Casa: Home & Garden

Reinventing old urban spaces in Raleigh and Durham

The North Blount Street historic district contains some of Raleigh's oldest and most historically important homes. A redevelopment plan could turn them back into homes and help transform the district into one of downtown's most upscale neighborhoods.

"This project's really fun," Audra Ladd says, "because we get to look at Durham and ask, 'What are we missing?'"

DesignBox's Aly Khalifa sees the empty warehouses as an opportunity to preserve Raleigh's past: "You can't help but be a citizen and react to this stuff."

Once built, Greenbridge will be poised to become the first development in North Carolina to receive gold certification in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard, a voluntary national program for energy-efficient, environmentally conscious architecture.

Charlotte-based developer Jim Medall and his wife, Vicki, are the creative sparkplugs driving the placement of public art at Medall's 2,150-unit Brightleaf at the Park development off U.S. 70 in eastern Durham County.

As chance would have it, Indy photographer Derek Anderson lives next door to 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.

When little Katie Concannon asked for a "princess balcony" on the treehouse, where she could "cuddle with her blankie and animals," I outwardly kept taking notes, but inwardly her request caught me flat-footed.
PLUS: Treehouse tips; Off the grid

For a treehouse to be memorable, well-used and even loved seems to require some--though not all--of these basic ground rules...

For most homeowners, freedom of expression means selecting from an array of kitchen cabinet knobs at the KB Home design center, or choosing a daring shade of semi-gloss paint for the hallway half-bath...