The N&O reports the Soleil Center has been added to the list of stalled projects in Raleigh. A million dollars for a condo overlooking a shopping mall? Remember the scene in Dumb-and-Dumber immediately after they luck into their pile of money? Lamborghini, pastel ski suits, giant furry boots? The only thing missing was a million dollar condo at the mall - built in a flood plane. The developers state that they expect to have new financing soon and we’d like to help. We’ll pledge a jillion dollars (one jillion!), if this thing ever tops out as drawn (stacking 50 FEMA trailers on top of each other won’t count). The suburban tower is a bad idea and $4-per-gallon gasoline is a daily reminder that The Market has begun to change land use patterns.
University Massage, on Franklin St. in Chapel Hill, has been around as long as I can recall. The N&O reports that police have recently become interested in rumors that some sexual activity may be taking place in the establishment. To which, we say: Of course sexual activity takes place there! It’s a massage parlor!
The police began to investigate after Daily Tarheel columnist, James Edward Dillard, wrote about a visit to the business.
“One quoted me the prices again, adding that I was purchasing a full-body massage with ‘adult conversation,’ ” Dillard wrote.
A friend who used to deliver takeout food to this business, 15 years ago, told me they used to have a menu that listed services such as: “Topless Hand Release”. Note that the owner of this business also owns a business called “Quality Movie Mates” in Durham. Someone to watch movies with? Cool!
Economy in free fall. Cameron Village, June 2008.
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Leebowitz has mentioned Goodnight, Raleigh! here before, but I wanted to link to them again, because they have had some wonderful posts lately. It’s interesting to see Raleigh from the perspective of John, who has not lived here for very long (relatively), and from Karl, who has. Recent posts on the PR, the Bloomsbury marker, the College Grill, the green house, and all the reminiscences from Karl have been welcome reminders of what’s good or interesting about Raleigh, and an antidote to all the bad news about teardowns that we’ve featured lately on WTF.
We were skeptical when The Mint opened in January and we’re still skeptical. Triangle Business Journal has an update on the financials of the restaurant operations and we aren’t surprised to see they continue to operate in the red.
The commenter “WHO” thought we were such haters for being skeptical of the central theme of the restaurant: Bling, inaugurated as we began slipping over an economic precipice. But I’m sure WHO has eaten at The Mint many times and can update us with his wonderful experiences.
Geezer posted the following as a comment under Whiskeytown Part One but I think it warrants its own post:
My grandparents lived on Fayetteville Street in the 1920s and 30s, operating a boarding house in the 400 block while my grandfather successfully negotiated the Depression as a line foreman for Southern railroad. My uncle Percy, their oldest son, said he learned to drink working with Papa’s labor crew. As a young man, he worked for the famous Percy, at least indirectly, by running liquor from Johnson County to the large hotel that existed on the N&O site across from Nash Square.
This culture was quite evident in downtown Raleigh at least through the late sixties, because I experienced it as a young boy. At thirteen or so, I was skipping choir practice at Tabernacle and making my way up to Wilington Street to shoot pool. The upstairs pool hall, my favorite, was Skeeter’s, and it had a real special atmosphere. There was an old-fashioned Coke machine that took quarters. But the back door was unlocked, and Skeeter could reach around inside and grab up a pint of chilled moonshine - I certainly never tasted it - the pints were to go only! But I’m amazed they even let me in the place. A safer world - or at least, so it seemed.
The State began tearing down the old warehouses between the Boylan Bridge and the State Prison, Monday.
They’re completely leveled now and I’ll miss the old, Southern, charm of those structures. They will be replaced, at some point, by a prison hospital. Hopefully they will model it after the old prison:
The castle-like architecture would fit in well with Bloomsbury Estates, which should have a great view of Prison Hospital. Some of the old prison structure is visible on the West side of the prison; the 1980’s remodel just wraps around some of the older gothic building.
New Raleigh.com reports that a number of mid-century buildings in Cameron Village will most likely be demolished to make way for this:
This building is among those slated for destruction:
Cameron Village had a distinct, horizontal, low-slung, International style that was evident in many of the buildings, including the recently restored Occidental Building:
the Oberlin Post Office (and the neighboring office building at the corner of Oberlin and Peace):
Sleek and modern buildings, sometimes incorporating the distinctive, yellow, Wake County quarried stone, which was also arranged in the horizontal ribbon motif. Unfortunately, this modernist style, which is proving itself to be pretty timeless, is being demolished and replaced with the new look of Cameron Village, such as this:
And this:
It’s sad to see Raleigh’s continuing lack of appreciation for the buildings designed in the middle of the last century. Developers along the Beverly Hills and Miracle Mile sections of the Wilshire Blvd. corridor, in Los Angeles, renovated many of the mid-century buildings along Wilshire and they look completely current and are extremely desirable commercial real estate. Problems such as inefficient windows and mechanical systems are replaced at a fraction of the cost of building new. Meanwhile, the residential component of Cameron Village continues the modernist ideals of the neighborhood, with recent additions such as this and this and this and this. It seems the rest of the world has embraced Modernism and allowed Neo-Historic and Post-Modern architecture to remain in the last century, while our local developers continue to delude themeselves into believing it’s the safest option for new projects. Maybe it is in the short term, but the style already looks tired, dated and cheap; there’s little chance the buildings will survive 75 years to be appreciated by ironic hipsters embracing Greco-homo-stucco bank structures.
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