Apartment Madness

Do you mean what other platforms to do the same experiment, or other topics to do the experiment on?

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It would be really interesting to see how members of the general population (I see us as the die-hards of Raleigh haha) thought about our apartments.

Does NextDoor or Reddit allow things like this.

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I’ll be real, PNC ain’t even close to being my favorite building downtown, so it could definitely be included in that bracket. If I really thought about it, it might not even be in my Top 5. The only thing it really has going for it is height and a defining/instantly recognizable crown.

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I think you have to give some credit to the job they did concealing the parking pedestal as well. Probably in the top 2 or 3 in the area.

That said, I agree with you that it’s not in my top 5 of fave buildings DTR.

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Personally speaking, they lost me with the lifeboat balconies. I also would have prefered an upswept crown on the building instead of a party hat.

Topics. ----- Adding more words to make a full post. What would platforms look like/mean?

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I think @atl_transplant understood the question the same way I did. To respond to his post, NextDoor would be opening a can of worms, but interesting. I’m not sure you’d be able to format the questions the same way. You may want to put the “competition” together using something like TypeForm or the like then reference it in those platforms. CityData may be another good place to solicit participation.

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Please no Next Door!!!

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333 Fayetteville (Capital Bank Plaza) FTW

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My favorite is still probably the SECU tower at the Science Museum. If it were even 5-10 stories taller it’d be no contest.

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While it’s shorter, I think it’s a much better designed buidlling.

nextdoor voting on apartments would end up being a bunch of Karens getting distracted from the building architecture and instead scouring photos for: Who are those people in hoodies and where are they going?

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You forgot that they’d bitch about being limited to one garage parking space.

There are lots of things that people can focus on when judging buildings. Here is a random list of some of the items I have seen and would expect on Nextdoor

  • Size and massing using the word “towering”- Could be 3 stories could be 7, you can kind of describe anything as towering if you want
  • Comparing to whatever is right next to it and out of context
  • Out of context because of type of thing, because of type of people who would use, and because of what/whom the area is for or about.
  • Traffic and parking concern.
  • What it is replacing is big
  • Who built it or if it is priced for just wealthy people
  • If it is a rental it could be bad because it does not allow home ownership
  • If it is a condo it is bad because those are exclusive and for wealthy people and tied to big businesses
  • The building material - Wood is bad and expensive materials are exclusive and not for normal people
  • Another side to materials I see is when someone takes a picture of the worst view of the building and posts how it is soul less. Choosing the pictures for the voting was an interesting exercise because sometimes the best picture of the building really just captured its good side. I would love to see and A B test on different pictures of the same apartment changing votes.
  • How is activates the street is really interesting, but one I generally just see people who care about urbanism comment on. You might get normies commenting on blank walls, but the idea that a building has a nice store gets overlooked or just seen as more traffic/parking concerns. I think as urbanists comment more on this the general public is picking up on it and sometimes adding it to the list of what not to like about a building if it doesn’t have anything (but would not say, the building is not as bad because of the coffee shop).
  • There is a very vocal opinion that 5 over 1 and generally any new apartment is built with poor quality and will not last. I often see this kind of in tandem with the idea that the apartment are too expensive and don’t help the city. It is kind of a 1,2 punch where the building is new and too expensive for normal people, but also low quality and will fall down after 15 years right before it can become affordable. ← If you truly hate an apartment this is the top way to frame an argument against it IMO. Creates a zero redeeming qualities framing.
  • There are also sometimes comments that I think usually come from architects or people who consider themselves in the building trade/scene that ask for breaking up the building with articulation. This can sometimes be good, but sometimes just lead to worse looking buildings. Very taste driven IMO, but can avoid some worst case scenario buildings maybe.
  • Another version of that is kind of the staggered set backs, so maybe first floor set back or second floor set back. I think this again is trying to stop some worst case buildings but is a mixed bag on if it creates better ones.
  • I forgot about shadows! Big buildings could make shadows and people don’t like that sometimes.
  • Another cousin of the set backs and breaking up the buildings is asking to break the building up into multiple buildings. There was a certain person who was on the last planning committee and is not anymore, who every time I saw a building come up would ask for it to be split into multiple buildings. Especially a little out of downtown it seems like one of those requests that they could get builders to do, but I always wondered if it maybe increased cost and reduced units on some more affordable (literal and just generally) apartment buildings.
  • Also, any tree removal will be brought up with new buildings.
  • I think I mentioned traffic and parking.
  • Sometimes kids and there safety crossing the road or being near more humans and stores comes up too.

Sorry for a bit of a ramble, and I am not trying to say all critiques are bad. I am just trying to cover the ones I have heard. Any major ones I missed?

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RALEIGH SEEKS SPIKE IN RENTERS WHO EARN $150,000 or more
(AXIOS RALEIGH Sami Sparber, Tory Lysik • MAY 10, 2023)

Apartment developers looking to attract high-income renters say they’re thinking beyond gyms and pools when it comes to amenities. The push comes as many would-be homebuyers rent longer incentivizing properties to compete for a growing cohort of high-income tenants

By the numbers: The number of metro-area renters earning $150,000 or more grew 103.5% between 2016 and 2021, per U.S. Census data. That’s higher than the national average increase of 87.5%.

The share of renters making between $50,000 and $75,000, meanwhile, has grown at a far slower pace: 14.5% between 2016 and 2021.

State of play: Luxury apartments at one of Raleigh’s newest complexes, The Eastern, start at around $1,500 a month and cost as much as $13,000 monthly for a high-end penthouse.

Apartments feature spa-like baths, nine-foot ceilings, customizable kitchens and include such as an in-house spa and concierge services that offer pet arrangements and car detailing.

The big picture: Apartment construction is booming nationwide. Historically, new rental housing tends to hit at the higher end of the market, Chris Salviati, senior economist at Apartment List, tells Axios.

That trend has become more pronounced in recent years as rising project costs squeeze developers, he says.

Between the lines: High listing prices and mortgage rates aren’t making home buying as desirable as it once was, Salviati says.

“A lot of folks in that high-income band, who in the past would have owned homes, are now continuing to rent — whether that’s for lifestyle reasons or because they are feeling like it’s not a good time to buy,” he says.

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For a related thing I’m writing…

Does anyone have photos of a REALLY BAD, relentlessly boring 5-over-1? This drab back side of North Hills is one I thought of, but surely there’s worse out there.

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Yeah, that’s pretty bad! You know what it’s missing? :seafoam_green:

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109 Park is pretty bad IMO

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