Quite the change! I wonder if that below-ground outdoor space (which now looks windowed in) is being used as normal space.
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Wow! That looks so different!!
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I had to go back and look at street view to remember what this looked like!
The last remodel was in the early 80s I believe, same time the CS Reading Room was built. At the time, it was a huge upgrade for the whole street, lol. Both buildings were. This looks much more timeless, at least at this point, lol.
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How feasible would it be to convert Fayetteville Street into a linear park? I haven’t been able to find any pictures of what this corridor looked like when the pedestrian mall was in place, but why not convert this corridor into an actual park with majority grass/turf. From the Capitol to the Plaza, with gaps at the intersections to maintain the current vehicle network.
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My guess is not feasible lmao
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My thinking is feasibility it’d be fine but the businesses may not like it due to losing their parking frontages etc
The pedestrian mall was dreadful. It wasn’t set up correctly. Charlottesville and Burlington, Vt are good examples. The Savannah City Market is another one.
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I never saw the one here, but live in Burlington VT for a year, that mall was always hopping. Boulder has a nice one too.
I get Raleigh is gun shy of converting it back. But done right, it can be something special. Perhaps a compromise, re-do it like Main St. in Greenville, Sc. Still a drivable street with some parking, but wide sidewalks with outdoor seating space for restaurants, and trees.
And a throwback pic
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I wonder what the complete ROW is on Fayetteville st. I’ll try to pull it up in GIS and sketch up a complete street in CAD. Maybe narrow the lanes in. Alternate parking block by block. Wider sidewalks more trees. We could make it nice.
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In all fairness, DTR was a dead zone when the pedestrian mall existed. I’m beginning to think that there is a causation/correlation fallacy related to the opening of Fay st. And the rise of DTR. If Fay was currently a pedestrian plaza with outdoor dining and trees in the street, I think it would be much more successful than what’s currently happening.
Then again, I think a pedestrian plaza wedged between the cities tallest buildings is probably not ideal. Imagine if Glenwood south was pedestrian only except the cross streets 
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I think they should close Glenwood every weekend and have like a “streets alive” type event.
I think they have one planned for a few hours one Saturday but make it an every day thing from Friday evening through Monday morning.
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I’ve been saying for a long time (even here in this community) that the idea of the mall itself was a false causation/correlation. At this point, I think that our best bet is to eliminate the parking and widen the pedestrian experience as a compromise to closing the street again.
As a street that was double dead ended, Fayetteville was an ideal candidate for a pedestrian mall in the city. Glenwood, on the other hand, is a major artery to and from the city center, and its complete closing to all traffic would be much more difficult to manage. That said, the pedestrian experience can be improved there as well with wider sidewalks, no parallel parking, and more trees.
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Glenwood has been closed on occasion for specific events on weekends, and I fully support that idea.
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With more developments coming on Glenwood that’ll mean more physical parking garages. You could probably make the compromise (save for some curbside pickup zones) to eliminate all on street parking on Glenwood and use that for wider sidewalks and landscaping.
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That’s what I meant, but forgot to say in my post. Good catch. I’ll edit my post.
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Greenville is my town! Love it there, but not sure if it translates to Raleigh, for so many reasons. Maybe on a different street.
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Visiting there in 2 weeks from today. I’ve only been once driving through about 10 years ago. Looks like a fun place!
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FYI, the right-of-way for Fayetteville St., and the other three axial streets in the original Christmas plan, should be 100’. All the other streets around roughly 67’.
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Decent amount. It’s a downtown so you could get away with 10’ lanes too.
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