Show Off Things From Other Cities

I love Richmond, but hey this fits with their skyline lmao - it’s a pretty beefy 20-story skyline that just happens to be made up of completely bland buildings :rofl:

Knock the building style all you want but at least Richmond’s corporate headquarters are building downtown.

Example of why Raleigh needs more corporate support for our City Center. We simply have not had this for the City Center, pro sports teams, etc. We only currently have 2 Fortune 500s & both are in NH (First Citizens & Advance Auto).

Fortune 1000 Raleigh based: Martin Marietta, Golden Corral…maybe there are a few more but NONE have shown a commitment to the City Center.

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RTP is the main reason DTR is lacking office high rises. 1970’s park style offices ruined the area imo

Or that’s the only reason this area has actually grown the way it has

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I agree. There’s an inertia to what Raleigh and the Triangle is, and it’s going to take some serious work to change the direction of that ship. For instance, it has taken 3 decades to realize downtown as a viable and desirable location for residential.
At this particular time, we are facing serious headwinds regarding new/relocated business/office development.

those photos are RIDICULOUSLY great. good job.
I took family out with two dogs to visit the park on ribbon cutting day and got to say, this place is as spectacular as the photos. They spent money in the right ways. It is almost over the top.
The dog park (they have 2) for the bigger dogs is like a six flags for dogs. Whatever the Dix park budget is, I think Cary spent that on JUST THE DOG PARK design lol. just kidding of course, but it’s spectacular. The consultants must have had a blast designing that. dog-sized tunnels, berms, long anchored “Fallen trees” for dogs to do agility on, dog splashpad with LED lighting and changing water patterns to confuse the pups, water station for the dogs and Prosecco on tap next to that with huge fireplaces and firepits and rocking chairs for adults just outside the dog area. The meandering pathways and elevated skywalks and water features, just a huge WOW. Will look even more amazing in Spring with new growth and green growing season.
Cary really knocked it out of the park with this one. Would have loved to have purchased one of the $1.5m plus townhomes with rooftop skydeck overlooking the park back when they were only $800k.
The vibe downtown there in Cary is definitely improving. For Thanksgiving, my son and his college buddies went to go hit the watering holes in downtown Cary instead of Durham or Raleigh, and he said they had a blast. I don’t think anyone would have said that about Cary even 5 years ago.
Definitely go visit the park. Hopefully Dix comes somewhere close to this success. They have way more land to work with at Dix, but i can’t help but think that the smaller area of the Cary park vs Dix makes the Cary park investment that much more of a shockingly impressive wow factor.
Thanks for sharing those photos.

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Midvale, UT. I really like the mountain view. The city does have light rail, however it was not near my location so I was unable to use it. There was not official bike lanes that I saw, however I did see some large shoulders and wider sidewalks which I found to be nice. Unfortunately I did not have a bike and there was no bikeshare service at my location.

One bad thing about this city is that it suffers from bad pollution. During the winter months the pollution settles down low with the cold air in a phenomenon called “inversion”. You can really see it in the third picture.

Even though the sidewalks were nice, there was a pretty bad crossing experience. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised when you have to cross 9 lanes of traffic in a high speed area. It does have sidewalks so I guess there’s at least something. Nothing too noteworthy (Midvale) except for the mountains. I still wanted to post photos to show what other cities look like.

Airport pictures:

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Another reason for lack of office towers in DTR for the future may be due to remote work.

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More travel photos:

Roanoke, VA

It’s amazing what one simple star can do for tourism in the city. The overlook helps as well. We might come back to explore some more. We kind of rushed this trip.


The downtown area

Charlottesville, VA
We went to the downtown mall. I would like to see it during peak hours. We were here about 3:00PM on a Tuesday.



Bonus photo from the Blue Ridge Parkway. There was a fire nearby which is why we see smoke.

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Downtown Cary has a new restaurant coming in April: Zest, a sushi, small plates and seafood restaurant (with a location in Roswell, Georgia). It will be located at 175 E. Chatham St. on the ground floor of the The Rogers Building (the newly constructed long building behind Scratch Kitchen). Construction is expected to begin this month.

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Parks, bike lanes, and sidewalks are only useful if there are people around to use them, and tall buildings only exist to contain large numbers of people (people who are paying, directly or indirectly, for the very expensive building sheltering them). Everyone always praises Central Park in Manhattan, which is not particularly notable in size or scenery or serenity – but famous mostly because it’s surrounded by millions of people.

The original reason to build the downtown Cary park, by the way, was to create a common area where stormwater from dense new buildings throughout the area could be collected. This was after the first big rain after it opened:
Imgur

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Totally on board with the symbiosis of more people and more people friendly places…

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https://www.axios.com/local/raleigh/2023/11/30/downtown-cary-gets-a-vinyl-shop-and-bar-hunky-dory

Going in the same location as Di Fara pizza and Taipei 101. Article mentions their issues in Seaboard Station from the construction, and hoping they can hang on until it’s done.

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I had to look up where Midvale UT is. I recognize the SLC airport which has a new terminal recently that opened. Midvale is a Salt Lake City suburb that’s pretty far from the SLC light rail system. You’re right about the inversions they get in the valley. It’s gross when it happens, mostly in winter.

So, because I’m a big nerd, I’m currently working on a map of US filming locations and other stuff to do in the US. While doing research, I realized I accidentally took a picture of the bank from the movie Heat. The shootout scene took place on Flowers St and the arrow shows where they walked out of the bank. I doubt anyone cares, but everyone should learn at least one useless fact per day. That scene was one of the greatest shootouts in movie history as far as I’m concerned. This building was also “destroyed” at the end of Fight Club. The more you know…

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Nice! I love the move Heat, watched it about a month ago as a matter of fact.

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To anyone who hasn’t been to Cary’s downtown park, it’s truly hard to express how well done the place is. The dog park alone is like a theme park for your pooch. Oh and here’s a fireplace with rocking chairs to relax in while the dogs play, and while you sip on prosecco or craft beer on tap 15 feet away.

The designers did an AMAZING job creating this place for what, $75 MILLION DOLLARS? holy cow. but you can see every penny of it. It’s almost over the top. a real gem. Kudos to Cary. New apartments, offices, townhouses with rooftop patios, a new library, performing arts building, and offices all surround it. Just a couple blocks to the main intersection downtown with Amtrak, Cary Theater, breweries, restaurants, and more I-don’t-even-know-what, that’s very obviously under intense construction.

Here’s a cool article about designing it. The only beef I have with the writer is they didn’t even understand the 3 cities or universities of the Research Triangle. They claim the 3 are Duke, Carolina, and “Wake Forest”. LOL

I know people like to rag on Cary for various reasons, but this park is worth swallowing all the insults and actually enjoying an amazing downtown park. I only wish I’d bought one of the cool rowhouses with amazing rooftop patios facing the park

https://www.archpaper.com/2023/12/cary-park-north-carolina-ojb-machado-silvetti-new-square/




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I think our former corporate headquarters building is just to the left of where your picture cuts off.

Imagine this in the skyline

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What do you think about this in the skyline?