Two elevator shafts are visible within the condo portion of RBC Plaza.
Boylan nulls view of RBC Plaza.
Nightfall takes over downtown Raleigh.
My father-in-law waits at a signal near the Boylan Wye for another train to pass.
View from the Clarion Hotel of RBC.
Berkeley Cafe sign and a toothbrush in the window.
Purple lights illuminate Powerhouse Square.
Convention Center and L Building Progress.
M&F.
Raleigh.
The mystery angle in context.
Lightning brightens the sky near the convention center.
Belt of Venus envelops the RBC Plaza construction
Upward moving lighting initiates at the 2,000 foot tall TV Towers near Clayton.
Boylan nulls neighborhood sign.
From the Duke Raleigh Hospital parking garage.
Fayetteville Street views.
West at North condos receives a brick cladding.
Downtown Raleigh view near the Norfolk Southern Rail yard.
Overview of Raleigh and “the Hillsborough” site from the Clarion.
Kinsey Street.
Wake Forest Road and the growing Glenwood South skyline.
Norfolk Southern Locomotives rest at the Raleigh Yard.
Magic Hour.
Jones Street.
The sun reflects off of the shiny RBC Plaza windows.
Until next time…
July 17th, 2008 at 11:28 pm (#)
Raleigh is so frustrating. City Government wants to make Raleigh a world class city, Yet they still have this old small town mentality. Dorthea Dix is a gold mine! What do they want to do with it…..,make it into a park? I’m fed up with Raleigh.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:14 am (#)
I am with you, Steve, but most of us know that Raleigh will not be a world class city any time soon. Our leaders know that, too, which is why they hesitate a lot to think big. Raleigh is more of a city that allows us to enjoy the ride 🙂 It is like a roller coaster: sometimes we go up, sometimes we go down.
July 19th, 2008 at 12:46 pm (#)
Pretty boring and ugly skyline to me. The problem is the South is you have poor cities that had small development in the 60’s sit dormant and now all these “glass towers” being built around “old crap”. No continuity.
Two or three “shiney” things does not make a city. Sorry.
July 19th, 2008 at 5:29 pm (#)
JV, we already have enough bashers (two) here and do not need your negative opinion. And there is no “old crap” anywhere (execpt in Benson, they suck) in the Research Triangle. What fancy metro area is your negative opinion coming from?? New York? Chicago? Detroit? Don’t whine about Raleigh if you’re from St. Louis……we are bigger than them now. Seriously. Take a look at the July 18, 2008 photo series and THEN tell me if you think Raleigh is old crap. I rest my case (somebody back me up here).
July 19th, 2008 at 11:31 pm (#)
As we all know, Raleigh is definitely not a poor city. It seems that JV knows nothing about our area. He probably would have been a proponent of the freeway that was proposed to run through historic Oakwood in the 60’s. Our older buildings, such as Briggs Hardware, add substance to the flavor of downtown. JV sounds like a Las Vegas kind of guy, all shiny with no substance.
July 20th, 2008 at 12:45 am (#)
There was a freeway proposed for downtown?? I know nothing of this as I was born in the 1990s and my Dad was overseas at the time. Can anyone fill me in on that??
July 20th, 2008 at 9:25 am (#)
In the late 60’s or early 70’s a north/south freeway was proposed as a connector. It would have run through Oakwood with many historic houses being demolished. The residents of Oakwood voiced protests and the connector was eventually dropped as a possibility. The Oakwood neighborhood would be nonexistent today if it had not been for public outcry to save history.
July 20th, 2008 at 9:35 am (#)
I wish we had a highway through downtown Raleigh the way I-95 goes through Richmond, that is so cool.
A downtown river would be nice too.
And I agree with Ari, JV is just another one of “them.”
July 20th, 2008 at 2:37 pm (#)
Okay, thanks Horatio. You know, I wonder why they didn’t just shift the track of the proposed freeway to, perhaps, the then-undeveloped Glenwood Avenue/Brooklyn Heights (I think that’s what they call it) area of DT? Then again, the houses there are nice, too. Or maybe they could have made it parallel to the railroad tracks from Garner – Inward and then hooked it up to North Boulevard (now Capital Boulevard)? But of course, It’s too late now. Honestly, I think we will have to build a DT Raleigh freeway when the city gets large enough (600,000 pop.). Then again, we could let it slide and turn it into a Charlotte situation. Look at a map of Charlotte and you will see what I’m talking about. Also, Matt, there is a small creek that parallels Western Boulevard from the McDowell Street/Dawson Street interchange to the NCSU campus where it dead ends. It also comes into Raleigh paralleling Interstate 40/U.S. 64 to about Wilmington Street. If we ever get say 30 – 40 inches of rain in any given month, like what they are seeing along the Mississippi River in the Midwest, you will see what I’m talking about. Sorry for the bulky post!!
July 21st, 2008 at 9:52 am (#)
I, for one, am glad there isn’t a highway bisecting downtown. The combination of large, dark underpasses teamed with cars speeding by overhead have always seemed to be bad for urban environments. Just look at Boston. They spent billions and billions of dollars to bury their mistake with the “big dig”. What Raleigh really needs is a viable mass transit system through town with dense walkable neighborhoods/nodes at their stops.
In addition to not wanting a freeway downtown, I’d actually prefer to see the limited access stretch of Capital Blvd either returned to a typical city street up to Wade Ave. or sunk (but not buried) so that Peace and other connecting streets could go over it instead of under it.
July 21st, 2008 at 12:56 pm (#)
Matt, having lived in 2 cities with downtown experssways, Winston-Salem and Richmond, I have to say, be careful what you wish for. Downtown expressways are both a blessing and a curse. In both cities, the highways aren’t big enough to handle the traffic, and there is no room to expand them. Then you have the Atlanta syndrome with 14 lanes of choked freeway in the middle of the city, where it is faster to get off and take the surface streets. I do however, love/miss the views you get form I-95 heading across the river into downtown.
John, as for “dark underpasses”… Richmond’s nightlife districts are right beneath I-95 in an area called Shockoe Bottom and Shockoe Silp. The City spent a lot of money lighting the bridge from underneath to provide an interesting public space they called “Cathedral Walk” with all of the supports illuminated with blue lights connecting one district to another.
The one thing I miss the most about Richmond that Raleigh will never have to compare to is the feel that the James River (The Rivah) adds to the dynamic of downtown. The river is truely the live blood of the city (even though it floods on a fairly regular basis).