Downtown Raleigh’s skyline will change dramatically in the next several years with the addition of new towers, particularly in the southern end. Are you excited?
UPDATE 10/08/2008:
First of the Edison updates:
UPDATE 07/20/2007:
He is an updated version of the future Raleigh Skyline rendering. It reflects a more current version of what we might see in 2008 and beyond.
Closer:
The current version of Raleigh (2006):
The future rendering of Raleigh:
A less cartoony look at the rendering:
Discuss!
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Created
on Sunday, October 29th, 2006 in the category Illustrations.
August 30th, 2010 at 3:36 am
Does anyone know when Charter Square is going to begin with construction, it is kind of an empty hole along Fayetteville Street.
August 30th, 2010 at 3:39 am
I thought I’d share an excellent view of the skyline (for a newstation camera it is pretty good). The visibility was great that day you can see for miles:
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa33/Dukefan711/weather/Raleigh-1.jpg
August 30th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Andy, your guess is as good as anyone… Even my contact in that group of developers is hesitant to speak of any ground-breaking timeline. I think they are trying to re-work the “nature” of that building to include hotel and/or condos and commercial space. 5/3 Bank would have been ideal, if the developers had already lined up at least 1-2 small commercial entities and a hotel developer. I can say this with confidence: Unless we hear about it officially, I would not even listen to rumors. In my opinion, there are more chances The Edison will break ground before Charter Square, but because of the small size of Charter Square, it is still possible that something will happen in the next 2 years. The clock is ticking for this project, although I am sure this City Council will bent over backwards and extend the deadline, due to the good terms with the developers. Not that I want to see Charter Square fail… The economy just can’t support the latter at this moment
August 30th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
i have a bad feeling bout charter square…
August 30th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Everything is possible, but I’d rather see someone else (a more capable developer) take over, than getting Charter Square reduced in size and scope, even if it takes another 3-4 years. I am just as fed up as anyone in this forum with stalled projects, although the economy is still very weak. I can give a pass to a handful of developers, and not for personal reasons. Projects of great “magnitude”, like The Edison and One Glenwood need a lot more than just 2-3 medium sized businesses as main anchors before they break ground. Charter Square should have been completed by now, IMO.
August 31st, 2010 at 10:20 pm
I went to the train meeting tonight and it seemed there were a TON of nimbys. Nobody said anything positive about it. Everbody wants it elswhere. Its like they didnt know there were railroad tracks before they moved in.
September 1st, 2010 at 8:29 am
I’m all for improving the rail network in this country. My confusion is if lots of people are complining about closing streets… then why can’t they elevate the HS rail line as it comes into the more densly populated part of town? I know is adds to the cost, but look at all the elevated freight lines in Richmond, VA. One of the tressles runs for several miles through downtown. The HS rail will carry much less weight than a freight train, so I don’t understand why it would be so difficult to elevate the rail through certain parts of town (Fairview St and Glenwood South area). PLUS, depending on the speeds the trains are coming in, it may actually be safer to have the rails elevated where people and cars won’t be in the way of the trains, look at the NC news over the last year… N. Carolineans don’t respect that trains have the right of way. Eliminate the problem, and raise the rails.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:52 am
I have no expertise in engineering, therefore I cannot put this to test, but one of the DOT engineers said that the elevated option is not really feasible. It doesn’t sound like a cost-related issue, but rather an engineering-related challenge.
While I “fire” at the NIMBYs all the time, I must admit that I sit on the fence on this issue. Can’t blame them for not wanting the high-speed rail near their homes, especially if they don’t benefit directly from it. This obstacle will be a tough one to overcome and I wish we had a wide open area where we could start fresh, without any opposition to delay the execution of the master plan, but we are not fortunate.
Like many of us here, I applaud this effort and I want to see high speed rail connecting Raleigh to other cities, but I am not sure about the short-term benefits. I’d rather get the money and invest it on a regional rail that will connect the Triangle municipalities and encourage good, urban development along the lines. High speed rail can follow if people embrace a regional rail system first, although I don’t mind getting the high speed rail first. I would not benefit from it for a very long time, but it’s good to have it if other people can use it.
September 1st, 2010 at 10:59 am
I travelled quite a bit around France on the TGVs (Train à Grande Vitesse), it was wonderful. The trains moved rather slowly leaving and arriving into the cities, in the countryside it went about 180 miles per hour. It was almost painful to get on the slow trains and spend 8 hours going the distance that the TGV could do in 2.5 hours. Hopefully the US will embrace the HS rail system and it be more effecient than the current trains. (I took the train from Richmond, VA, to Greensboro and it took 7 hours, then had to drive another hour and a half to get to my parents’ house. Driving the entire trip only takes 4.5 hours. Needless to say, the current rail system just isn’t cutting it.)
I’ve said it many times… Give me a commuter train from N Raleigh into town, and I’ll happily hand over my car keys. I live w/i walking distance to the rail line b/w Raleigh and Wake Forest, and could have an easy 10 minute bike ride from the same rail line to my office. Raleigh City Council… you already have one dedicated rail commuter… JUST BUILD IT ALREADY, and you’ll take my car off of Capital Blvd.
September 1st, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Amen to that, Nick. I have seen a lot of countries in Europe thanks to the train system. A great experience, indeed, although you have to keep your eyes wide open for people who make a living out of stealing
If I could catch the train from DT Raleigh to DT Richmond, or to Uptown Charlotte, and make the trip in less than 2 hours, then I would gladly do so, even if it was just to take photos of those areas. I love trains!!!
September 1st, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Raleigh made the “Best City to Raise a Family” list, unfortunately we are not the only ones who notice our downtown problems.
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/10-great-cities-for-raising-families.html
September 2nd, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Jason, thanks for providing the link. I read about this in the N&O but I was too lazy to look for look for the actual article
Why they mentioned downtown as a problem is beyond me. Personally, I think that the use of the term “blighted” is too extreme, although they use “aging” in their slideshow version. Yes, we do have some low income neighborhoods with some crime, but it is nowhere near what other cities have, especially cities the same size with ours, even though those cities are not stated in Kiplinger’s top-10 list – notice that we are the largest city (second largest metro) in the group. In fact, our falling crime rate has been noted as one of the pros. Only a moron could not see that our downtown actually continues to improve and remains strong in terms of business activity and overall amenities. Unless Kiplinger’s staff visits this site on a regular basis and reads our complains
Hell, these people cannot even get the population right… They are still using numbers from 2-3 years ago, and I am sure they do the same for other cities. I haven’t done any research on the other municipalities, but I doubt they have the kind of population increase we enjoy; incorrect population figures would not make as much of a difference in their case. And what is with their selection of photos? Can’t they find a decent skyline image to use?
Anyway, I think this is a positive boost for our city’s image and keeps/places North Carolina in the minds of people who don’t know much about our state. I would not place too much significance on this list, but it is always nice to hear good things about Raleigh. Now, if they could rate DT Raleigh the best location to build skyscrapers, it would have served us a lot better
September 2nd, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Ernest ” Now, if they could rate DT Raleigh the best location to build skyscrapers, it would have served us a lot better”
lol! couldn’t agree more