Exactly. Build new grid and build tall stuff there. The assumption that there is only one downtown-like area and thats all there ever will be seems to reign supreme. You can’t build old buildings again. You can build new ones anytime and anywhere else and it can feel like a downtown setting (and not a North Hills setting) if only the urban infrastructure and layout just be put into place. What is “downtown” anyway? Maybe we should have that discussion. Is it the place where you tear down old buildings to build new, taller ones? That seems to a solidly held, even if unspoken, predisposition.
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I believe those are the Vance apartments and they survived right up until the history museum was built if memory serves me correctly.
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What’s the date on the photo? I can get it to between 1914 (Raleigh Furniture is built + all the Mayre buildings are up) and 1924 (Odd Follows building not started yet) but no tighter than that. I know Capital Apartments were 1917 but that site isn’t quite shown. For what it’s worth, I count this as the apex of downtown Raleigh’s existence…right before automobile’s needs and influence took hold, both enabling white flight (started with street cars) and demanding huge swaths of parking.
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The aerial photo is dated 1917-1923. I think that the building that you guys are talking about was the YMCA / YWCA.
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That is totally the former YMCA. Great work!
Great collection of images there! I love how dense the greenery is on Union Sq, it looks like a jungle! lol.
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Not Progress Energy Building.
But it probably won’t be economical to tear one of the largest buildings in DTR but what can you do as an alternative and I remember that Asheville faced the same issue with the Asheville BB&T building. They gave it a face-lift.
However, Raleigh’s Progress Energy building needs more than a face-lift. It needs to extend north to the current parking lot/service docks.
I was thinking box+wedge design. Refit the old Progress Energy building to still be a box but what is currently the parking lot/service dock as wedge tower on a rectangle platform. That way it won’t suffocate the ground level experience.
Like this:
Oh course an option to replace the Progress Energy building is probably not happening for decades but I really, really hate this so-1970’s building and it makes the city look dated.
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Lightner Arcade is NOT there so that narrows the date back to 1920 from 1923. Looks like a parade is about to happen wit hall the people on roofs so July perhaps.
It doesn’t need to extend north to cover the parking lot and service docks. They just need to build a new building in that location. Before the economy tanked there was a serious proposal to put in a 10 story building at that spot. Wake County was even going to put in a new public library in it also. They should revive that old plan again…
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About the Asheville BB&T building: I actually think the original would’ve aged better than the “facelift,” which is ironically looking dated before it’s even been completed (it’s very 90s post-modern and also an awkward composition with the material transition happening half-way up the tower).
I also don’t think One Progress Plaza is all that bad. It looks bland and dated in skyline photos, for sure, but when you see it in context with the flared base condition I think it’s quite a handsome example of mid-century modern design. I also think it pairs nicely with the Capital Bank building next door.
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My thought exactly. I am NOT a fan of this facelift.
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I quite like One Progress. It’s very striking and unique.
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I’m okay with it too. If anything, they can re-invent the ground level experience and those canopies and be done with it
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I actually agree about One Progress. Doesn’t look like anything special in skyline pics but walking around downtown I think it’s actually a pretty good tower. Has a nice presence too it. Just want that empty space next to it to get filled badly.
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I like One Progress as well… Doesn’t hurt that I work in that building though.
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BB&T in Asheville was never a very attractive building. The anodized aluminum cladding supposesly looked grungy and drab from day one. But the facelift is such a pastiche that it is barely an improvement, if at all. In addition, the old drive through and parking lot behind the building is getting replaced with a rather disappointing parking deck with nothing on the ground level in spite of its prominent position downtown.
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Also count me as a fan of One Progress Plaza. A fine tower indeed for a 1970’s tower is just dandy even today.
At 277 feet, it was the tallest building in Raleigh from for 13 years until 1990 when the first of the ‘big 3’ finally showed up.
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Those canopies were an update from the old bubble canopies (Cameron Village had the bubbles too and got rid of them around the same time). At least there is street facing retail space to start from…I think they are a bit too cavernous and set back though. Maybe the first floor needs reskinned and configured to feel like actual street retail and not retail set up in an office building (if that difference makes sense).
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One issue that I haven’t seen come up yet in regards to this topic is that many of this old buildings were constructed before designers gave even the slightest consideration to people with physical disabilities, much less before the ADA was passed.
Tearing down an old building and replacing it with something new inherently involves trade-offs, but one benefit that doesn’t get discussed enough is that in many cases starting from scratch is the only way to correct past mistakes that, in practice, excluded people with physical disabilities from a lot of public places.
Another thread on this website deals with the future of the building in which I work, which is absolutely terrible in this respect, let me assure you, and that’s a big part of the reason why I will not even slightly mourn that building once it’s gone.
I realize that everyone gets to make their own decisions about what they value, but I personally value the creation of public spaces that include people with disabilities, rather than excluding them, more than I value maintaining the architectural aesthetic that existed in this less inclusive era.
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