Looks like more than a third of Phase 2 is the 9-story office building. I think a pretty good mix of uses here.
Not that itâs required, but it would have been a nice touch if Kane had a community meeting, or some sort mechanism to get local citizen input on what sort of development theyâd use in the community. If I were asked, Iâd say a multi-screen urban cinema, and Apple Store, Crate and Barrel, a bowling alley, and a live music venue.
@John
I am with you 100% great choices and I believe that when JK was at this point with NHâs didnât he involve and solicit input from those neighbors?
Looks like this is the discussed building in the warehouse district. So why canât we get something similar in Smokey Hollow?
This is being discussed in the Cabarrus Street PD thread.
Looks like we got our extension of Tucker (as a narrow, one-way alley sort of street, maybe with a large skywalk over it.) Not crazy about the skywalk part; I would rather it were open to the sky. Nor am I quite certain that this lines up directly across from Tucker at West. But at least we got something. And the narrow, retail-lined alley could really wind up being something special.
As far as the scale and height is concerned, this works for me. Letâs cover all of downtown with stuff like this.
But letâs not make it all stick-built like this proposal. Thatâs the most disappointing part of phase 2.
Someone pinch me. Is this really happening?
Imagine if they could also pull off that downtown Stadium proposal. Would tie the Glenwood South area through downtown to the Warehouse area. Well, the the pieces are falling in to placeâŚ
Agreed. Well, the 9-story office component couldnât be stick-built, but the rest of it certainly is. Oh well.
From the meeting, the representative from Kane was very specific that they wanted to connect to Tucker, though I think that he said the view from Hibernian was very important, which is not TuckerâŚbut I digress. They want to visually draw people into the project from Glenwood South. Connectivity seems to be very important to them.
While the project isnât proposed as 2 way vehicular traffic, it is a pedestrian corridor that I hope remains open 24/7. As for traffic, it will be a way for drivers coming from the west to get to Harrington St., and therefore enable access to Peace and Capital Blvd south.
Shifting the focus here a bit. I donât think that we can underestimate the importance of what happens on the west side of West St. between the road and the railroad tracks. Redevelopment of it between Peace and North would unify the retail and pedestrian experience, and better link the walkability/experience to Glenwood.
The parcels along West Street are where the Southeast High Speed Rail (SEHSR) line is eventually planned to go.
Iâm even a little frustrated to hear that the city is reportedly considering putting BRT infrastructure there. SEHSR might take off next year, or it might take 20 years, but eventually, it will - and itâs short sighted to think about doing anything else big or permanent with that space.
In the meantime, whatever is done with those blocks should first maximize the use of existing buildings, and beyond that, be TEMPORARY. Think: food trucks, shipping container pop-up stores, modular buildings, farmers markets, festival spaces, etc.
In the long term, despair not. The plan shows a viaduct extending clear from North to Peace. Itâs possible (quite easy in fact) to put retail space under a viaduct. So, although this land needs to be preserved for rail use, every one of those blocks could and should have an active ground level use.
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Going off into âorulzâs Master Plan for Raleighâ, this corridor could eventually allow us to consolidate the two rail lines leading north from downtown (CSX to the east of Capital and Norfolk Southern to the west) into just one, which would make extending downtown northward along Capital Boulevard much more viable. This is the best/easiest direction for downtown to expand, because itâs a low-intensity entirely industrial area that nearly everyone agrees is an eyesore.
(Youâll note that I think a similar thing is possible and desirable south of Downtown as well.)
Fair enough. That said, I love the idea of some sort of âtemporaryâ use, though I wouldnât doubt if that definition of temporary was a generation.
Some combo of food trucks and shipping containers, along with a collection of pavilions to protect patrons from the elements might just be the right recipe. Imagine if the pavilions were each designed by a local architecture firm, and as a collection were both an extension of Devereux Meadows Park and the physical embodiment of the Glenwood Green narrative!!!
If done correctly, the pavilions could also double duty as BRT shelters should the city decide to incorporate that as well.
As for the HSR, isnât it still under debate which corridor is going to âwinâ? Itâs been so long since Iâve followed it that I donât really recall where it stands.
Best case in my mind is to abandon NS from Jones and combine it with CSX going north. Use the North St to Peace St section as a âHigh Lineâ. Use north of peace street for the greenway connection to Crabtree Creek Trail.
Problem with putting all trains on the CSX is that you still have the grade crossings at West and Harrington to deal with.
If we are just after a greenway, Pigeon House Branch will be a perfectly fine corridor north of Peace Street, so a trail along the railroad would be redundant north of there.
If we are after a high line like experience, the NS line embankment and bridges from North to Peace are so narrow that it would not be much of a high line without completely rebuilding it, which - well, thatâs expensive. If a high line is desired somewhere nonetheless, the CSX is much wider, is adjacent to the Seaboard area which is much more vibrant than West Street north of Peace, and although it is further from Glenwood South it does still connect at its southern terminus.
Therefore IMO the CSX is the better option.
From TBJ, phase two construction will start summer 2019.
Smokey Hollow Phase II. While I love the design, Iâm pretty shocked theyâre only building to 9 stories when the lot is zoned for 12. Hopefully phase 3 will get to 20 stories. Iâd think being near a grocery store would warrant going taller but what do I know.
I wonder if that plaza/alleyway between the buildings just wouldnât feel very comfortable from a pedestrian perspective if the buildings were much taller. It looks like it is going to be fairly cozy/narrow.