Downtown Raleigh Home Tour 09

Wow! Today's Downtown Raleigh Home Tour (5th annual!) seemed as if it was the most-attended, most-successful of them all. At every condo building, there were dozens and dozens of people. And although there were a lot fewer people at the far-flung single-family homes, I saw an awful lot of folks wearing the tour buttons on the streets of Raleigh. And the new free R-line loop bus was full of fellow tourists.

This year, the event was hosted by the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, and although I missed the lack of arrows directing you through some of the condo corridors from past years, there were plenty of eager volunteers at each site to direct you.

Tickets could be picked up in the courtyard of the Wachovia Building (how much longer will it keep THAT name??). Free parking was available at the Alexander Square Parking Deck, across the street at 120 S. Wilmington.

Some thoughts on some of the properties I saw (the numbers refer to the Tour Map numbers):

#5: The Hudson (319 Fayetteville St) - I started here, since it was just a couple blocks from the parking deck. It's the old Hudson-Belk department store. I've seen the units before, and they are just as hideously sterile and industrial as ever. Most of the condos are dreary, narrow one-bedroom units, with only two windows. The corridors remind me of my old dorm. I can't figure out who's buying these. Most of the people I spoke with had the same opinion.

#4: Plaza Condos (301 Fayetteville St) - Now we're talking luxury! These condos are on the top 11 floors of the newly-opened 33-story RBC Plaza building. Two units were open - 2905 and 2907 -- on the 29th floor. Floor-to-ceiling windows offered gorgeous views that seemed endless. Top-notch amenities such as Brazilian hardwood floors. Rather frighteningly high and narrow balconies. The 23rd floor was the "Amenity Level" with a fantastic rec room (with full kitchen, pool table, foos-ball, etc), theater room, terrific fitness room, and an amazing outdoor patio with a small circular pool.

I skipped Paladium Plaza (I wasn't that impressed with it in previous years, and instead I revisited a favorite):

#7: Founders Row (E. Davie St.) - The two units that were open (254 and 290) weren't as nice as previous years (those had great views overlooking Davie Street). Instead, these had courtyard views, which are probably more peaceful.

From there, I walked bravely south on Person Street (very few pedestrians in this area) to a series of small single-family homes clustered around Person and Worth Streets.

#8: 229 S. Person Street - Nice little house, decently renovated with a nice front porch, but directly across from Shaw University dorms, which have all the aesthetic appeal of a prison. Sorry, Shaw U. alums, I like other buildings on campus, but this isn't the best view. This house (as was true for most of the places on this year's tour) is up for sale.

#9: 305 Worth Street -- around the corner from #8, this was even smaller. And although it was built in 1995, it had a really bad layout, with very small rooms and a very bad smell of smoke or mildew.

I skipped the rest of the houses in this area, backtracked a block, and headed west on Lenoir (an interesting empty lot with a sign displaying just the words "Regan and Company - For Sale" stood at the corner of Person and Lenoir), and turned north on Wilmington to catch the R line bus at Davie Street and Wilmington.

A quick side note -- take the R line! It's a nice comfortable large bus with great air conditioning.

I hopped off the R line at stop R2 near the corner of North and Wilmington, and walked east to two homes on Oakwood Avenue.

#14: 304 Oakwood Ave - Wow! This is Oakwood at its finest. This 1875 home has beautifully proportioned, wonderfully open classic rooms. Lots of light and covered porches. The gourmet kitchen at the back opened to a large family room. All the rooms were beautiful, and most had fantastic chandeliers and artwork. A real treat.

#15: 312 Oakwood Ave - Just next door, a smaller house but still very classy. It's one of many homes in Oakwood with a central hallway that most of the rooms open into. Also a nice attic addition used as a kids' room.

I walked a few blocks south on Bloodworth, then east on Jones to another house in Oakwood:

#13: 504 E. Jones Street. Another central hallway home, but this one was in almost complete disrepair. It's for sale by Preservation NC, in hopes the buyer will renovate it. It's on a nice block, and I wish the new owners well, but almost everything has to be replaced, from walls and flooring to HVAC (and probably electric) and a complete kitchen demolition. It doesn't look like the outside wood siding has been painted in 50 years, and it probably needs to be replaced. Could be as nice as #15 eventually, but they're asking only $100K less than that house, and I think it would take at least twice that amount to fix this place up. It's tempting, but a bit much for me.

A very long walk westward on Jones Street, past the Governor's Mansion, led me to:

#24: Quorum Center (323 W. Jones Street) - Perhaps the biggest surprise. I wasn't expecting much from this building. I have driven past it many times, and it's a relatively new, monstrously large and hideous building clad in boring dirty-looking red/brown brick. The first several floors are corporate offices. The unit open (and for sale) was 975 (on the 9th floor). Nice open unit with terrific floor-to-ceiling windows with a gorgeous view of the city. It was especially appealing since its balcony overlooks the 7th floor green roof (and outdoor common area) that tops the corporate section of the building. Nice!

