Spatula

The parking garage eating up the adjacent block bothers me. Another block that would be wasted. Why not have the tower sitting on top of a parking deck? Make it 20 floors, and save the other lot for something more interesting?

Also, I recall this issue of the water mains being brought up several years ago, and I recall hearing that the downtown water grid could support up to 40 floors, but not higher, without significant improvements. I don't think that is responsible for the 20 floor limit in most of downtown. Although I do think it's the reason Fayetteville Street is limited to 40.

Begs the question why were the 3 buildings >400 ft that we have allowed in the first place? Why were proposals for 400+ ft buildings accepted left and right leading up to 2008? What changed? Why is the limit at 20 instead of 30 floors?

Wish we could just combine them all into one good tower.

I feel like if Northgate redeveloped, 'Uptown' might be a better name since it's in North Durham, but whatever.

I think of Glenwood South as a neighborhood inside Raleigh's downtown, whereas SouthEnd is an urban 'spoke' adjacent to Charlotte's downtown, but not in it. Hillsborough street would be a closer analog to SouthEnd, although no comparison between the cities is ever apples to apples.

I'll be impressed and excited when I see the design, but at least something is going in that block finally, and kudos to them for picking the tallest of the three options.

I would still find the University Tower ugly even if it were downtown, for what it's worth.

It'll never happen but I'd like to see something tall in that spot.

http://goodnightraleigh.com/2010/07/a-forgotten-treasure-the-raleigh-water-garden/ This may be the Raleigh Water Garden that you are thinking of. That sign at the front was a landmark for many years on Glenwood. It was demolished for new developments several years ago. Quite a loss, I think. Tiny nooks and crannies like this are what give a city character.

http://fox13now.com/2017/03/16/videos-show-massive-fire-in-downtown-raleigh/ Some videos of the fire at its peak. Flames topped the height of the 15 floor Quorum Center nearby. LIVE FEED: http://heavy.com/news/2017/03/raleigh-fire-live-stream-downtown-watch-news-coverage-update-death-toll-cause/ Looks like it's calming down, and they've wrangled it under control now. It spread to some neighboring structures though.

Maybe they can merge our threads? We must've been just a few seconds apart.

If it bans them I'm cool with it. I've always considered it a matter of time until one of them went off. While it is possible to construct relatively safe wood buildings (even wood skyscrapers), the ones going up are nothing like that.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article139056083.html

Despite being yet another 20 floor building with similar architectural themes to 301, I quite like this one. The dimensions are much better than 301 Hillsborough and it'll block the view of the Clarion from the west, which I consider a major bonus.