THAT I can agree on. It would certainly look so much better with even a slightly taller, signature tower with unique architectural features.
Street level, the Duke Energy building. Perfectly nice modern office tower, weird, ugly, concrete bunker-like street interaction and a fenced-off surface parking lot just because.
Generally, any of those half-assed suburban-style office buildings around Nash Square could win, but they’re all not long for this world. The Dobbs Building is a piece of junk, and I can generally find something to like about most of those Halifax Mall buildings. Brutalism with no joy or finesse. Just concrete.
I like the Archdale building from the outside. It has very pure lines, nice materials, and looks good in the sunset. Must be strange to work in a building that pretty comprehensively wastes some uniquely great views, though.
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This is interesting, in Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands, local residents voted a building as the ugliest in town. So in 2014 it was demolished and replaced with something more attractive. Before and after pics:
I wonder if this is possible here in Raleigh starting with the windowless AT&T building
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1 - AT&T
2 - Wake County Jail
3 - Wake County Courthouse (the old one)
4 - Convention Center Marriott
I actually like the Archdale though I can totally understand not liking it. Still, I think the Halifax mall itself is the problem. That whole area feels very dead and office parkish. Clarion is not good for sure but not despotic like the concrete elephants I mentioned. The Legislative Building is beautiful and I’m baffled to see it on the list.
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I find the Federal Building unattractive. The old country courthouse is on my list too.
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I vote PNC because it’s so prominent. If we expand downtown a bit, I’ll add Bloomsbury Estates.
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