Jul

Raleigh to Host Farm Aid

On Saturday, September 13, Raleigh’s Walnut Creek Amphitheatre will be the host to the 2014 Farm Aid concert and festival . The all-day music and food festival will feature “family farm-identified, local and organic foods with its own HOMEGROWN Concessions®. In Farm Aid’s HOMEGROWN Village, attendees will have the chance to meet farmers, engage in hands-on food and farm activities, and learn about the ways family farmers are enriching our soil, protecting our water and growing our economy, in addition to bringing us good food for good health.”

However the real draw is the music, featuring a lineup of:

Willie Nelson & Family
Neil Young
John Mellencamp
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds
Jack White
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Jamey Johnson
Delta Rae
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real
Carlene Carter
Pegi Young & The Survivors
Insects vs Robots

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (7/25) at Noon. Prices range from $49 to $175.

Posted by Dana on July 24, 2014 | Tags: Music . | ( 0 ) Comments

Jul

Download the Wake County Schools’ 2015 Calendars

Wake County School System has compiled their official calendars for the 2014-2015 school year in PDF format . In fine fashion gogoraleigh has converted all of these calendars into numerous downloadable formats.

Now readers can easily import their favorite school calendars into Android phones, iPhones, Outlook, and more. The set includes calendars for the Traditional, Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, Track 4, and Modified schools. Even better, if you already subscribe to any of these calendars, then all of the new dates have been automatically added for you.

For more information and downloads, see the Calendars tab at gogoraleigh .

Jul

Edison Office Tower Heads to Appearance Commission

On Thursday at 4:30pm the Raleigh Appearance Commission will review plans detailing the latest design for the Edison Office building. The building, according to the site plan (pdf) will sit in the northwest quadrant of the block bounded by Wilmington, Martin, Blount, and Davie Streets, across from the side of Beasley’s, replacing the building containing Reliable Loan,

The current plan calls for a 17-story tower that is 301-feet high, about 9% taller than the Progress Energy Tower (former City Plaza building). Plans call for the project to contain 417,000 feet of office space, parking garage space for 328 spaces, and 3 ground-level retail spaces, and an elevator lobby fronting Martin Street. There will be 6 combination parking/office floors sitting atop the street-level retail, capped by 11 full office floors.

The Appearance Commission’s duties will be light with this project, as they will likely deal mostly with streetscape elements of the plan. One such that needs to be addressed is the standard U-shaped bike racks. A more creative design would give this project and downtown much more character. Perhaps a light bulb shape as a nod to Edison’s most popular invention?

The site plan offers much detail about the ground floor and a typical parking floor, but isn’t clear about parking access. On the floors with parking, this project will neatly abut the existing parking garage originally built for the block’s four corner projects. Perhaps access will simply be from critical access points in the existing structure.

This will be a nice, early century addition to Raleigh, offering some much needed, class A office space to a market that is at capacity. How does the project fall short? Though I really like the Red Hat Tower, this project is a slightly taller duplicate, and will sit one block north of Red Hat. Yes, this project fits the needs of today’s market, however this land is one of the few places where an impact tower could be added to fill out Raleigh’s “money shot”. Given the appearance of this building’s crown, this project will add nothing interesting to that view. So in that sense, it is a lost opportunity.