Nash Square Apartments at Dawson/Martin

Love everything except for the grey exterior on most of it- the (likely faux) wood paneling and the brick looks great, the grey/concrete look is terrible. Why not some color?? I know this isn’t Miami but some spicy colored paint on that concrete building would stand out among all the grey and beige in our city. I vote orange.

Yet we have the crowd that is appalled at the orange proposed on some areas of The Peace :). Can’t please everyone.

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Probably has to do with the eventual branding of the hotel as well. I don’t think there are many flashy Hampton Inns or Hilton Garden Inns for instance.

I hope this spurs pedestrian protection on that street. It’s a popular street for speeders.

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The storefront treatment reminds me a lot of the Dillon, for better or mostly worse in regard to being functional.

I think this is a okay start, but I’d also like to see a little more color as others have said, or something else of interest to break up the bleak wall of hotel room windows.

They better put up something to protect that front door or some day a car will be barreling right into that corner space.

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Eh, I’m not a fan. Hopefully the design is revised considerably, but I feel it has to be a certain calibur to merit replacing the historic storefronts and ‘mcfacades’ don’t cut it.

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I love the brick facade on the first three levels (though I believe they are mostly just masking the parking podium) but the hotel facade above looks horrendous. Can there at least be a few balconies instead of a completely flat surface?

Hotels usually don’t make balconies.

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This kind of makes me wonder if there’s a new theme. A few floors looking historic and not too tall, followed by a much taller tower with more modern tones, but set back so it doesn’t interact much with the average pedestrian. Examples include One City Center in Durham, this hotel, the new Father and Sons’ old building project, the one behind Raleigh Denim, the RusBus project, Citrix, Dillon, etc.

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In Leo’s DTR pic he selected, this project will have quite an impact on the skyline from this view.

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I don’t think it’s anything new; it’s always been a pretty common approach to a podium+tower building. This strategy is perfect for the Warehouse District in order to preserve the character of the area at the pedestrian level, which explains most of these. But I’m weary of it becoming sort of a kitschy go-to answer for development in Raleigh as a way of being “contextual” on a surface level. One Glenwood, for example, is pretty tasteless, and its brick facades look slapped on without much thought or depth. I would like to see architects in the area explore more creative (and contemporary) articulations of the base. We can address the context through material and scale without trying to produce a cheap copy of an historic facade.



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the design looks great, does blend in well with the Warehouse District, I see the firestone right down the street, hoping that they build a taller tower so that it blends with the Three towers already here, ( BBT, Wells Fargo, PNC ) in time I guess.

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Also this guy in Wilmington is sort of similar with its scale and age.

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Aloft on Hillsborough Street has this exact balcony.

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The post was about putting balconies presumably for the rooms, not talking about the big public balcony a couple floors up. Maybe we’re all talking about different things lol

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FWIW, the Holiday Inn/Clarion/Holiday Inn, had balconies but in an early 2000’s renovation, enclosed them with those green glass bay windows. I’ve been in chain hotel recently too, that had the sliding balcony door bolted shut. Liability perhaps? Anyway, it is indeed the trend from what I can tell as well.

That makes me remember that when I toured the new Residence Inn over near the convention center, they boasted a bit about being the only downtown hotel with balconies. There are only 7 rooms with balconies but still, the only ones. (on the southeast corner)

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Not to be morbid, but the hotels don’t want the liability if someone has a bad day and decides to take a dive.

I worked in hotels for about 3 years in college, and we had someone make an attempt (pills and booze rather than jumping) and it was really bad. I won’t share any more info, other than to say it was a really bad situation for all parties involved.

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A few different aerial shots of the lot being discussed for this hotel. Before shots for historical reference.

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