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Downtown Skyline Shouldn't be Too Tall


stephenedwards

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The perfect skyline for Raleigh I think would be broad and consist of medium height buildings like say Austin, TX. Being the capitol and home to many universities, Raleigh could distinguish itself as sophisticated and understated. I love tall buildings, but in smaller sunbelt cities they can look inappropriate. I love Charlotte's skyline and think it's one of the best in the country, but from a distance it looks like a bunch of asparagus spears. It's all jumbled up for no reason, and the rest of the horizon is blank. I think Charlotte's tall skyline misrepresents the region's actual size and results in negative commentary . "Mayberry with Skyscrapers" has been used to describe Charlotte.

Other random thoughts:

--I hate the RBC Tower design with that off-center pyramid shaped spire. Skyscrapers in the south are too stylized with arbitrary motifs that look dated after 10 years. I like the newer skyscrapers in NYC that are simple and elegant. (the new 7 World Trade, Bloomberg Headquarters) Atlanta looks fabulous at night but by day is a tacky hodgepodge of kitsch. My favorite highrise in Atlanta is the old Peachtree Center in downtown because its aesthetic is simple and repeating. Raleigh could use some simple towers with an elegant curtainwall but without the spires, crowns etc. (for the record though I love Charlotte's crown-BofA Tower)

--The Soleil center is going to establish a big-city urban scale to the crabtree area.

--No matter how big they get over the years, Charlotte nor Raleigh will never lose that small-town feel and they will never enter the league of major cities like Atlanta, San Francisco, etc.

--I like Charlotte's striving to become a big city and granted it is bigger than Raleigh as far as city limits goes, but is it really bigger? The Raleigh/Cary MSA is like 945,000, and Durham/Chapel Hill is like 500,000. The Census has always put Charlotte's MSA at around 1.5 million, and despite all of the wishfull thinking, the Census Population projections for Charlotte for 2025 only have it at around 1.9 or 2 million people. It is not the "next Atlanta". By the way, Atlanta is now at 5 million, more than triple the size of Charlotte.

--I could never live in Charlotte because of how close it is to south carolina. Seeing SC plates everyday in traffic screams "You are in the middle of nowhere"

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Other random thoughts:

--I hate the RBC Tower design with that off-center pyramid shaped spire. Skyscrapers in the south are too stylized with arbitrary motifs that look dated after 10 years. I like the newer skyscrapers in NYC that are simple and elegant. (the new 7 World Trade, Bloomberg Headquarters) Atlanta looks fabulous at night but by day is a tacky hodgepodge of kitsch. My favorite highrise in Atlanta is the old Peachtree Center in downtown because its aesthetic is simple and repeating. Raleigh could use some simple towers with an elegant curtainwall but without the spires, crowns etc. (for the record though I love Charlotte's crown-BofA Tower)

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The perfect skyline for Raleigh I think would be broad and consist of medium height buildings like say Austin, TX. Being the capitol and home to many universities, Raleigh could distinguish itself as sophisticated and understated. I love tall buildings, but in smaller sunbelt cities they can look inappropriate. I love Charlotte's skyline and think it's one of the best in the country, but from a distance it looks like a bunch of asparagus spears. It's all jumbled up for no reason, and the rest of the horizon is blank. I think Charlotte's tall skyline misrepresents the region's actual size and results in negative commentary . "Mayberry with Skyscrapers" has been used to describe Charlotte.

Other random thoughts:

--I hate the RBC Tower design with that off-center pyramid shaped spire. Skyscrapers in the south are too stylized with arbitrary motifs that look dated after 10 years. I like the newer skyscrapers in NYC that are simple and elegant. (the new 7 World Trade, Bloomberg Headquarters) Atlanta looks fabulous at night but by day is a tacky hodgepodge of kitsch. My favorite highrise in Atlanta is the old Peachtree Center in downtown because its aesthetic is simple and repeating. Raleigh could use some simple towers with an elegant curtainwall but without the spires, crowns etc. (for the record though I love Charlotte's crown-BofA Tower)

--The Soleil center is going to establish a big-city urban scale to the crabtree area.

--No matter how big they get over the years, Charlotte nor Raleigh will never lose that small-town feel and they will never enter the league of major cities like Atlanta, San Francisco, etc.

--I like Charlotte's striving to become a big city and granted it is bigger than Raleigh as far as city limits goes, but is it really bigger? The Raleigh/Cary MSA is like 945,000, and Durham/Chapel Hill is like 500,000. The Census has always put Charlotte's MSA at around 1.5 million, and despite all of the wishfull thinking, the Census Population projections for Charlotte for 2025 only have it at around 1.9 or 2 million people. It is not the "next Atlanta". By the way, Atlanta is now at 5 million, more than triple the size of Charlotte.

--I could never live in Charlotte because of how close it is to south carolina. Seeing SC plates everyday in traffic screams "You are in the middle of nowhere"

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--I like Charlotte's striving to become a big city and granted it is bigger than Raleigh as far as city limits goes, but is it really bigger? The Raleigh/Cary MSA is like 945,000, and Durham/Chapel Hill is like 500,000. The Census has always put Charlotte's MSA at around 1.5 million, and despite all of the wishfull thinking, the Census Population projections for Charlotte for 2025 only have it at around 1.9 or 2 million people. It is not the "next Atlanta". By the way, Atlanta is now at 5 million, more than triple the size of Charlotte.

--I could never live in Charlotte because of how close it is to south carolina. Seeing SC plates everyday in traffic screams "You are in the middle of nowhere"

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