Prism Tower:
It's back again. Prism Tower's model was made the "cover image" on September 6th, for the architect! I'm excited about this. It's appearing frequently this month, in several different places!
Young-il Pyun
New City Park:
This proposed 228 acre park is actually much larger than I expected. They will use the $4 million from the bonds to finally open at least part of it to the public, but the entire project will cost $25 million. This is to become a regional tourist attraction. Attractions at the park would include a boardwalk, hiking trails, an amphitheater, picnic areas, campsites, a disc golf course, botanical gardens, a water park, glass bottom boat tours, and a zipline. William Royston said “We want to provide some experiences here that you can’t get anywhere else. We want this to be a regional draw, and so we’ve really thought outside the box and tried to be really creative with what we’ve wanted to propose here. There’s going to be so many opportunities and so many chances for you to do different things here, that you can come back 10 times and have a different experience every time.” The clear water is 150 feet deep, with rock faces rising another 150 feet above the water. The park will have views of both the Winston-Salem skyline and Pilot Mountain.
An interesting fact: The rock faces in this proposed Winston-Salem city park are actually a part of Pilot Mountain! It's one huge piece of rock that stretches from this park, just southeast of downtown Winston-Salem, to the mountain. It's also the rock under downtown. Royston, who is working on the park, said “You almost get the sense that you forget you’re in Winston. You normally would see these types of things on the Discovery Channel or out in Colorado." Opening the park will also prevent people from breaking into the site and jumping off the rock cliffs, which can crumble into the water.
Winston-Salem has so many beautiful natural features inside the city limits, like waterfalls, deep gorges, rock formations, ridges, waterways, etc.,. It's great to see this city finally transforming some of them into public parks! I'm excited about the bridge over the waterfall on the south side of downtown's IQ District too! That should be another amazing place to see! These natural features make Winston-Salem a unique, fun, and attractive place for people and businesses interested in moving here.
Plant 64:
Plant 64
Credit: David Jeannot
Source:
Allison
Agree 100%!
Plant 64 Lofts
Link Apartments:
A look inside! Is this project officially built? I love these apartments! If you're interested in leasing: (877) 844-0001
Source: Link Apartments
Source: Link Apartments
Source: Link Apartments
Source: Link Apartments
Source: Link Apartments
Source: Link Apartments
The Edge Lofts:
An aerial view of Tower 2 in the multi-building project. The first two floors of this 7-storey building are parking floors.
Credit: The Edge Lofts
Big Winston Market:
This large downtown retail development is opening this month! I was told the roof in the center of this 1930s warehouse collapsed a few years ago, so the developer created a small courtyard, with a few covered parking spaces and an outdoor dinning area in the area where the roof collapsed. The parts of the building that could be saved are preserved!
Winston-Salem's newest distillery is Broad Branch Distillery in Big Winston Market! Their logo uses the ceiling trusses as their design:
Source: Broad Branch Distillery
This is Broad Branch's distillery & storefront in Big Winston Market:
Source: Broad Branch Distillery
Black Mountain Chocolate's New Headquarters & Visible Chocolate Factory in Big Winston Market:
Source: Black Mountain Chocolate
Mast General Store:
This is a pedestrian bridge that will connect a city owned parking deck to Mast General Store and its apartments on the upper floors. Winston-Salem doesn't have parking requirements and this allows for shared parking or no parking, if the developer doesn't want any. Uretek Mid-Atlantic designed and built eleven micropiles for Mast General Store. They will function as deep foundations, on the exterior of the building, to support the new pedestrian bridge.
Credit: Uretek Mid-Atlantic
The Hut Indoor Skatepark:
The finished work looks great! I noticed they opened the top section up, to allow for more airflow.
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The Hut
Raymond Loewy Building:
Is this restoration complete? I didn't notice any scaffolding in the back?
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Pepper Building:
I don't think the Pepper Building is moving forward at this time. I think it will be another month or two? The work we are seeing is a short-term pop-up gallery, while the developer's workers are clearing the upper floors. I think the pop-up gallery leased the space until October 31st? They are working on this large art installation, in the future restaurant space leased by a Brazilian steakhouse. Artists like to take advantage of the large windows, in buildings like this one, while the architects, preservationists, and engineers are still working on the final details. When U.S. Development does move forward with the Pepper Building, I will let you know!
All Pepper Building images are from Winston-Salem artist
Zac Trainor
Liberty Street Vendors Market: Built
Located around 15th Street; the $342,000 market is built and now ready for operation. This is a vendors market and will sell more than vegetables and fruit. Artists and craftspeople can sell their items here as well.
http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townn...review-620.jpg
Credit: JournalNow
HanesBrands:
HanesBrands has finished their acquisition of DB Apparel in France. This acquisition will make HanesBrands Winston-Salem's third Fortune 500 company. HanesBrands said they should have revenue of $5.37 billion for 2014. There is a chance the new B/E Aerospace headquarters will give Winston-Salem 4 Fortune 500 headquarters?
Inmar Expands:
Downtown Winston-Salem technology company Inmar has expanded again, buying Millennium Process Coupon in Canada. Millennium Process is the largest processor of coupons in Canada. They process 80% of all coupons in Canada!
