Ha! You know how I feel about ADU’s. I wish I had taken a picture, but there was a sketch of a building behind the 2 warehouses and someone joked that one of the stick people in the penthouse would be the owner who is asking for this rezoning. He said he has not plans for that, but his wife might like it!
Here are the two pics I did snap. In all they said 13 people voted on the rezoning from the CAC. 2 voted against it because he needed to cut down a tree for the parking (under the new building) and they didn’t want that. He said that he actually planted said tree, so he felt like he should have the decision on taking it down. I was told that his name is Steve Schuster and he was the brains behind Union Station.
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Schuster’s firm and workshop are located in these buildings too. His firm, Clearscapes, is behind Marbles museum, the shimmer wall on the convention center, and was the arch of record for…wait for it…CAM
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also: the GO Bus Station, The Hudson Condos on Fayetteville Street, the Clancy and Theys headquarters in the Warehouse District (slated for redevelopment by Kane), the original Helios Space on Glenwood (now The Cortez), Brewery Bhavana, Transfer Co. Food Hall and the adjacent townhomes, Videri, the upcoming addition to the old Father and Son Building, the list goes on… he’s also responsible for a lot of the art you see sprinkled around. Those big loops at NCMA are his. So is the installation outside the Aloft on Hillsborough. Schuster/Clearscapes are one of the most accomplished architects in the Triangle and have had more of a positive impact on Downtown Raleigh than any other I can think of, in part through their adaptive reuse projects and ability to see the potential in preserving and enhancing history rather than tearing it down. Really look forward to seeing what comes of this project… isn’t this the wrong thread though lol?
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Dude needs a podcast or vlog! I would listen every week.
If you lose this, it’s really not the warehouse district any longer. Remove the branding, lose the cache, and the area just becomes regular old lame modern city.
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Do you mean Charlotte?
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Maybe it wasn’t clear, but I absolutely agree to keep as much of the existing buildings as possible on the CAM/ HQ block. Just because something isn’t on some official historic list, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t provide character. Also, until I hear otherwise officially, I would assume that they would be kept.
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IF they sign someone like Clearscapes to design / build with the rezoning then those buildings could likely stay and be built around, which I personally think would be both most impactful and most interesting. That outcome might allow us to see additional strategic development around these low-slung warehouse buildings throughout this district to maintain its vernacular patchwork. Over time, the development expense would grow in the community appreciation of what was not lost.
Same as my home renovation in an area where most tear down or move on…
Not my $$ in this case, so only so much shouting to the clouds will influence.
That’s a good point. I actually hated Charlotte when I move here because it seemed soulless and bland with a better skyline than Raleigh. Visited last year and enjoyed it. The things I liked tho (besides the rail) were in lower height areas with character. I don’t really care for any particular building in the Warehouse District being saved over another, as long as the development respects the character that is there. But if it was all torn down to build unrelated new buildings, I’d be very much opposed.
I’d still prefer to see an activated, somewhat different Warehouse District over what was there 10 years ago when it was dead. I’m also completely fine with leaving the buildings as-is and just activating them on their own. Either way, I’m pretty excited for all of the possibilities. It would definitely be weird, though, if all of the warehouses end up getting demolished.
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@ADUsSomeday “He thinks the buildings are very historic and worth saving, so his plan is to get that rezoning so he can build behind them and preserve them. He was very entertaining to listen to.”
I think the fellow developing the Martin Street project is spot-on that the best way to preserve old buildings is to make thoughtful decisions about what you want to keep and then build as densely as possible in the surrounding areas to satiate demand. (BTW, I absolutely loved your cartoon in the “What to Preserve Thread.” I literally LOLed, mostly because I know exactly which character I am in that diagram.) I think he’s got a good plan there, so good for him.
If I were going to save one thing in the Warehouse District Union Station District, it would absolutely be Raleigh Depot. That’s a great space that has really great potential to be a destination spot in the neighborhood, which is a really important consideration when it comes to preservation. I think when we talk about buildings, we get too caught up in the superficial things that are on the outside. I believe it’s what’s inside a building that gives it its real character. These buildings from 310-324 don’t really have anything on the inside worth preserving. A one- or two-story building like that, within an easy walk of Raleigh’s two main transit hubs, can be and should be knocked out and replaced with dense transit-oriented development. And then that makes it pretty easy to keep the Depot and make it like Raleigh’s version of Boston’s Quincy Market.
