That was pretty preliminary, the design that was shovel-ready and cancelled was this. Beautiful but also quite expensive with a lot of extra features apparently.
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Shame, other cities invest in their downtowns we don’t even have a real central library.
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It was a conscious decision to build regional libraries instead of a single central library. Baltimore County in Maryland operates on this model and this is where Wake County got the idea. I will say that Baltimore City has it’s own central library.
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In Raleigh, we are working with a much smaller legacy footprint than other cities that are comparable size today. While I would certainly have loved for Raleigh to have saved the Original Olivia Raney Library, the photos that exist of it don’t give me much confidence that it would have been large enough today for a central library. From what I understand, the library was razed to accommodate the expansion of a state building.
I would LOVE for the municipal campus to include a central library. It would seem to me that hybrid work and reduced need for office space going forward could free up space for a substantial central branch.
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@GucciLittlePenguin and I have talked about the lack of a flagship downtown library. The new one in downtown Cary isn’t huge but it’s very nice looking and always seems to have people using it. Something like that, especially as the municipal center takes shape, would be great.
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I was just in Groningen and they built a city community center tower with basically a ton of public services including a library. Why can’t we do the same.
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That’d be too much thinking for our city to have something great like that
I love how I picked up like 8% of the words the host spoke, lol.
Ok, maybe 12%.
It would be pretty awesome to have a radio studio downtown.
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Truly awesome and IMO visionary! Thank you!
Now, find that available in English and provide it to Jonathan Melton and get a city councilmen’s opinion? 
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5 posts were merged into an existing topic: Downtown Library and Books Stores
NIMBYs ahh I’m glad there not in power anymore.
There used to be a radio station downtown that was there for years. It has since moved to another location in Raleigh.
Sure, WPTF was right on Wilmington and Davie.
They started catty corner in what is now the courthouse annex, the old Durham Life Bldg.
I was thinking more along the lines of public radio shows, but thanks for the reminder.
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WPTF-FM (in 1970’s) use to play album rock. The longer version of rock songs not the short version that most stations played.
What the heck there is no emoji for LP album or records!!! I’m I so old that being deleted???
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if i recall wptf was am. wqdr was fm and played album rock.
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WPTF turned far right conservative with their programming a number of years ago.
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Your are correct, was owned by WPTF, I forgot that was different call sign for the FM. Kind of funny that at that time FM was considered the stepchild of radio. Now it AM that’s second.
Horatio— we are talking about late 1960’s into 1970’s/ Talking about conservative, their theme song during this time was Dixie.
I remember when WPTF had Maury O’dell in the a.m. and Donna Mason in the p.m. It was not politically driven until a complete change occurred which included Rush Limbaugh’s show along with other broadcasters of the same ilk.
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The City doesn’t have the money without raising taxes to pay for this. The don’t pay new staff in Dev Services much more than Chic-fil-A.
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In what should surprise no one, the project is over budget from the $190 million set in 2018. (Maybe taking 5 years before even moving dirt wasn’t the best idea.) Sounds like they are trying to get it down to $206 million.
Apparently there were a lot of cost reduction options considered, doesn’t clearly say which are included?
Under consideration to reduce the project’s estimated costs
• Reduce the number of stories from 20 stories to 17 stories _________________$10.0M
• “Shell” 3 stories for future upfit _______________________________________$ 9.0M
• Reduce the current escalation allowance ______________________________$12.6M
• Eliminate significant design features and elements ______________________$12.6M
o Eliminate the internal 5 communicating stairs
o Redesign generator requirements
o Remove interior ceiling and wall wood paneling
o Redesign the exterior façade for consideration as a deductive alternate.
The project will also increase building floor plate occupancy density from 80 people per
floor to 102 people per floor, which will change the open space:private office space ratio
from 80:20 to 92:8. This adjustment is a reflection of the changes in work styles (flexible
schedules, work from home, etc.) brough to effect by COVID-19.
City council meeting tomorrow to approve contract amendment for the design team to make the changes to get the project only $16M over “budget”.
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