Due to Wachovia being absorbed by Wells Fargo, all Wachovia branding is being replaced across North Carolina- including the signage atop downtown Raleigh’s 380 foot tall Wachovia Capitol Center. I’ve been following the replacement of the sign over the past few days, and today I got an opportunity to see the procedure up close.

I’ve been on the rooftops of many of downtown Raleigh buildings before, but never clinging to the side in this fashion. Thanks to Atlas Sign Industries and the building engineer.

Wells Fargo highwall rooftop signage on downtown Raleigh’s third tallest building

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Ground level view of the stage scaffolding for the Wells Fargo sign

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Before I climbed over the side of the roof

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View of Raleigh looking west from the stage platform 380 feet off the ground

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Straight down to Salisbury Street, Raleigh

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Workers from Atlas Signs complete wiring for illumination of the Wells Fargo signage

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Go forth, Raleigh

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A job with great views

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View looking South at downtown Raleigh from the rooftop of Wachovia Capitol Center

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Here is a look at the progress of the sign installation before the main letters were hoisted up to the top.

Wachovia Capitol Center awaits its new Wells Fargo signage

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Wells Fargo letters rest at ground level near the lobby

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The night before the letters will be raised into position

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New Wells Fargo Signage on 150 Fayetteville Street

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Letters “AR” for the Wells Fargo high-wall rooftop signage in Raleigh

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Signage workers carry a letter “G” for placement atop Raleigh’s Skyline in Wells Fargo

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Remnant letters from the Wachovia sign

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Coincidentally, I wasn’t alone on the rooftop of the building. The Special Olympics have an event called “Over the Edge”, where people can donate to rappel down the building.

People rappelling down the side of the building for “Over the Edge”

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Over the Edge safety gear

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I’ve been photographing Raleigh’s skyline since the year 2000. During that time, I’ve accumulated tens of thousands of images of the city. I decided to attempt a project to leverage my archives in a way that visualizes the ever changing conditions I set out to capture.

I recently built a computer (Core i7 2600k, 16gb RAM, SSD, etc) that could handle massive Photoshop files required for the following. The largest was nearly 5 gigabytes and 97 layers!

Here is what I came up with:

Downtown Raleigh Skyline Seasons – Version 1

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The following versions were my trial runs, but I decided to post them anyway.

Raleigh Skyline Seasons – Version 2

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Raleigh Skyline Seasons – Version 3

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Raleigh Skyline Seasons – Version 4

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Some of my season source images

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