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The skyline thread


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I believe thats the courthouse extension - just a space filler, no one knows what its going to look like yet, I don't think.

edit: i really should learn the difference between my right and my left haha :D

RaleighMSA has had these images on their site for awhile:

CourthouseExtension-small-RaleighNC-4.jpg

CourthouseExtension-small-RaleighNC-4.jpg

As of right now it's a 9-story building that I assume will have really large floors because it'll stand nearly as tall as the county jail building (17-stories). They're also planning to replace existing parking spaces with a new parking deck (awhile back I recall a thread where a lot of us weren't too happy with this plan, considering it an unnecessary waste of space and that an underground parking deck should be built instead. Eventually it was concluded that the reason they're not building it below ground was due to security reasons).

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  • 1 month later...

Okay, so I did a couple calculations and came up with this:

RTP has 19 million sq. feet of office space as listed here

The office space in the Petronas Towers is 4.25 million sq. ft

the office space in the old World Trade center is 8.6 million sq ft

the office space in Sears tower is 3.8 million sq. ft.

the office space in the Empire State Building is 2.2 million sq. ft.

all that adds up to about 18 million sq ft.

So, in case you're wondering why our downtown seems lacking compared to our population and amount of business, this is why.

Makes this picture not look so strange huh?

Double check my figures please!

What does this say about Raleigh?

Do you think this is changing?

Any other comments?

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It's the right idea, but that 19 million square feet in RTP isn't all office space.

Then you could get into the game at looking at the class of office space as well.

But your bottom line is right, having the major employment center away from downtown has stunted downtown's growth. At the same time though, Raleigh wouldn't be Raleigh without RTP. We'd still be a sleepy state capital/college town.

I think if we really work at integrating RTP and downtown Raleigh (light rail/easy transit) then we might score some relocations downtown.

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I think the main point of it all, is that I think the Powers That Be have forgotten what the "R" in RTP originally stood for: research. RTP should have concentrated on that....laboratories, research facilities, technical testing sites, etc.

Offices should never have been such a big part of the equation that it now is. If they had kept to that original intention, downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham would most certainly have more office towers today. And the suburban sprawl might have been kept better in-check.

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Offices should never have been such a big part of the equation that it now is. If they had kept to that original intention, downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham would most certainly have more office towers today. And the suburban sprawl might have been kept better in-check.
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That is a great way to put downtown Raleigh into perspective. The sears tower makes downtown Raleigh look like a suburban office park (i guess it sort of does anyway)!!

I also see your point about the region's office demogrphics. However, even without RTP, I dont see any of those companies relocating downtown. They were attracted to the area by cheap and abundant land or rent.

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Since skyline-centered discussion is tangentially related at best to the subject matter of this forum, from now on, discussion about skylines goes in this thread.

Whether it's about a single project's impact on the skyline, or just discussion of the skyline in general, it belongs here. Any posts made in other threads will be moved here.

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I think tall buildings are great and I do appreciate skyscrapers especially those that are classy and don't look dated in a few years. In saying that density wins over height in my book because that translates to people out on the streets and a more vibrant downtown area. Think of DC. There, low to mid-rises rule because of the law and such and few could argue that DC is not a very vibrant and highly successful city in that regard. Ultimately, it would be great to have some tall buildings as well as plenty of mixed- use low to medium highrise buildings in the mix.

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