More food places leaving downtown…
Would rather not clear cut trees so random people on the highway can look at a stadium, though? Nicer for the people who are already here.
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I’d rather see the trees than the arena, frankly. It’s a pretty bland circle.
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When the arena is turned into a mixed use district with activity and towers though…
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Kebab and curry on Hillsborough is the jam
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Not arguing that at all. I think a big sign in front of the tree line with PNC, State, and Canes logos would be cool to see tho.
You mean when they move it downtown? 
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Love the scale and character of these housing projects. Much more approachable as a pedestrian than the massive superblock 5 over 1s we tend to see, and quality design that is not extravagant but still unique enough to establish a sense of place.
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I’ve been staying at the Ironworks hotel in Indy this weekend. Nice, industrial feel to what is clearlt a new build. But we are out in the burbs!
Strangest thing to see massive parking lots & suburban strip mall topped by apartments, lol
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The new Embassy Suites in Wilmington has what seems to be almost de rigueur these days—a rooftop bar, and this one has some spectacular views! With all of the new housing, retail, and hotels along the riverfront, downtown Wilmington seems to be thriving. We were down there for a Bon Iver concert, and even he commented on how nice it was to be next to the water. The concert venue is indeed nice, right there on the river (if you zoom in you can see the stage in the picture with the marina in the foreground). Also I like the little house boats in the marina. You can rent at least one of them on vrbo.
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We saw those last time we were there. They’re pretty cool! I love how much that whole area has transformed over the last several years. Makes going to Wilmington even more fun.
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Fun historic redevelopment of a historic YWCA into affordable housing in Durham:
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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Raleigh Stadium/Arena/Sports Discussions
using space under an interstate in charleston, sc. playground, fishing pier, grassy space and nice shaded seating. seemed well utilized.
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Apparently the Panthers are/were moving to Rock Hill, SC but now it’s all up in the air. But it sounds like the owner is likely to try to get Charlotte to kick in on a new stadium uptown to keep the Panthers playing there. Interesting parallels to some of our PNC Arena/downtown(ish) stadium discussions.
[If this post needs to be moved to that thread, that’s fine. I debated which spot to post this in.]
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Terrible phone pics, but a conference actually took me to the vibrant city of Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas (NWA 
) a couple weeks ago and I decided to check out the surrounding area. To my surprise, Fayetteville exudes a strong resemblance of Asheville in vibe and culture, especially championing strong support for local businesses. I don’t believe I saw a single storefront empty which is cool considering the size of their smaller downtown grid. Wish we could figure out a way to support that here in downtown Raleigh 
I also checked out the sister townships of Bentonville (
) and Rogers. Downtown Rogers was charming as the smaller of the three towns, but they had this really cool industry-inspired linear park adjacent to active railroad tracks downtown. I thought the design of the playground and how it incorporated industrial architecture and machinery into the environment was really cool. Maybe some of our planners could take a cue from this interesting adaptive reuse design.
Walking/cycling track.
The yellow container was upfitted as restroom facilities.
These are actually creatively camouflaged splash pad water pipes.
Again, sorry for the crappy phone pics, I was also trying to be mindful of not getting pictures of random children as I strongly believe in one’s right to privacy, especially the rights of kids, and there were tons of em running around. I didn’t want to be that creepy adult coming to the park without kids taking cell phone pics of everyone (for too long) XD
But look at this! Cropped in to show how massive this industrial machinery they incorporated into the park actually is. Very cool.
Adjacent to the linear park was also a small outdoor music venue/sound stage with a raised concrete platform stage and scaffolding that could probably host 600 people or so. (You can kind of see the scafford in the background of the last image) It was difficult getting a decent picture of the music venue due to the layout and a surrounding fence, but it was a unique looking structure that aesthetically complimented the park beside it.
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Those aren’t terrible phone pics!
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