News in Raleigh

Two years ago, two guys interested in fashion moved from Miami Beach, Florida to Raleigh, North Carolina.  West Martin Street hasn’t been the same since.  Glenn May and Walter Pereira decided to open up a consignment store focusing on high end clothing but casual attitude and chose 307 W. Martin Street as their location.  In the beginning the space was empty but after two years, it has amassed a plethora of art, clothes, furniture and various “stuff”, rightly deserving its name.

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Local architect Frank Harmon, FAIA appears in the new [December/January] issue of Dwell Magazine in the Conversation column.  Frank speaks his mind on Regionalism, sustainability in relation to vernacular, and some of his recent work.  He lives and works in Raleigh has recently received much attention for his contemporary and sustainable work. 

I am not interested in vernacular to be sentimental.  I am interested in what it can teach us.  All vernacular architecture is sustainable.  It is always inherently related to its region.  But let me emphasize that regionalism should not be confused with parochialism any more than you would call Faulkner a local Southern writer. - Frank Harmon

After three years of vacancy the Raleigh Depot was occupied by three nightclubs owned by a New York based developer. A few months after opening- all three have closed overnight.  The clubs each targeted their own demographic but were marketed together both traditionally and non-traditionally with a blazing spotlight shot into the sky. During the club’s tenure several successful block parties had been thrown- with large crowds teaming in the streets for the surrounding blocks. 

Drama in da Club, Below the Fold

Marketing.  In most cases it is important to selling a product.  Marketing can determine a product’s success or predict its downfall.  After flipping through the most recent edition of The Downtowner, the following advertisment was found on the back cover.  The ad is for the condo building under construction just east of Glenwood South, West at North.  New Raleigh did not add the phrases “killer views”, “white picket fences”, and “bed, bath, and whatever” for impact.  This is the exact paragraph and full marketing ad that appears on the back cover.

Disclaimer:  Read this with a circa-1985 Los Angeles Valley accent at your own risk.

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This election brought a lot of new progressive leadership to Cary (new mayor) and Raleigh (new progressive majority on council). The times they are a-changing.

There was one upset in Chapel Hill and pundits are still puzzling over how the “dark horse” candidate beat out the incumbent.  I don’t know, but I do note that he pledged to bike to all city council meetings and to be a “forceful advocate for cycling in Chapel Hill”.

In San Francisco, real estate developers introduced a proposition that would increase parking spaces--in direct contrast to the city’s “transit first” policy.  Local human-scale development activists organized the “Yes on A, No on H!” campaigning to defeat H and promote the proposition to increase funding for transit and the transit agency’s authority over the streets.

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