jthomas

I'm aware of the different requirements for cladding a space for cars vs. for people. My commentary is that, just like mom jeans, the architects of this building (and the Line, and others like it) have deliberately chosen to draw attention to the most unflattering part of the building through wildly different material choices that have no relation to the rest of the building. Recessing the facade at the ground and sky deck levels only reinforces the gargantuan mass of parking at the midsection of the building. Again - mom jeans. I have made clear my dislike of podium buildings, but I can begrudgingly accept the reasons why they exist. But it's OK to call out terrible architecture. I'm glad that the noble developers are trying to keep the rents down, but they are creating structures that will be around for 100 years. They have a responsibility to the city at large as well as their own bottom line.

Yeah I don't understand why the architectural trend du jour is to emphasize the massing of the parking podiums, rather than making them blend with the rest of the building. It's like the mom jeans of architecture - it doesn't look good on anyone!

Interesting article here about the potential of electrified routes in Virginia and North Carolina. https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/01/09/electrified-rail-is-the-future-is-virginia-all-aboard/ There were a couple of new-to-me nuggets in the article, but the biggest was a claim that NCDOT wants to build the Raleigh to Petersburg S-line restoration with catenary. This would be great news if true. Hopefully the design speed will be significantly higher than 110 mph as well. I feel like the specifics of the S-line project have been pretty opaque the last few years, and also that environment around the project (such as state ownership of the right of way, and Amtrak's new trainsets) have changed significantly since the project was originally conceived. Hopefully, this means that they are planning to build a more modern railroad than the original proposal.

No kidding - this site is almost unusable on mobile.

Since we're talking about all the transplants, how about the Carolina Carpetbaggers?

I agree - you almost never hear urbanists talk about the wastefulness of industrial land use, but in some ways it is just as big of a problem as single-family sprawl. Industrial uses are seen as nuisances, so all of these new warehouse developments are surrounded by big, useless landscape buffers that do little to mitigate the impact of the facility, but waste a lot of land. Then, again because of the nuisance issue, these things are being built out on the fringes where there is no other option but to drive for employees. I think cities would be better off developing dense industrial districts within their existing built-up areas. There are already older warehouse/light industrial districts along interstate corridors in-town, for example, that could be redeveloped in a more intense fashion. This type of industrial area would leverage existing infrastructure and could be dense enough to actually be served by bus lines.

People always hyperventilate about "property values" any time any urban intervention is proposed in a single family area. Being adjacent to a transit line would probably cause their property values to skyrocket if current experience is any guide.

Just wanted to highlight this, which I think illustrates the failure of new-start rail transit in the US. So often, the thinking is focused on building an individual line, rather than developing a network, and the individual lines typically have miles and miles of trackage stretching into the low-density fringes of cities. Also, often times the first line in the system is done relatively cheaply as a proof of concept. This fragmented and timid thinking ultimately shackles the long term prospects of the system. I think a better way to start a system from scratch would be to invest in 2-3 shorter lines that intersect in the center city, and to build this core network to a high standard, meaning center city tunnels, proper transfer stations, etc. The suburban extensions can always be done later, but the core network enables good car-free mobility in the densest central areas. In Charlotte, there are currently just over 23 miles of line between the Blue and Gold lines. What if instead of the current system, those 23+ miles were divided as follows: - Line 1: Current Blue Line from Scaleybark to Sugar Creek - 6.5 miles - Line 2: Gold/Silver alignment from Presbyterian Hospital to CLT terminal - 8 miles - Line 3: Camp North End to South Park via O-line, Morehead, and Park - 8.5 miles Sure, it would have been more expensive to build this hypothetical system with tunnels in uptown and other places. But building that system all at once would have instantly transformed inner Charlotte and would be the backbone of a system that could serve the city from 50-100 years.

You’re right that places like Charleston and Savannah should not be the top priorities for expanding America’s anemic rail service given limited resources. But I agree with @kermitabout the need for alternative modes of transportation. Flying and driving are the best choice for many types of trip, but not all. There are many trips currently made by those two modes that would be better served by rail, if a frequent, reliable, and relatively fast rail alternative existed. In most cases, it does not, because rail has been starved of investment for 75 years in favor of highway and aviation infrastructure. That is the paradigm that needs to change. Those systems, while still needing maintenance and targeted upgrades, are largely mature. If we stopped pissing away billions on worse than useless highway expansion, and instituted the rail version of the interstate highway system with those funds instead, you would see a lot more travel by rail. And in that context, the secondary destinations become useful to serve. It’s the same reason why airlines serve places like Fargo or Shreveport - the network effect makes it worthwhile.

