If there is one thing I learned from my three-hour walk-around shoot in downtown Raleigh on March 5, it's that one can hardly appreciate everything about the downtown and its landscape simply from driving through it -- even if one does so a couple dozen times.
The walk-around enabled me to appreciate the varied architecture of all the government buildings, for example. There is the State Capitol, the Justice Building, the N.C. Museum of Natural Science, the N.C. Museum of History, the Legislative Building, the Department of Instruction, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Wake County Convention Center ... and on and on.
And then there were the impressive private structures, such as four blue towers -- the State Employees Credit Union (SECO), PNC Bank, software company Pendo and the Wells Fargo Capitol Center. Technically, the Wells Fargo building is able to appear blueless, but usually only when skies are starkly overcast.
And ... there is the steel-framed Daily Planet, that globe of the Earth you see in the photo leading off the post. The 72-foot-tall globe, situated not far from the SECO), is a venue of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science.
The Daily Planet's interior is largely hollow, except for the theater inside, which uses six projectors to blend images superimposed on a 2,000 square-foot screen on the round interior for shows and presentations. It is said to be "the second-largest earth on Earth."
Speaking of the State Capitol ... since this series started, the local newspaper (The News & Observer) has published a story indicating that the copper roof and dome on the Statehouse will be replaced at some point in the near future.
The story explained that the new copper will at first be a color similar to that of a penny coin in U.S. currency. But because of oxidation (the combined effect of heat, air and humidity) on copper over time, the color eventually -- possibly even within a year -- will fade to the same sea green and/or blue we observe today with the current roof. So a note to local photographers: After the new roof is installed, you have a short window of opportunity to get photos of the dome in copper's original color.
To see a full gallery of photos taken on March 5 -- including those used in previous posts in this series -- follow the link in this sentence.
So without further adieu, here are shots of all the other stuff I encountered that isn't already presented in the other posts in the series.
My walk-around began very close to Bicentennial Mall, the plaza that separates the State Capitol from the Legislative Building, where the state House of Representatives and Senate convene. A small portion of the the Legislative Building's front facade can be seen in the middle of the photo immediately below, but there will be other photos of it in this post very soon. As you walk toward the Legislative Building from Edenton Street, you pass the North Carolina Museum of History, shown in the photo above. I'm dedicating quite a few photos in this post to buildings in the mall because I got there at a time in the morning when sunlight was casting delightful shadows all over the places, as illustrated in the photo above and the next several below.
Above: Buildings on the left side of the mall as you walk north toward the Legislative Building. Above and next two photos below: Using the history museum for some more shadow and reflection detail shots as well as pattern compositions.
Above: With the last block of West Jones Street and the Legislative Building now at my back, I look south toward the State Capitol, compressing objects along the walkway of Bicentennial Mall. Above and first three photos below: Different angles and sides of the Legislative Building, beginning (above) with a straight-on shot of the front entrance along West Jones Street. The second photo below is the building's back side along West Lane Street, while the third photo is its east side, along Wilmington Street.
Above: A turret at the end of the Museum of Natural Science near the junction of Jones Street and Bicentennial Mall.
Two views of the SECU Building, one integrating trees into a framing posture (above), and the other treeless (below).
Above and below: Two views and angles of the massive North Carolina Department of Insurance Building at the northwest corner of Lane and Salisbury streets.
The state Department of Health and Human Services building (above) is across North Wilmington Street from the Department of Public Instruction (below). At the southeast corner of Wilmington and Lane streets, the latter is an anchor of the two-block long Halifax Mall that extends north from that point. Other buildings in the mall as well as its expansive green and a tree-lined walkway can be seen in photos just below the photo below. Above: The North Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs is housed in the strikingly refurbished Seaboard Building Military along North Salisbury Street, just west of Halifax Mall.
The Wells Fargo Capitol Center (above) and the PNC Bank tower (below). The PNC tower shows the large image of a Carolina Hurricanes player to promote last month's outdoor National Hockey League game at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh. The stadium is the home venue for the North Carolina State University Wolfpack football team ... and just across a large parking lot from PNC Arena, the usual home of Hurricanes' games as well as the NCSU men's basketball team.
Exterior facades of the Wake County Courthouse (above) and Wake County Justice Center (first two below). Above and first two photos below provide views of the Raleigh Convention Center, the one above on the east side of South Salisbury street, the first two below on the west side of the same street. A statue of Sir Walter Raleigh (third photo below), after whom the city is named, appears on the convention grounds property.
Two views (above and below) of the front facade of the downtown Residence Inn Marriott, which is across South Street from the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts.
Above: This photo was among the early shots I took heading back north after grabbing my shots of the performing arts center. I could not find out any information about these two tall art installations, although I think they might be temporary. And there is a third one in the same vicinity. Above: My one monochrome conversion of the whole batch of downtown photos. This looks south along Fayetteville Street with the performing arts center in the background. An attempt to visually jar your eyes back to color (above) and a sidewalk shot along Fayetteville Street (below). Above and below: A couple of skyline shots integrating trees and the tall Wells Fargo skyscraper. The second photo below is a tight shot of the bank building's entrance off Fayetteville Street.
Above: The local distillery caught my attention, as did its interesting name, Young Hearts.
A municipal building (above) and a pedestrian turret (below) on a parking garage. Above: I'm not positive, but I believe this is the front facade of the North Carolina Department of Justice at Edenton and Salisbury street. Above: I'm not sure why, but I felt to try and capture this moving bus with no time to adjust my shutter settings to get a freeze-action shot. So while it's not perfectly sharp, it certainly shows a GoRaleigh bus in service along Edenton Street near the Capitol.
End of Series
Previously in the series:
