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The Corporate District and the
‘159 acres’
(See Plates 27–30)
Current Conditions
Containing just a few large tenants, the existing cor-
porate office park is a surprisingly underdeveloped
business campus. It is home to a large bank’s mort-
gage center and a training facility for a technology
company. The main north–south drive is constructed
to a greater width than is required, with a cross section
measuring an amazing 41 feet wide (12.5 meters).
There are no sidewalks anywhere.
The headwaters of another stream system traverse
the business park, making development on the west
side of the property difficult. The stream that flows
north remains in relatively pristine condition, and
has not yet been damaged by the environmental
degradation that development has caused to other
streams in the area. At the time of the plan, late in
2000, new apartments were being constructed in the
northern part of the site in a typical suburban config-
uration of buildings placed amidst parking lots. This
development abuts the state-owned tract of 159 acres
(63.6 hectares), known locally as ‘The Swine Edu-
cation Unit’ on account of its previous university use
for agricultural programs in pig farming. This pub-
licaly owned site has a tremendous amount of poten-
tial as a corporate campus, with good interstate
visibility and access, and the state had offered the
land for sale on the open market prior to the char-
rette. The pristine stream noted above divides the
western one-third of the property and another
stream, already impaired by development, crosses the
northeast corner. Environmental protection of these
stream systems was of paramount importance on this
property. A beautiful sylvan meadow lies at the heart
of the property.
Plan Recommendations
Corporate District (See Plate 27)
The axis of the plan
for this area was the construction of a public greenway
along the pristine stream through the office park,
bounded by streets and visually overlooked by new
buildings on both sides. This visual supervision would
ensure the safety and use of this landscaped amenity.
People want to see other people using open spaces;
empty open spaces are more hostile to human activity
than poorly landscaped ones. This section of the
greenway would connect the existing and proposed
large employment uses, including the ‘159 acres,’ to
the West Raleigh train station to the south. If an
underpass could be engineered beneath the interstate
immediately to the north, the greenway could link
regionally to extensive existing forest preserves. Even
with existing large-scale office buildings, a substantial
amount of land remained undeveloped, or partially
developed with only parking lots and front lawns.
To accomplish the degree of urbanism necessary to
frame the stream properly, we strongly recommended
the construction of new mixed-use buildings (small
service retail on the ground floor, offices on the upper
floors) along the street edge of the bank mortgage
office site. This replaced the previously approved, but
unbuilt, suburban pattern of buildings scattered
amidst extensive areas of parking. No floor area
would be lost, it would simply be reconfigured into a
more urban arrangement. On the west side of the
stream, new office buildings could be constructed
to complete the framing of the space. The height of
the buildings, two to three storys, would be limited
by the amount of parking that could be provided.
The 159 Acres
We developed three alternatives
for the 159-acre (63.6 hectare) site, as this was the
focus of intense debate during the charrette. On one
side were environmental groups who wanted to pro-
tect the stream systems from further damage, and to
save some open landscape as an antidote to the
creeping suburban sprawl evident in surrounding
areas. On the other were city and state officials who
wished to realize the full development value of this
property in order to purchase other areas of open
space in the region. In preparing these options, we
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followed the findings of our detailed market analysis
that showed a strong need for residential and office
space, but relatively weak demand for retail. The
published master plan drawing illustrated Option A
as the preferred alternative for this area; we had
decided to take the most environmentally conscious
viewpoint. However we then came under late pres-
sure from civic officials to illustrate more ‘develop-
ment-friendly’ alternatives. We developed Options
B and C in time for the final presentation, but not
in time to include them on the full master plan
drawing.