No, taking the train to a beach vacation doesn’t make much sense, unless you’re talking about a day trip (train to Wilmington + light rail to the Johnnie Mercer pier in Wrightsville would be a great combo). But downtown Charleston and Savannah are draws in their own right. A downtown rail terminal in both cities that enabled car-free city getaways would be hugely popular IMO.

Just curious - what government expenditures would you consider not to be a "waste of taxpayer dollars"? It's not that I'm necessarily arguing for the Boom incentives. It's just that whenever I hear that phrase, I rarely hear an alternate proposal for what the "wasted" tax dollars should be doing instead.

^My apologies for participating in the train wreck above. To get this thread back on track (and to continue the train puns), I'll give an update on another historic renovation being planned in Greensboro. As @KJHburg mentioned, Greensboro has done a great job of preserving many historic structures, particularly along South Elm Street downtown. Currently, there are efforts underway to save the 1899 Southern Railway Passenger Depot (not to be confused with Greensboro's current Amtrak station, which is located in the restored Southern Railway station that opened in 1926). This is what the building looks like now: Norfolk Southern owned the building for many years and used it as office and storage space. But now, ownership of the building has been transferred to the North Carolina Railroad Company, which plans to restore the building for commercial and community use, and to develop the rest of the parcel that the depot sits on. Here's what the depot used to look like: Plans for the building and the site are still developing, but restoration of the upper pitched roof and the round turret roof are central to the concept. There is a lot of momentum behind this project from the city of Greensboro, the NCRR, and private parties. It will be exciting to see how this project evolves. Here is another historical photo of the depot. Note the Cascade Saloon building directly across the tracks - that building was a notable recent historic save in Greensboro, and that project is serving in many ways as a template for the current project.

Ummm - what? Can you point me to which part of my comment was "cozying up to delusions of white nationalism grandeur"? I specifically said I was not defending any state or national level Republican - almost all of them are hell-bent on doing whatever it takes to stay in power, even though they have no constructive plan of what to do with said power, and even if it requires destroying the foundations of our country to stay in power. I do not support that. I really do appreciate your contributions to this forum, and you have a lot of good ideas like the above, which I agree would be a more effective form of government. But it's really hard for me to get on board with you when you are so quick to roll out the rhetorical big guns and just blast away anyone who disagrees with you as ignorant, bigoted, etc. From your posts, I gather that you work professionally in a political or political-adjacent field. Personally, I think you would do well to try and better understand the motivations of your opposition (note that I said opposition, not enemy). You might even discover that it's possible for people to have sincere, good-faith beliefs that are different from your own. And before you label me again, please note that I am NOT referring to Trump, Phil Berger, Tim Moore, etc. I don't like them any more than you do. But the answer to the question of "why did 45% of Americans vote for Trump?" is a lot more nuanced than "45% of Americans are bigoted white nationalists". Understanding and respecting that nuance would probably get you a lot further in advancing the type of change that you want to see.

Over the top and painting with a broad brush much? Far be it from me to defend any state- or national-level Republican, but it amazes me that so many progressives can't connect the dots between rhetoric like the above, and the vexing staying power of Trump and his ilk.

^Yeah, the Triad ballpark was supposed to go where I-40 and Business 40 split near Kernersville, right along the Forsyth/Guilford line. There was a referendum for public funding for the stadium that failed. As a lifelong Triad resident, I think that was a blessing in disguise - I don't think the team would have been successful here. It would have been a bad location - being centrally located in the Triad and NC sounds nice in theory, there's no way this area could have (or even could now) supported an 81-game home schedule. It was probably all a bluff anyway.

^Quoting myself to agree with the below. NCDOT should be made to compare alternate modes of transportation when they are evaluating freeway projects. The equivalent billions needed to widen 77 south could buy some great rail transit instead, which is more efficient at moving people, less impactful to the environment, and has the desirable side effect of encouraging compact, walkable development patterns. Keep this in mind when NCDOT inevitably proposes to widen 40/85 between Charlotte and Raleigh again at some point in the future. The megabillions it would cost to add another lane to that route would buy us a really nice high-speed rail line.

Yes - and with a casino already coming to Danville too. This has all the trappings of some dirty insider dealings.

Memphis has made a change to allow the IRC to be used on up to six-unit residential buildings. Do NC cities have this kind of discretion in how to apply building codes?

