Sneak Peek: Wed June 26, 2024
Added 2024-06-26 13:31:01 +0000 UTCAs I explain in today's video, I went to Winston-Salem, NC earlier this month to do an event, but I wasn't sure there would be enough stuff to film and talk about in Winston-Salem to make a full video, so I added a side trip to Durham. Of course, I ended up with way too much footage and way too many ideas, so now you're gonna get two videos. First up, today, Winston-Salem and the Piedmont Triad.
One of the really visually interesting things is the way Winston-Salem is repurposing the old R.J. Reynolds plant, which is right in the center of town, into mixed use — office (Wake Forest University's medical school is heavily involved), retail, residential, makers' spaces — in other words, adaptive reuse. There will be some similar stuff in the upcoming Durham video too.
I know this kind of thing isn't unique to North Carolina, but these are huge campuses that were left behind by a declining industry (tobacco). So, this may be a question somewhat specific to cities east of the Mississippi (or outside the US altogether!), but do you have similar examples in your own city? Meaning, infrastructure left behind by an industry whose peak has long passed, where the city or a private entity has found creative and productive ways to put the infrastructure back into use? I find this kind of thing absolutely fascinating, but also...stuff like this tends to photograph really well, and both of those things are REALLY great for the content I make.
Happy Wednesday.
Comments
The Readers Digest Building in Chappaqua, NY is a beautiful Georgian-style brick building. Recently they’ve converted the campus into townhouses (some units below 40% AMI). A decent effort from a NIMBY community to build desperately needed rental housing. They’ve rebranded to “Chappaqua Crossing” and it has a Whole Foods because of course it does. One problem is that it has way too much parking and really could’ve been designed with way more housing and better urban form since they started with a clean slate. All in all, it’s a positive for the NYC housing market as any increase in supply (market rate and below market rate in this case) is a W. Maybe the Chappaqua School district will get a little less segregated too
Mike Glassman
2024-06-29 15:29:37 +0000 UTCLove the video. I went to Winston-Salem in 2015 and 2019 when my wife was applying to med school and residency, respectively. In 2015, I had pretty negative expectations and I was blown away. I'm from a small town, but love big cities. I was still kind of surprised by how ok I was with the idea of moving there. Even though we didn't, we visited again in 2019 and I was again blow away by how much new development and improvements there were. Even though we again didn't end up there, I could definitely see how great it is. Also sped ran Greensboro even though I was on a Grasshoppers little league team growing up.
Jackson Teal
2024-06-28 19:35:47 +0000 UTC
