Many people will turn their attention to downtown Raleigh for this evening’s “First Night” celebrations. More impressive than the fireworks is the sheer volume of development activity that is planned for downtown Raleigh in the coming years. The city Urban Design Center maintains a website with a host of maps and information.
Among the projects on the drawing boards is a significant change to the area north and west of the capitol. A new visitors’ center, convention center, inter-modal transportation hub, a high-speed rail line, public library, improvements and expansion for state museums are all up for grabs. Perhaps most importantly, there are also more than a dozen developments in the works by the private sector which would add new office space and, if they are all completed, more than 1400 residential units within a mile of Fayettville Street Mall. As 2003 is on the way out, one thing we can count on for the future is that the face of Raleigh is changing.