BB&T:
BB&T, headquartered in downtown Winston-Salem, has bought The Bank of Kentucky, doubling it's assets in Kentucky and entering Ohio for the first time. BB&T said the bank will expand further into the Ohio market in the near future. There is talk that BB&T may buy Huntington Bancshares in Columbus or KeyCorp in Cleveland. BB&T also expanded in Texas last week, with an acquisition of $2.3 billion in deposits from Citibank in Dallas and Houston. BB&T has nearly $200 billion in assets and is Winston-Salem's largest Fortune 500 company.
Gigabit Network:
The city of Winston-Salem has ratified an agreement with telecom giant AT&T, to bring the GigaPower network to the city with free installation or service at certain community centers and businesses. Mayor Allen Joines said the network will advance work in technology and medicine “to new levels of innovation and achievement.” How will this be used? This was interesting: Richard Phillips, at Winston-Salem's National Center for Design Innovation, said "In some cases, such as looking at how animals fly, we’ll scan each high-speed video to slow those motions down so they can be analyzed. The Department of Defense is interested because they want to build airplanes that fly like animals." Davenport, a transportation consulting firm in downtown Winston-Salem said “We have seven offices that all coordinate with our central server hub in Winston-Salem. We already are very dependent on the internet. We video conference every morning - kind of a ‘tailgate meeting’ for 15 minutes. Faster, more powerful, more robust internet would allow us to do more videoconferencing. With that kind of power we could do a lot more file sharing. The only limitation would be the amount of bandwidth at the other sites.” Service is expected to begin in Winston-Salem by the end of the year.
National Cancer Institute Grant:
More research money for researchers in the new 12-storey Comprehensive Cancer Center! Wake Forest University Medical Center will receive an $18 million, five-year grant as one of two cancer centers selected for the the National Cancer Institute's Community Oncology Research Program.
Fiesta:
Downtown Winston-Salem is the place to be for the 22nd Annual Fiesta street festival on September 13. Fiesta features Latino music on several stages, arts and crafts, authentic food vendors, a parade of flags, a running of the bulls, a healthy living area, and activities for kids. At this point, you're likely asking: What is the “Running of the Bulls?” The Camel City Thrashers, Winston-Salem’s Roller Derby team, will play the role of “the bulls” as they chase runners through downtown streets. The Thrashers will attempt to tag runners with a pool noodle filled with colored powder. If you're tagged, you're out. I've attended Fiesta a few times and love it!
9th Wonder & Kenneth Price:
Winston-Salem’s Grammy Award-winning producer 9th Wonder and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Kenneth Price will hold 3 free events in Annenberg Forum, in Winston-Salem, on Friday and they are open to the public. Kenneth Price will also present the Hometown Premier of his film “The Hip-Hop Fellow.” Winston-Salem's 9th Wonder has been active in the hip-hop community since 1997. The breakthrough of his career came in 2003, when he collaborated with Mary J. Blige, which won him his first Grammy. 9th Wonder is still active in hip-hop, producing music for Destiny’s Child, Ludacris, Murs, Drake and Nas. He is also still involved in Winston-Salem's hip-hop scene.
Maya Angelou Hip Hop Album:
The iconic words and lyrics of Winston-Salem's Maya Angelou will blend with hip-hop beats for a new album called "Caged Bird Songs." Shawn Rivera, the lead singer of R&B group Az Yet, and RoccStarr, who co-wrote Chris Brown's "Fine China," produced the 13-song set, to be released through Smooch Music on Nov. 4. The album is one of the last projects Angelou completed before she died. Rivera and RoccStarr started working on the album before Angelou knew of it. Once she was aware of it, she completely backed the project, which was recorded at Angelou's home in Winston-Salem. Caged Bird Legacy was recently founded to launch future Angelou projects; so look for other projects she had in the works at different levels of completion.
Historic Preservation: New to this thread!
The Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission unanimously recommended that the Old German Baptist Brethren Church be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Brethren was founded in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708. The religious sect became known as the German Baptist Brethren. They believed in a simple life and were opposed to slavery and war. They fled religious persecution in Germany and came to Germantown, Pa, in 1719. In 1775, John Burkhart, a son of those immigrants, moved to Forsyth County and started the church. The current building was built in 1860, by Alexander Hampton Ellis. This is the first step toward its restoration!
http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townn...c39e.image.jpg
Credit: Andrew Dye - JournalNow
Sauratown Mountains:
We talked about the Sauratown Mountains a few weeks ago. I found a great photograph, looking from the observation deck at Hanging Rock, toward Pilot Mountain. You can also see Sauratown Mountain, with its transmission towers.
Source
Salem Lake & Park:
If you're new to Winston-Salem, take the strollway from downtown to Salem Lake! Yes, this is just a short bike ride from downtown! This is a beautiful and very popular area. If you like to fish, this is a great place to do that. I think they allow horseback riding around the lake too?
A creek in the Salem Lake Park area:
Source
This (image below) is the view from Antimatter, which is a company that makes music videos, album art, and band websites. Isn't that view awesome! Their building was built in 1895, as a warehouse. This is a great advertisement to move your business to downtown's IQ District!
Credit: Justin Reich
Be sure to welcome MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry to Winston-Salem's historic Washington Park Neighborhood, on the south end of downtown. She has her own liberal-leaning show on MSNBC on Saturday and Sunday mornings. She is also an author and the founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race and Politics in the South, a research initiative that is moving with her to Winston-Salem.