@Mark “If you lose this, it’s really not the warehouse district any longer. Remove the branding, lose the cache, and the area just becomes regular old lame modern city.”
Yeah, you lose the cache, I guess, but on the other hand you get housing that people can live in. (The owners say part of their plans for the building includes a residential component.) People need places to live, and housing for people seems more important than “cache,” so, I dunno, that sounds like a pretty sweet trade to me. Plus, as noted above, we can re-brand as the Union Station District, which kind of strikes me as rather cache-ish. (Cache-ity? Cache-ical?)
@mike “Also, until I hear otherwise officially, I would assume that they would be kept.”
Um … why would we assume this? Have the owners said anything to indicate this? In fairness, I haven’t spoken to any of the owners (I would love to, though), but I have spoken to multiple people who are kind of close to this situation, and not one of them has said or even suggested that they think the buildings are going to stick around. (And again, the main entrance to the new project would pretty much have to front Harrington Street, so it would be kind of weird if they did survive.) I’m just not sure what hard evidence exists that would justify such an assumption.
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To be fair on the cache part, *most of the warehouses in the SE corner are or were fairly new in the big scheme including all of the Dillion ones except the 5 Star corner. It is at least as warehouse-like around Power House rolling over to the Creamery.
This should be a priority, and the associated parking lot should be re-envisioned to be a public space with some smaller out-buildings for small business, food vendors, etc. Take the parking underground.
The Depot can be a key pedestrian connector from the Warehouse District proper to development south of Cabarrus St. & to the Convention center. If The Depot were developed today, I can imagine that this would have been the right location for a food hall with its position just two blocks from the convention center.
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I was in DC a few months ago and saw a number of blocks where new high-rise building (for DC) were build in center of blocks where keep the old building fronts. Thought I had a corner showing two streets with row houses where keep first 30 feet or so and a 10story building in center of block. Keep the nice old detail on street level but replaced the hum-drum interiors with modern functional space. This is only picture I could find was sure I took others. 
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I actually really like the old and new together…glass sure can unite the past, present and future…imo 
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I’m a big fan of this layering effect while retaining existing historic storefronts. These buildings have strong presence to them and remind us that there was much more wealth up north than there was in cities like Raleigh over a hundred years ago. Raleigh’s historic buildings, while nice enough and lovely in their own right, were not as highly detailed across the board. That said, we’ve unfortunately already lost some of the better detailed buildings of yesteryear to “progress”. This idea is the best of both.
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Ooh, I’ve been to this block! And you’re right, this block is really, really well done. A couple of things that really helped, I think:
These are really, really great exteriors. These aren’t just buildings that just happen to be old. This is the sort of thing you want to preserve. This is comparable to something like the Briggs Hardware Building in Raleigh.
It certainly helps that the existing buildings already had a fair amount of height to them.
I obviously don’t know what the inside of these buildings were like before, but as renovated, they’re super nice. The International Spy Museum is fantastic, and I would recommend to it anyone interested in that sort of thing.
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Yeah something like that but basically newer buildings that look old. You know how the Hamburg was completely destroyed in WWII but still looks old?
Praise my incredible shopping skillz.
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The old building fronts give a very nice feel to street level, not just a glass and concrete wall. I did not notice the new buildings at first after coming up out of metro, but after seeing the first one, notice they are all over this part of DC. It’s a few blocks NW of capital building. This was an area that was already built 100+ years ago by people and companies that had money.
After spending 4 hours in the International Spy Museum, I feel fairly sure that part of it extends into lower level of the new building behind the street building. Seems I recall that same company that created the museum build the new building, but do not quote me on that. I second that recommendation on the going to museum. It’s privately run so there is an admission fee.
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There is something to be said for scale related to the older building. This would just over power the older ones, like Godzilla about to stomp on them. JMHO
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