By now, I was just a couple blocks east of Glenwood, so I headed to:

#23: 222 Glenwood - Smack in the middle of Glenwood South, with convenient Brueggers Bagels and Dunkin Donuts shops on the ground floor. This is a deceptively long and large building. Nicely lit hallways, and the units on the 4th floor that faced Glenwood had excellent light (especially the corner unit with a nicely curved balcony facing north down Glenwood). However, the back unit had very bad lighting, with only two windows that faced the same narrow, dark courtyard containing a lap pool. On the other side of the courtyard was a a window-less wall that was 3- or 4-stories tall (possibly a parking deck?). There was no possibility of getting any direct sunlight into that unit.

I had heard some people raving about Bloomsbury, so I headed south on Glenwood to see:

#1: Bloomsbury Estates (710 Independence Ave, just off Boylan St). Excellent location, on a bluff overlooking the new Boylan Bridge Brewpub and excellent views of downtown. There were a couple firetrucks outside the front entrance as I approached, and I found out later it was because the elevator had stuck. All of the 1st floor units were uniformly narrow, dreary and small (but most had individual entrances onto the street as well as to the interior corridors). However, there was one unit on the top corner of the building, with an awesome 2-story tower room filled with windows and amazing views, and a semi-enclosed sun-room with swing-in windows, which should offer great ventilation. Aside from the imposing architecture, and the amazing corner unit, I wasn't impressed in general.

Walking east on Hargett Street back to the parking deck, I passed by and quickly visited:

#26: HUE (300 W. Hargett St) - Just a quick visit to this place was enough to give me a college dorm flashback. Very small and narrow units, with very little flair or interest. And it's next to the vastly superior Dawson condos. The only thing this building adds is a tacky colorful exterior that blocks the views of the Dawson residents. Really disappointing.

Well, there it is. Some good, some bad.

Google Analytics Test

I am going to try Google Analytics here, as a test. Included in this page is some JavaScript used to access my GA account, to track page hits for this page. GA is free if the number of page hits per month is less than 5 million. I don't think I should have any worries about that! Ha, ha!

Oscar Nominated Shorts 2008 - Animated

Animation is so much more interesting and beautiful on a big movie screen, so I couldn't miss the Oscar Nominated Short Animated features that played this past week at the Galaxy Theater in Cary, NC.

If you missed the animated shorts, you can watch most of these on-line for free. So, I'm saving you some money. Hey, you're welcome!

Here are some links I found to all five nominated shorts:

"La Maison en Petits Cubes" -- This one won the Oscar this year for best animated short. Despite its title, it's not from France -- it's from Japan, but it doesn't look anything like most Japanese anime. It has a dreamlike quality, and although it's somewhat slow, it builds to an emotional ending. You could also call it a cautionary tale of global warming run amok. I found it here: http://fr.truveo.com/La-Maison-en-Petits-Cubes/id/3950785702

"Oktapodi" -- A short French CGI film, fun in a "Saturday morning cartoon" kind of way. Wonderfully full of day-glow colors in a crazy dash through a coastal Greek town. I found a hi-res version of the video here or a quicker-loading lower-res version at YouTube here.

"Presto" -- If you saw the movie "Wall-E" in theaters last year, then you've seen this one already. It was the animated short that played before "Wall-E". It's still one of my favorites though, as a disagreement between a magician and his rabbit gets out of control. You can watch the video here: http://www.itsartmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1487

"Lavatory - Lovestory" -- I really liked this one from Russia. Simple line drawings mostly in black and white, but very wonderful. The title says it all. I found it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajLrFugsdMw&feature=related. You may not find it there anymore, due to copyright issues, but search for it via Google.

"This Way Up" -- A rather macabre story from England. It's CGI, but it has a unique look to it. It's about two undertakers, and I think I laughed out loud more during this one than any except "Hot Dog". You can watch it here (at least until someone removes it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrGvv-5_G1Y


Besides the 5 nominated films above, there were another 5 "highly commended" films, which were "short-listed" by the Oscar nomination committee. Included in these five were these three interesting films:

"Varmints" -- this was my favorite of these last five (and maybe my favorite of all) and the longest film by far at 24 minutes. Based on the book by the same name, it's an allegory/science-fiction mashup, sort of like a silent version of "Brazil". An idyllic rural existence is threatened by "varmints". I couldn't find the entire film, but the UK studio that produced it has a "trailer" here: http://www.studioaka.co.uk/index.php?movie=8e5a02a721eb508dd1f72fd86d55bb1c.m4v

"Skhizein" -- Another interesting allegory/science-fiction film, this time from France, about a guy who comes close to being hit by a meteorite. As a result, he is now 91 centimeters to the left of all the other items in the real world. At first, it's quite funny, with some interesting sight gags, but it becomes more Kafka-esque and desperate as time goes by. I couldn't find the entire 13-minute film, but I found this short clip: http://www.awntv.com/playlist/fff-vol13/skhizein-clip/

"Hot Dog" -- Have you ever seen a Bill Plympton cartoon? He has a unique style, where shapes (usually people's faces) morph into other shapes. In this short (surprisingly morph-free!), a dog wishes he could become a fire-fighter, and hilarity ensues. I could only find this 60-second "trailer" on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWw-9L87fSk