Yes I recently drove by these. Unfortunately the thoughtfulness put into the site plan was only geared toward orienting the buildings around parking. For some reason these feel extremely, almost offensively suburban
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They’ll have no issues passing these off as affordable housing in 20 years. Maybe less.
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All these apartments are right next to the eventual commuter and light rail.
The landscaping is particularly stunning. 
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It doesn’t look all that bad but it’s obvious that is was cheaply built 
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It looks way worse in person. Insanely cheap and tacky.
I usually try to be positive, but yeah, these are really ugly. Imo, worse than other nearby student housing projects.
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Latitude??.. more like LAME-itude, am i right fellas??
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I agree that it isn’t especially beautiful but there actually is a good bit to like:
It is:
- Fairly dense (~30 units per acre; this complex has everything from 1br to 5br units, the effective density is probably closer to 100 bedrooms per acre.)
- Uses transit to get to NCSU (whether GoTriangle or private shuttle buses)
- An easy walk to a grocery store
Mass production is essential to build affordably, and right now this is what mass produced multifamily housing looks like in North Carolina. It is what it is, I guess. We’re not going to look like the Swiss Alps or the Riviera.
This stretch of Hillsborough Street is going to be the next Avent Ferry. Eventually (20-30 years), these student apartment complexes will probably become market rate affordable housing for the general public. The smaller rooms and higher bedroom counts characteristic of student apartment complexes would actually be awesome for families to live in. With a 4br unit, you could have a “master” bedroom, a bedroom for each of 2 kids, and still have a room left over for an office. Then, another 20-30 years after that, they will be on the precipice of being redeveloped as a denser, more urban corridor (like Avent Ferry today.)
I wish it had less parking than the 2 spaces per unit it provides, but nobody ever promised perfection- and given the high bedroom count (180 units, 394 parking spaces, ~550 bedrooms), it actually has significantly less than one space per driving-age resident.
This is the march of progress. Move along, I guess. 
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From the Triangle Business Journal today, “Last month, Raleigh-based affiliate firms A Squared and Build Raleigh filed plans with the city for 1508 Stovall, a 50-unit project in west Raleigh.”
Stovall is buried over between Gorman, Kaplan, and Kent in the student ghetto; the project replaces an existing mobile-home park.
The plan is for 10 2-story buildings, 50 total units, all 4-bedroom units. So let’s assume population of 200 students spread across 5.5 acres, not exactly a ton of density, but I figured I’d add it to the list here. It says they plan to list them as “market rate rental” but might transition them to student housing as the process goes along. Which, in that area, why you wouldn’t just target the student demo in the first place I don’t know, what else are you building four-bedroom units for. But hey, maybe it’ll be more affordable family housing than is getting built most places ITB.
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10 two-story buildings? Yeesh… How bout a little height and view towards the future
Edit: nevermind, I checked out the area on Google Maps and it’ll fit right in.
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I lived in some Preiss apartments on Carlton for Summer 2003.
Perhaps it was that it was during the summer, but back then my impression was that less than half of the residents in the vicinity were actually students.
I am a fan of four bedroom units. Would be a fine fit for a family. A bedroom for each of 2 kids plus an extra room for office/storage/whatever.
I lived on Gorman St. when I was at State, and I had no idea that those mobile homes were there! When I google mapped it and went to the end of streetview, it felt like I was in backwater West Virginia. I mean, it REALLY feels like it’s out in the middle of nowhere. Crazy!
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Latitude and Republic also back up to Western Boulevard Extension, the likely future route of the Western Ave BRT.
As for the parking (and the weird townhouse layout), you can in part blame the city of Raleigh’s absurd 1-per-bedroom apartment parking requirement… which is at last coming to an end soon.
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More about the Centennial Campus revamp:
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Can anybody find a higher rez of that Centinnial Campus rezoning plan map? The image included on the WRAL piece cannot be enlarged
@Francisco posted it in a different thread. The rezoning map is in pg. 5 in this PDF dated Nov. 4, and the proposed area plan is in pg.8:
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