They are building a 29-story building for RBC. They had some sort of unveiling I saw walking from my office to get coffee this morning. It's right near the Fayetteville Street Mall. I guess this will be probably the 3rd or 4th tallest building downtown..

http://www.newsobserver.com/104/story/374871.html

12/6/2005 11:16:57 AM

Eye Candy

12/6/2005 11:19:37 AM

awesome news.

12/6/2005 11:22:04 AM

It'll be the 3rd tallest, unless either (a) it has a decorative element on top or (b)the new building that's going on Hillsborough across from the Radisson builds to 32 stories, which it might. The First Union and BB&T buildings are both 31 stories, if I recall.

This is great news though! I wonder if that's the old First Citizens' lot...at least the 1913 building that used to be there will not have perished in vain. (Before anyone gets all up in arms about that, it was torn down in 1991, not to make way for this project...)

12/6/2005 11:56:06 AM

Quote :

"The First Union and BB&T buildings are both 31 stories, if I recall"

Actually I think they are 42 and 44 respectively but I could be wrong..

The one out near Crabtree will be the tallest in the city I think but it's not downtown ..

What building is going on Hillsboro?

12/6/2005 11:59:50 AM

Nothing in Raleigh is over 40, I'm pretty sure.

The one going on Hillsborough is some developer (Reynolds?)'s project. It's still in the planning stages right now, but he's said several times he's going to build. Don't know if he has any tenants lined up yet, and I don't think any renderings have been released (if they exist), but it's been rumored to be up to 32 floors.

Edit:
Two Hanover, current tallest in Raleigh, is 29 floors--
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=125415
Wachovia Capitol Center, second tallest, is 30 but is shorter to roof peak--
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=125427

Glen-Tree (the one going up next to Crabtree) is going to be 40 IIRC.

So RBC could be the second tallest (after Glen-Tree), depending on how they top it out. Interesting.


[Edited on December 6, 2005 at 12:07 PM. Reason : d]

12/6/2005 12:02:48 PM

Wow. I didn't realize those were so small. Amazing how tall something like the Sears Tower or Empire State Building is in comparison...

12/6/2005 12:07:53 PM

damn im across the mall from that and didnt know. is it gonna take up the whole half of this block?

12/6/2005 12:08:20 PM

its all relativity. these buildings look just as talll as sears and empire because theyre not surrounded by a huge canopy of 40 storiers

12/6/2005 2:28:57 PM

no, its not relativity

raleighs buildings are all less than 500 feet

buildings in NYC and Chicago are at least 3x as tall

12/6/2005 2:39:26 PM

what is the demand for skyscrapers like this downtown. looks like we have 3 in the works, are we gonna be getting more in the coming years?

12/6/2005 2:46:12 PM

oh oh oh

i get to do one

[old]!

12/6/2005 2:46:49 PM

Thank God. We need more tall buildings and cool shit to look at. Charlotte owns us.

12/6/2005 2:47:11 PM

^^ well it was unveiled THIS MORNING so I'm not sure how it's old. Maybe your thinking of the Glenwood one that was posted before...

12/6/2005 2:51:22 PM

RBC announced plans to move downtown a while ago...

it was just a matter of when, where and how high... and most of those pieces were already determined, just unofficial...

12/6/2005 2:55:25 PM

^

yep

i bought a house (well some trees for the next couple of months) right there and i was talking to the city planner and people like that and did a drive around with someone from one of the architecture firms downtown, between them i pretty much had the details

there's a lot of other buildings going in, basically if you drive around blount street headed toward new bern and you see a parking lot there's a building slated to be put on it

[Edited on December 6, 2005 at 3:03 PM. Reason : dfgsd]

12/6/2005 3:02:58 PM

http://www.rbccentura.com/about/news/120605_newhq.html

http://www.rbccentura.com/images/newhq_East-Aerial.jpg
http://www.rbccentura.com/images/newhq_Downtown-Skyline.jpg



New RBC: ~400 ft, 29 floors
Hanover Building: 431 ft, 29 floors
Wachovia Building: 390 ft, 30 floors
New Glen-Tree: 480 ft, 42 floors


[Edited on December 6, 2005 at 4:10 PM. Reason : ]

12/6/2005 4:03:44 PM

Nice! Can't wait until it's done.. With this going up, along with the new convention center, the Marriott near it, the Quorum, the Paramount, and all the other projects going on, downtown should get a lot denser in the next few years. Also, with the re-streeting of Fayetteville Street, plus more people moving down there, it should improve the nightlife and quality overall of downtown. Very nice.

12/6/2005 5:08:15 PM

whats glen-tree gonna house?

12/6/2005 5:11:22 PM

luxury condos and a five-star hotel.

12/6/2005 5:18:40 PM

sweet
our realtor when we were moving downtown 2 months ago told us that it was about 60% vacancy downtown just a year ago, and we're down to like 30% now...
my entire building just got a remodel on the inside, and everyone's been moving in recently
pretty suite to be just a block away from all of this (I'm at professional building on corner of hargett & mcdowell)

12/6/2005 5:26:53 PM

http://www.raleighskyline.com/glentree/

12/6/2005 8:04:53 PM

Keep bringin the tall buildings. I like em.

Just an aside if you want to see the google map of the current site:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=E+Martin+St+%26+S+Wilmington+St,+Raleigh,+NC+27601&ll=35.776670,-78.638645&spn=0.003729,0.010264&t=h&hl=en

[Edited on December 6, 2005 at 10:46 PM. Reason : long urls are annoying, oh well]

12/6/2005 10:44:29 PM

Just to show you how small the buildings really are....

12/8/2005 12:20:23 AM

but without that pic nobody would know. its all relativity man. our skyline is fine.