I agree with so much of what you wrote. IMO, NC is still riding the accomplishments of a previous generation of visionaries. The state's current success, which is built on that vision, is masking the fact that the NC GOP is working to dismantle the underpinnings of that success. However, the world has changed, NC has become much more urban, and it is time for a fresh vision for the 21st century. I agree that the Republican blueprint of low taxes and low services is not the recipe for building great places to live. Unfortunately, IMO the current political left is fixated on the dead-end of identity politics and lacks a coherent plan for how to deliver the good governance and forward-thinking projects that will sustain this state for the next 50 years. I think that if progressives at the state level could pivot away from the culture wars, they could find a lot of success with policies such as transportation and land-use reform that should be non-partisan anyway and would benefit both rural and urban communities. Like them or not, NC Republicans can point to a lot of good things that have happened in the state under their watch. NC Dems need to avoid getting dragged into the abyss of the national culture wars, and instead come up with a clear and concrete vision of how they would improve life in this state in ways that are tangible.

I think our society has collectively lost the concept of the street as a shared public place. Street rights-of-way are one of the largest landholdings of a municipality. But instead of treating this land as a valuable civic asset, the place where the private intersects with the public, streets have been reduced to the sole function of facilitating throughput of private motor vehicles, usually in the largest volume and at the highest speed as possible. At the same time, private buildings no longer interact with the street. They are set back away from the street, protected by landscaped buffers, and often don't even have a primary entrance facing the street. This just reinforces the degradation of the public realm into a space to pass through, rather than a place to occupy. Fixing this is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem that will require major changes to the status quo of street design, land use rules, and building design.

This site in Greensboro is also bordered on the south by the Downtown Greenway. Oh, and the agreement with the city gives Lidl like seven years to build this crappy store. These projects highlight something else for me. Namely, that the civil engineering profession (at least around here) seems to have absolutely zero understanding of how to deal with sites in an urban context. I think most architects have at least some understanding of basic urban design principles. However, so many projects are comprised by terrible site and/or street design, which IMO is at least as important to the urban environment as the actual building design. Our urban environments will continue to be less than the sum of their parts until the engineers figure out that what "works" in suburbia does not apply in dense urban areas.

It’s really a shame that Gateway Station is stuck in development limbo. It seems that all involved have forgotten that this should be a transportation project first and a development project second. The tracks and platform are complete - trains could be calling there today, but instead it will be some undefined number of years before that happens. Just like with the Silver Line, it seems like those in charge have fallen for the notion that rail projects will drive development, while forgetting that the reason that they do so in other places is because the rail projects are actually useful for transporting people to where they want to go. I really hope the temporary station plan will get a second look while waiting on the larger development plan to come together.

In case anyone is interested - the High Speed Rail Alliance is doing a webinar on 7/28 at 1:00 with NCDOT's Jason Orthner, who will be giving an update on passenger rail developments in NC. Here is the registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_r6uxF03oRTy04T6VS6_9PA#/registration?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=8de07726-ef0e-4d3f-803e-130d37b3edf2 Hopefully there is a UPer who can watch and give us a summary!

I saw renderings of this new building at an event last fall. It has some nice design moments and thoughtful interaction with the Plant Sciences building next door. The LH rep had good ideas on how to activate the whole Oval Drive area. The street itself will be narrowed and rebuilt to have a more urban, pedestrian-oriented feel. I wish them success with the development of this area. Centennial Campus is lacking character and soul IMO, but LH and NCSU are trying to address that and the connection with main campus through these projects.

New medical offices coming to the corner of Pembroke and Northline: https://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2023/07/12/medical-office-building-friendly-center-greensboro.html?utm_source=st&utm_medium=en&utm_campaign=me&utm_content=GR&ana=e_GR_me&j=32068012&senddate=2023-07-13 Demolition is underway on both the former Macaroni Grille and the former Sears Auto Center, with both sites slated to be replaced by medical office buildings. I'm really underwhelmed by this development. This intersection should be one of the prime spots in Friendly, but instead it will have four corners of crap (with the new offices joining the blank walls of the new gym and the dated K&W/Signature Place building. Personally, I think the entire Friendly Center is floundering under the ownership of CBL. A good vision for what Friendly could and should evolve into is the Village District (formerly Cameron Village) in Raleigh. When I started at NC State 20+ years ago, Cameron Village was very dated and rundown, while Friendly still felt fresh and nice. Fast forward to today, and the Village District has been almost entirely rebuilt, adding lots of residential and beginning to transform from an auto-dominant environment to a more walkable, mixed-use district. Meanwhile, Friendly Center has barely changed in the past 20 years. I believe the potential is there for the current retail buildings to be redeveloped into multistory, apartments-over-retail buildings to create a large walkable district, where car-free or car-lite living is possible (even more so than downtown). The bones are there for a really nice street grid. Unfortunately, CBL seems to have little ambition, and they control the entire area.