Looks like both buildings are intentionally set back from the road to avoid the floodplain.
The parking area needs to be some sort of pervious surface. Gravel or special pavers or what not. That much asphalt is not good in the flood plain.
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Amen to that. I wonder how developers and civil engineers see them, though?
Whether they’re helpful in parking lots and how they hold up against real-world use and maintenance seems to be an active field of research (the USGS just published a paper on this last year), and the NC DEQ’s recommendations on permeable pavements still have a warning about load-bearing. There are some porous pavement manufacturers who want to tell you otherwise, but my 10 seconds of Googling didn’t turn up with any answers that were less biased.
On the other hand, it seems like pervious surfaces could help buildings get LEED certifications, which might be a good investment for the developer.
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Hodges Street is a underutilized asset at best or a creepy deathwish at worst. Even a poorly thought out multi-use project is better than what currently exists now for the most part.
If we’re going to grow out Midtown, what would it take to expedite the GoRaleigh Six Forks repack? The lack of bus service on Atlantic seems like an unintentional oversight and the future 8 down Six Forks/Atlantic would fill a necessary hole. Fording Capital for the 1 is like playing real life Frogger and Wake Forest with the 2 is nominally better.
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The portion of this development between Hodges and the buildings here is floodway (which is the striped area on @ScrantonUSC 's map) - which is a non-encroachment area. That is why the buildings are set back from the street. The one alternative would be to relocate Hodges Street so the edge of the curb is at the edge of the floodway, but I’m sure that too would have complications. So, let’s assume that for all practical purposes, the setback from Hodges is unavoidable, period, end of story.
What they have chosen to do with this floodway area (parking and driveways) is definitely not necessary. IMO this should mostly be a green space. Let the sidewalk meander away from Hodges along the edge of the floodway.
The rest of the development is buildable flood plain. But it appears that the way they intend to build is… also not great. It looks like this will all be surface parking, and the buildings will be raised up on a mound of dirt, and/or behind a retaining wall, to lift them out of the flood plain, which is really pretty crappy.
In contrast, check out this development on the boards at 159 Riverside Drive in Asheville. The French Broad River sees epic floods from time to time, and this is in the flood zone but not the floodway.
https://courbanize.com/projects/159riversidedr/information
The new construction portion of this development has parking on the ground floor, and retail on the 2nd level. All parking is structured. It seems like it at least makes some effort to at least present an attractive face towards the street.
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I’m not sure that’s technically correct. The ground here is mostly flat, from the creek to the end of Paula st. The way the current ice center deals with flooding is that they are basically one story off the ground, see that street view capture:
I have been to a few businesses along Paula st and they got flooded in the past, you can tell for example with the HVAC coil hanged at 10ft off the ground on the side of the building…
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When I compare the shape of future building 1 with the existing, it looks like to me the will try to use the existing grading to get it one story off the street level as you suggest.
I also think this should all be green space.
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According to Wral’s Laura Leslie:
“The tallest building in downtown Raleigh is PNC Plaza, at 32 stories. The Walter condominium tower in North Hills is the city’s tallest building, at 35 stories.”
I forgot to add this little bit…it is located at the end of the news story.
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Stories and height do not equate with one another. It seems to be a concept that the press doesn’t get.
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This is just objectively wrong, and by at least 100 feet if not more… WTF
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@GucciLittlePenguin and I were having a facepalming laugh about this very thing last night. Also, every rezoning is automatically listed as a max floor count tower. And there were typos in the article too… Sigh
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From my experience with civil engineers and stormwater management planning, pervious pavement is not recognized as a suitable stormwater mitigation device by many local permitting jurisdictions. Compacted gravel is considered impervious surface by those same jurisdictions, because it does effectively create nearly the same runoff during heavy 10 year and 100 year storms. Using regular pavement and stormwater conveyance systems to direct the runoff to below grade cisterns and sand filters is the status quo, although I’m unsure of placing below grade cisterns in a flood plain.
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The good news for those of us that would rather build tall downtown is that eventually Kane is going to run out of room to build in North Hills. I can’t imagine how bad traffic would be in that area if all of these buildings come to fruition.
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There is more than one criterion on which to rank the tallest building.
On the categories of “architectural top” and “tip” PNC is the clear winner.
On the category of “roof height” and “highest occupied floor” the answer might (or might not) be different, but the difference most likely wouldn’t be 100 feet.
I for one kind of feel that measuring a building by the tip of a spire (or antenna) is kind of cheating, or at least misleading.
The impression that PNC creates both from up close and far away is, to me, not that of a 538 foot building. The pyramid thing and the spire feel tacked-on as an afterthought. The RBC logo (or, the roof just above it) is a better estimate for how tall it seems, at least to me. Probably still taller than Walter, but not by nearly so much.
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So . . . it’s called Midtown, but the cover is downtown? lol.
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Might be a reason to question who really pays the bills for ‘downtown’ joints…
And the truth lies somewhere outside walkability…
Thus, a stiff pull for most folks on this blog.
To give that a real context, GlenSo is ‘successful’ right now, not because of who lives there but because of who drives in there to agitate the residents for the most part. ZoomZoom,
Like a Fernet finish to the evening…learn to love it…?
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Um…no!!!
Well I guess if Downtown South is developed, then downtown will be the new Midtown?
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DTS will be Uptown! Don’t ask how it makes sense just roll with it.
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