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Raleigh Wide Open – Convention Center Opening

Raleigh Wide Open 3 happened on schedule, despite the threat of Tropical Storm Hanna. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this annual festival was the grand opening of the City’s new Convention Center. The building occupies the space of a much smaller convention building, that was built in the late seventies and demolished in 2006.

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Posted in Architecture, Other | Tagged Architecture, Photography | Comments closed

AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design

A little bit of news on the Architecture front. Blue Lime Studio has released some new rendered images of the upcoming American Institute of Architects NC Headquarters building in Raleigh. The project was part of a statewide competition which brought in 69 proposals from across North Carolina to design a new headquarters for the AIA. The AIA NC currently resides in The Tower downtown. The Tower is an interesting building, with a lot of history that is thankfully in the National Registry of Historic Places, but no longer is able to serve the needs of the AIA. The chosen design, by Frank Harmon Architect, is expected to achieve LEED certification and will serve AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design. In addition to serving as the offices for the AIA, it will also house lecture halls and is intended to host lectures and other community outreach functions of the AIA which have largely been held at NC State’s College of Design.

The firm where I work had the opportunity to participate in the competition as well, and while we weren’t chosen for the final design… It was a lot of fun to work on, and a welcome break from the everyday routine. Our entry can be seen here under projects / AIA NC. In addition to Blue Lime’s renderings, there has also been a marketing video of the new building released. The video is embedded below the fold.

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Posted in Architecture, Other | Tagged AIA, Blue Lime Studio, Frank Harmon | Comments closed

Rock You Like a Hurricane

In an interesting turn of events, we have a Tropical Storm (expected to return to Hurricane strength soon) Bearing down on the Eastern coastline, and scheduled to show up late Friday and peak sometime Saturday morning. Read More »

Posted in Personal | Tagged hurricanes, raleigh wide open | Comments closed

Water Management

Dealing with water on our little wooded lot has proven to be quite the bear in the (just under) three years that we’ve been here. After the great flood with Tropical Storm Alberto, we’ve been pretty fortunate to not have any major maintenance issues as a result of it. The only real result of all the rain we get, as well as the trees on the lot, is that the gutters need to be cleaned out regularly.

One of those gutters had a really torn up downspout (It’s on the driveway side, so I’ll let your imagination do its thing.) Well I finally got around to replacing it today, and am so happy with the look and function of our new rain chain, that I think I’ll be installing 3 more in the coming weeks.

There has also been progress made on the fallen oak branch, thanks to my good friend Josh (who in addition to be a climber for a tree removal company, also plays drums for the local Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers) we managed to get the bulk of the mass ready to be split into firewood.

So if you’re interested in the Oak, let me know, and if you’re looking for some new music, check out Prayers and Tears. I expect to have a slew of new photos this upcoming Saturday showing bits and pieces of Raleigh Wide Open. Stay Tuned!

Posted in Personal | Tagged oak tree, rain chain | Comments closed