Quick update. I spoke to one of the construction guys this morning and they have 2-4 weeks more of excavation and grading. The elevation of the base to Harrington street will be close to 20’ to acommodate for the 1st floor parking deck (entrance from West) and a near level elevation of the 2nd floor with Harrington.
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The rezoning to the north of the Fairweather hits the planning commission tomorrow.
http://go.boarddocs.com/nc/raleigh/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BB9PEX5ECE3B
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From my recollection the Central CAC didn’t have too much of an issue with this request. It was pretty bluntly stated that the only way that land could be used for anything is if the rezoning request was approved. There was some concern that the woman’s shelter is being displaced, but it’s the Urban Ministries that runs the shelter that put the land up for sale and will likely be able to do a lot more with that money than if they stayed. This will likely end up being a hotel based on other restrictions including restricted hours for any kind of rooftop amenity (IIRC).
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that’s actually the affordable housing component. good during a tornado (not so much a flood)
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That retaining wall looks pretty snazzy. I wonder if it will stay exposed like that. Cool pic!
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I can’t wait for the Fairweather to finish. It’s going to look awesome and also might block some of the sound we get down here from Red Hat 
My guess is once the foundation and first walls are up, they’ll fill the surrounding dirt up to ground level and the retaining structures will either be covered up or removed.
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Flow control, not filtering. I noticed Elan has them too. Not sure if the City requires them for these projects or if developers use them electively rather than dedicate surface space to retention. FWIW, the row condos facing South St looked done when I pedaled by last night. With the road redone and Citrix bikes sitting nearby, it felt like a nice front door into Dix from the City proper.
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I thought filter was strange too but that’s what it says on the concrete unit. Not sure about purpose but I suspect you may be right about reducing/eliminating surface retention considerations.
In regards to the condos at South and West, we have some friends that live there and we stopped by yesterday and noticed some have already moved into the new row facing South St. That area is coming up! I just hope the BBQ joint at West and Lenoir gets restarted.
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Huh. I don’t see how they could be backwashed or cleaned unless one of these inlets at the top is for a vac unit. I am biking today so will go by and look at them. I’ve never seen containerized stormwater treatment but turns out there are some sand filters and even membrane units (for areas where the surface water is super dirty or sensitive) out there. Thanks for the pics…I’ve been thinking of transitioning from wastewater to stormwater career-wise…maybe this is interesting enough to prod me along.
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Now I’m fascinated. I’m an engineer by trade (tech) but love to know how anything works. Pls let me/us know what you find out!
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Seems like it is a filtration unit similar to one of these. I still don’t know what’s driving their use exactly if that’s what they are. I don’t think they are required since I’ve not seen any of the other big apartment buildings have them installed but I also don’t understand the grandfather thresholds. A practicing stormwater engineer should weigh in…
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Looks like they had planned on a bioretention area with some parallel pipes for underground detention. They probably changed to 100% underground detention/sand filters to handle runoff and nutrient removal.
Putting it underground saves space and allows flexibility to manicure the frontage along Lenoir Street.
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I hope the HOA receives the O&M manual for these things.
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They will. O&M manuals are required with the construction doc submittals. They’re public record, and if the developer doesn’t provide it to the HOA he’s going to have some serious liability for non-disclosure. The developers for this are also pretty experienced guys.
These will need to be inspected annually or they’ll be fined.
Most of downtown has been 100% impervious at some point in the past and I think there’s an area right around the core that is grandfathered under a DT stormwater overlay. Looking back at the 1988 and 1981 aerial it looks like most of this property was either building, paved or gravel parking area. I’m surprised they increased the impervious enough to need that level of underground treatment.
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