the Pope House is a prime example, on wilmington st across from the FNB tower, I fear that sooner or later a developer would want to build on that parking lot property and the pope house and the Lincoln theater are targets. not for nothing, I do love to see a tall high rise that spans 40 stories tall, but not at the expense of tearing down a historic monument that has been there first., I would love to see DTR expand into the warehouse…glenwood…capital districts and build taller towers there, but in glenwood and the warehouse districts would be a great addition, I had and still wish Kane will build a taller tower in DTR just to fill in that gap tooth of the other three towers already there, ( BBT…WF…and PNC ).
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I think the Pope House could be moved out of the way, perhaps to the small lot right beside Lincoln Theatre? Leaving 3/4ths of that lot open for big things. I would be very worried about someone just bulldozing all of it though. That’s simply unacceptable. When we look at buildings we’ve lost in the last 10 years, and the lackluster things that replaced them, it’s not hard to see the trend though.
I’m worried about Fayetteville and Wilmington Streets, where we have some of the last remaining blocks of historic streetfronts. Fayetteville Street is the only place in the city with areas zoned for 40 floors, which will make some of those lowrises prime targets. I don’t know which ones have historic protections, or if any of them do. I feel like the current zoning rules do the exact opposite of preserving historic Raleigh… what little of it is left.
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If you look at the UDO, those particular parcels are excluded from the 40 story zoning. That’s clearly yet another mechanism to protect them from demolition. If you look specifically at each parcel on the west side of Fayetteville between Hargett and Martin, you’ll see how the zoning heights are pretty much aligned with what’s there. That block is safe. Similarly, Hargett between Wilmington and Blount has a similar zoning pattern aligned with those existing and historic buildings.
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What is Alexander Square zoned.
This map seems to contradict the point you were making earlier. Some of the historic lots on Fayetteville St are indeed seemingly zoned for 40 fl.
Maybe it’s loading wrong on my phone… I’ll go home and double check.
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I’d be fine if everything on the east side of wilmington was demolished and turned into almost anything else, but especially some tall buildings. except tonbo, they’re pretty fantastic 
I only want a building to envelop the GoTriangle parking lot/station and cover the entrance ramps.
Also, of the ‘what can be torn down on Fayetteville Street that everyone will be okay with.’ We still have Alexander parking deck where a sizable building can go in the future.
I think that I am looking at it correctly. You can also cross reference historic properties on iMaps with the city.
I would be fine with knocking down 219 Fayetteville, aka 1 Exchange Plaza. At least reclad the building.
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The City currently uses it for offices, so perhaps once they’ve built and moved in to the new building at the municipal campus selling the building will be an option.
But I’ve been inside One Exchange Plaza, and it seems to be in perfectly good condition right now, so I can’t imagine it would be torn down on the basis of disrepair or maintenance.
Purely subjective, but I just think its ugly. Especially the large blank portion on the north facing side.
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Ahhhh but I dream that one day that big blank wall will be home to a giant colorful art mural that would instantly be a defining feature downtown. May never happen, but just imagine the possibilities.
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I made a high quality graphic of how parts of this thread feel to read. Hats of to you @dtraleighfor running this thing
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The only sensible thing to do would be to randomly destroy 50% of the old buildings downtown.
I say we draw them out of a hat at the next meetup.
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My the odds be ever in your favor.
How cool would it be if we were allowed to build like this today? If you tried to replicate any part of this in Raleigh today the “where will they park!” pitchforks would come out.
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the building at the northeast corner above the capital is a great example of middle sized buildings that would be so different today
If you look at the pic on the left it could fit in anywhere on Falls of the Neuse lol.
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