I absolutely hate the look of Smoky Hollow’s jarring grey slab of concrete looming out from the top of the apartment building. Beyond ugly and shortsighted.
That would be Win™
You’re hired! 
That would probably require concrete construction for at least the first few floors, right? What’s the max for stick, 6?
More like Parking City amirite?
8 Likes
I think it’s five for stick.
2 Likes
yah i mean that would be assuming they aren’t building the cheapest apartments possible. figured such a prominent site would have nicer construction.
1 Like
Wow - this is a far and disappointing cry from what we were presented with during the re-zoning. Remember this:
http://loharchitects.com/work/park-city-south
I notice that LOHA is not on the Admin Site Review documents.
Maybe they’re concerned about reduced demand for office space post-COVID and had to change directions?
3 Likes
Love that TBJ leads with the conceptual rendering pics…
Maybe this will all shake out but, it’s a pretty disappointing fall from Loha to JDavis
1 Like
5 floors of sticks on two floors of blocks is the max.
It’s the max quick trick block stick stack.
9 Likes
…made just to stack up some quick bucks in the back.
Also, is it just me, or do the storefronts also seem too glass-y and sterile to properly activate the entrance to Dix Park?
1 Like
Sad… the most exciting thing in this proposal is the greenway bridge…
5 Likes
I don’t think that. Look at the plans. This takes up 60% or more of the property south of Rocky Branch. Whatever space is left can’t fit several towers. This is bad, bad, bad.
I’ll come out and speak against this myself.
7 Likes
JDavis? What a joke. This is the second time Merge has done this… Their proposed execution of South Park is also a far cry from the concept. They brand themselves as a design-forward, progressive development firm, hiring top-tier design talent to do concept studies that show the “potential” of sites, but then the end results are no different than anything else being built in Raleigh. And I understand that master-planning exercises are always aspirational, but this is a complete bait and switch. Why hire LOHA at all to do such a thoughtful, multi-staged masterplan study to then throw most of their framework out the window?
7 Likes
I am curious how macroeconomic effects are going to play out for the foreseeable development pipeline. Not only is office demand very much a gamble to predict right now, I’m sure construction costs are rising rapidly.
1 Like
It was 5 over 1 until 2015. Updated IBC allows a 2 story podium for a total of 7 floors.
2 Likes
N&O has an article about this development today.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article249048060.html
Aaaaargh I just can’t even say how much I hate that parking deck poking up like that. It’s so awful.
This goes to show one hazard of upzoning: you need to be sure that your form based code is watertight, which this development is showing that it definitely is NOT. After this gets built we need to go about plugging that hole.
I really don’t care about the bait-and-switch away from the LOHA design. Not an issue, for me. That was always a shiny flashy place holder. For me, it’s all about the gaudy parking deck.
So come on Kane, Build the damn apartments taller. Go for 8 stories of cold formed steel (CFS) over a 2 story concrete podium. That’s similar to what the developers did over at Origin Hotel (which was 6 stories CFS over a structural steel podium that was 3 stories tall next to the RR tracks). CFS seems to fill the gap between the 7 stories max possible with a wood frame on a concrete podium, and the 11-12 stories or so needed to make poured concrete or conventional structural steel pencil out. Screened parking deck PLUS more units of housing. Win-win!
9 Likes
If only they had asked you, huh? We can only hope that someone on Kane’s team reads this. After all, we are a community of influencers!
Re-watching the developer’s representative talk about how design matters, and what an important site this is to the city, only amplifies the disgust for what’s being proposed here.
11 Likes