Category Archives: Planning

You may be wondering why the cover image of this article is just a GoogleMaps snip when I’ve taken so many pictures of Raleigh. That’s because our “money shot” is only accessible by car when coming up a six-lane, 45 mph, sidewalkless stroad. There’s an easy fix to this though! The Rocky Branch Trail runsContinue reading “Giving Raleigh’s “Money Shot” the Access it Deserves”

Like most major cities in the United States, the City of Raleigh is facing a housing crisis. The Raleigh metropolitan area is one of the fastest growing areas in the country, causing many home seekers further and further from the core. This accelerates urban sprawl which leads to increased traffic and a multitude of otherContinue reading “Raleigh Underused Space Plan”

The North Hills area of Raleigh has been booming with development since the conversion of North Hills Mall into a lifestyle center in the early 2000s. As the North Hills area has grown and densified, the lack of greenspace and connectivity usually seen in urban environments continues to hold the area back. A combination ofContinue reading “Connecting Downtown Raleigh Bonus: North Hills Freeway Cap and Grid Plan”

With the East End Connector nearly complete in Durham, the idea of transforming the Durham Freeway through Downtown is a feasible one. While browsing local development news I came across an amazing three part series exploring the possibility in depth. Give the series a read at http://www.buildingbullcity.com/2022/02/147-from-freeway-to-boulevard-pt-4-new.html?m=1 http://www.buildingbullcity.com/2021/07/147-from-freeway-to-boulevard-pt-1.html. To further develop the idea, I conceptuallyContinue reading “Sketching the Durham Freeway Conversion Idea”

The Wendell Falls community is expected to have more than 4000 residences and 2,000,000 square feet of commercial once completed. One of the major issues facing the neighborhood currently is the speed on some of the residential streets. I believe this is due to the vast width of some of the streets. Big Falls DriveContinue reading “Wendell Falls Bike Lanes and Street Calming”

The fourth part of my Connecting Downtown Raleigh series takes a look at access to and from the North. Catch up with the other parts of the series here: Triangle Transit Plan Part 1: Part 1 Part 2: Trails Over Rails Part 3: South Current Conditions: There is one primary route in and out ofContinue reading “Connecting Downtown Raleigh Part Four – North”

I-40 through Research Triangle Park (RTP) between NC 147 (Future I-885) and I-540 is the busiest stretch of road within the state of North Carolina. According to the NCDOT, nearly 200,000 vehicles per day utilize I-40 just west of the I-540 interchange. There are also five busy interchanges within a three mile stretch leading toContinue reading “I-40 RTP Local / CD Lanes”

North Carolina’s Raleigh Central Prison and Governor Morehead School currently take up 100 acres of prime land less than 1/2 mile from the core of Downtown. Stitch Central would transform this underused land into 100 thriving acres of Greenspace, Apartments, Condos, Townhomes, Shops, Entertainment, Restaurants, and Retail.