop restaurant to get built on this plot of land. However this hotel will be a nice addition to downtown and will help the sorely underserved hotel market for downtown. There are plenty of other sites where we can eventually get that boutique hotel, so until then, lets keep going up!

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The Appearance Commission will discuss this project during their meeting tomorrow, September 4, at 4:30 in the City Council Chambers.