[Edited on December 8, 2005 at 12:38 AM. Reason : and that pic is way off scale because it implies that sears tower is in the back of downtown]

12/8/2005 12:36:44 AM

i wonder if these condos would be a good investment.

12/8/2005 12:44:19 AM

^^Yeah, I'm not saying anything is wrong with our skyline. I like it and am glad we are getting more buildings downtown. Wish the one going on Gleenwood would go downtown too. Just posting the pic for shits and giggles.

[Edited on December 8, 2005 at 12:53 AM. Reason : .]

12/8/2005 12:53:03 AM

^^which ones...

actually, either way, probably not... you're looking at $800k-1mil minimum for the ones going up in the building near crabtree, not exactly investment material...

12/8/2005 12:56:33 AM

12/8/2005 1:14:57 AM

^that only works if you are placing the building to appear right next to bbandt. in hte other picture it appears far away like the first union

12/8/2005 9:52:35 AM

Quote :

"is it gonna take up the whole half of this block?"

12/8/2005 10:06:26 AM

Buildings in NYC are frickin huge compared to ours so just accept it and move on with life. This debate always seems to popup with people posting pics and then arguing over the size being not to scale.

12/8/2005 12:26:56 PM

^^I don't know if the exact siting has been determined yet. Hard to tell from any of the renderings I've seen...

12/8/2005 1:29:53 PM

someone is trying to compensate....

12/8/2005 3:45:48 PM

Man, the city needs to take advantage of the new law that was passed that says they can pay owners for their property if the city deems that taking over the land would be good for the city.

Take 10 blocks from just southeast of the civic center... person/blount street area.

Bulldoze that mess and lets put in something useful.

12/8/2005 7:19:32 PM

^^^^

i know they are bigger but to post a pic to appear behind everything in the picture and have it scale to an object in the front of a picture is rediculous. either you guys making these are trying to be funny or you dont have any understanding of perspective/drawing

12/8/2005 8:31:19 PM

^ I don't see what the big deal is. It's common sense the Sears Tower swallows the BB&T building, despite relativity. So just deal with it.

12/8/2005 10:03:18 PM

yes but the picture makes it look almost the size of the whole raleigh skyline

12/8/2005 11:04:06 PM

socrates, I'm not sure why you think that this illustration is inaccurate. You say its "behind" downtown, which is wrong, and pretty much reveals your misperception of the scale of downtown Raleigh. Basically, the only thing its "behind" is the Wake Co Courthouse, which is only two blocks from 2 Hannover Square. Sears Tower could easily be interpreted to be on Fayettville Street in the photo (which is the same street Two Hannover would be on if it didnt end the block before the soon-to-be demolished convention center) making it only 2 blocks to the north on the western side.

If you consider the core of downtown to be between Wachovia Capitol Center and BB&T, what is pictured in this photo, it is only 4 city blocks long. Raleigh's skyline is very small for a city of 300k and metro 1.4+ million and does not represent the area much. I only hope that the several announced projects will create some momentum for a larger and taller downtown in the upcoming years.

If there is any concession of inaccuracy in the photo, Sears Tower would be nominally narrower at the base and perhaps a few pixels shorter, but the impact would still be the same.

...

The new RBC headquarters will be located where a parking lot is currently, next to the Hudson condos.

This is about what it will look like from DH Hill:


From Boylan Ave Bridge:


Estimated from the roof of BB&T:

12/8/2005 11:19:01 PM

so youre arguing that something looks the same size 2 blocks away as it does right at it

and i dont know where youre getting your information. raleighs skyline is much more impressive than most cities this size and most capital cities even many cities with much higher pops

if you dont beleive me get a list of us population ranks and use emporis to see all the skylines. ive already done this. just because raleighs skyline is blown away by chicago and nyc or it isnt as impressive as charlotte doesnt mean its pathetic

and raleighs skyline begins at the tall white cement state building by peace and includes between there, clarion and what you mentioned

12/8/2005 11:35:40 PM

333 Fayetteville is still the sexiest

12/9/2005 2:33:41 AM

Our skyline sucks compared to most, I mean its good for NC and our size, but look at Richmond, much bigger skyline and nothing big there at all. Our downtown SUCKS, and yes NYC and Chicago and CHARLOTTE blow us up, its no big deal, its just common sence. Get over it. Sears Tower prob does take up our whole downtown.

12/9/2005 3:49:06 AM

Quote :

"common sence"

yeah...

12/9/2005 8:09:45 AM

Oh
My
God
I misspelled a word, my argument is totally void now. Shit.

12/9/2005 5:28:46 PM

Quote :

"333 Fayetteville is still the sexiest"

You mean 333 Corporate Plaza? That one is pretty nice. Designed by G. Milton Small, whose firm's offices are in that raised black building behind the SECU on Brooks Ave. right across from campus.

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=125413

12/9/2005 6:50:18 PM

The N&O said the condos at the RBC building would start at $180K. I'd consider that, it doesn't seem to bad IMO. They also said the current plans would make it a little shorter than 2 Hanover, but they're not final and it would probably be made taller to push the envelope.
http://www.newsobserver.com/125/story/375186.html
Better story

12/9/2005 7:10:58 PM

sorry, but the majority of the work was done by emory roth. the building more reflects their work.

[Edited on December 10, 2005 at 2:20 AM. Reason : yes that is milton small's firm, but it in now his son who runs it]

12/10/2005 2:19:36 AM

yes, our downtowm sucks....thus the whole revitalization plan

12/10/2005 8:51:47 AM

k now theres a huge ass gap



hopefully people will realize how stupid this looks and they will build 2 more skyscrapers in between the wachovia building and the rbc building

12/10/2005 1:23:47 PM

I think even Winston has a better skyline than Raleigh. However, the new RBC building will really help.

12/10/2005 1:42:35 PM