The 10th largest in the country is .93 million square feet 930,000 gross sf
RCC is currently 500,000 gross sf
Our largest ballroom is 2.6 NFL fields
Raleigh is the 41st largest city in the US
Just putting the numbers out there for context.
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Curious what room(s) it was occupying? Were there partition walls or were they maxing out the entire exhibit hall?
They typically (temp) close the streets (to cars) around Red Hat but I’d be fully on board with any plan that closes South to cars but presents a functional and efficient means for pedestrian and bike facilities along South that integrates with the Chavis to Dix ‘Strollway’ plans.
Hopefully, the proposed schedule of construx proceeds (and Red Hat isn’t ‘on the shelf’ for multiple seasons sitting idle like some of our dirt lots).
Also - pie in the sky :
Turn that triangle-shaped city lot bisected by the RR just south into a ‘Boxyard’ RTP type mixed use facility + Site a future ‘gondola station’ on top of the deck across the street…
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My best friend kidnapped me from work one day and took me to Quiltcon. I think the whole space was used. I don’t recall any of the dividers being up. I had no idea that many people were into quilts, but I was very wrong.
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Oh now we don’t use the Triangle CSA numbers 
We’re the 31st largest metro area, we have nice year-round weather, and we don’t have any national tourist draws outside of college sports. I think it’s a sensible idea as something to bring in outside visitors and support downtown and the hospitality industry.
The Triangle hosts a lot of random sports tournaments for similar reasons.
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Infocomm, off the top of my head, definitely needs more space. Raleigh is the kind of city it would totally come to if possible. There are other big tech expos like that.
Comicon and Animazement would quickly grow to use the space if they had it and it would elevate Raleigh’s cred for those conventions. I don’t know what else we host usually but we could dual-wield with more space. It’s more money for the city to spend on building cool things–which is the real reason they’re doing it. NC is rather underserved by convention space.
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That said, I hate the road closure proposals. Find a way to make it work in the grid, or don’t.
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South would be closed to everything. There would be a building and an amphiteater there. No bikes or walking thru. Gotta swing over to Lenoir.
Maybe with a fancy underpass under the railroad bridge:
Dead end of South st from the west:
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We can follow the model that we usually use which is to defer/do nothing and let Durham steal that business from us.
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Case in point: Durham has recently expressed interest/desire to build a large convention center.
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There is no reason the amphitheater has to be that large. Just cut the corners off and fit it in the block. It’ll have the same seating capacity it currently does.
If you want a bigger one put it in Dix Park.
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Eventually I hope we can get an indoor concert hall that fits between 10,000 to 20,000 in downtown Raleigh. It can even double up as a minor sport venue like the Raleigh Ice Caps or something.
That will slot it between Red Hat and PNC arena and there’s a lot of demand in that range as well.
Closing this street is fine by me. I walk this way all the time and never take this street to reach Dix Park I doubt many people do. But oh poor CARS, WHY WON’T ANYONE THINK OF THE CARS!!! IMAGINE HAVING TO GO AROUND IN A HUGE AIR-CONDITIONED DEVICE.
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That dead end is pretty rough. But with the road closure that creates some new land to play with it looks like, maybe our city can think of some fun ways to utilize that space.
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They won’t. It’ll become a gravel lot for 10 years.
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Or probably just a roadblock sign. Unfortunately you’re probably right
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I chimed in with an email to council saying that I thought bike/ped should be retained at all costs on South/Lenoir. Having said that, one compromise, say if South is closed completely, would be to then elevate Lenoir Street with a formal streetscape plan, make it a real nice place to be and make it real active.
No compromise on the railroad crossings though. Those need to have bike/ped crossing no matter what.
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Well that looks nice.
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Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmeeee…
We maybe (remains to be seen, will probably cheap out) get a more permanent and perhaps aesthetically interesting amphitheater but it’s in a somewhat castoff area inched away from the DTR amenities by the new chonky convention center outcropping. We lose the amphitheater proximity and visibility to the shimmer wall - imposed upon or blocked by the CC outgrowth. We lose connectivity across South, choked off for Red Hat dead end backside access from Dawson. The CC expansion has nothing mixed use for residents - focused only on its look inward at its societycore programming, Lenoir is already a tight squeeze for all uses and yet we’re gonna funnel more use through here via the other east west closures anticipated. Maybe we get street trees and a pocket park tossed in for our troubles.
Nerp Derp.
Seems the artist you reference was in her feels at RedHat…must be bummed about the move / street closures also ?
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