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Weaver Street! That’s it. Thanks for reminding me of the name. Loved that place (and I suspect that I still would but it has been ten years of more since I was there. I visited the downtown location over Thanksgiving. It was pretty great too.
Yeah I suppose it's a more convenient-to-get-to location, but IMO it's a boring and un-interesting location. You can't really do anything else in the area other than the museum. Admittedly the outdoor space is nice to have and that would be more difficult to implement downtown.
Remember that this isn't just any museum, but the first state museum of art in the country.
Just like UNC was the first puiblic university,and there are a few other notable amenities for the public that were firsts but I can't remember what they are right now,
It is meant for citizens of the entire state to use, and maybe that had a little to do with the location choice which I don't like either as it's a pretty ugly stretch of road.
I'm also not happy with the exterior of the addition, though inside I can understand the rationale for the occuli and preserving the artwork.
I feel that the board overseeing the museum just got caught up in the architect's intellectual jibber jabber and not enough focus was spent on an exterior that would draw in ordinary citizens.
My father's office was on Wycliff Road and he referred to the expansion's exterior as the chicken coups.
Oh, I think Asheboro zoo was the first state zoo also and for sure it was located there to be centrally accessed statewide.
The VMFA is about to break ground on a 100,000 square foot addition (if memory serves me it is to expand the European galleries). The last addition was about ten years ago (I think around the same time as the NC
Museum of Art?). The Virginia Historical Society has started on their expansion too (theater, restaurant, exhibit space). Ground was broken there a month or two ago. We’ve got a nice museum complex along Arthur Ashe Boulevard and it’s getting better.
I’m still most excited about the ICA. The VMFA is the best museum in town but the ICA is the coolest.
BTW, I’m not sure what is meant by the oldest public art museum in the South. The NC Museum of Art opened 20 years after the VMFA (1956 and 1936) and VA’s public collection started in 1919.
I don't mind NCMA's location because without it there wouldn't be the museum park along with it (though I do hate that parts of the park are located right next to 440/Wade Avenue)
Imagine if the NCMA was built next to Dix Park. It could still have the art park experience, be near the city center, and have some sweeping views of a a growing city skyline.
Won't happen now. If the whole Dix thing had happened 20 years earlier, there might have been an argument for building a new NCMA at Dix and reusing the 1983 NCMA building for other purposes. Truth is, the 1983 building is quite different from what Edward Durell Stone designed before he died in 1978. But there was a construction funding shortfall, and Stone's design was radically downsized, with less expensive materials substituted. That's why the exterior is brick, for example, instead of white marble like Stone intended.
When the Blue Ridge Road site was selected for NCMA in 1967, Dix was very much in operation as a hospital and the grounds were still in use.
Well, it's too far away for a random day trip and not packed with big city amenities to justify a weekend getaway. I think you could incorporate a packaged Tidewater/Richmond weekend thing to make it worthwhile. Though not on the fan district's level, etc in Richmond, even Greensboro, WS and Charlotte have charming hoods with nooks and crannies of little bars, shops throughout parts of their city.
In my experiences, the problem with Richmond is location, it's just too close to DC and if you're making a 3 hour road trip from RDU...well, DC is only another one and a half hour away. This has always been the case for me even though I have a lot of relatives that live in Richmond and Tidewater. Sometimes, I'll stop through but NoVa/DC/MD is like a magnet once I hit I-85/I-95 North from RDU.
Richmond did get a bad rap for crime like Durham (justifiably so at times). And much like Baltimore, it doesn't possess the DC flash, pomp and circumstance....there you have it. It's so close but yet so far away and not enough unique attractions to incentivize the average Joe/Jane to plan to a weekend trip...same thing for RDU.
And from Durham, that hideous boring drive from South Hill to Petersburg.....jeezus. Durham to Charlotte is busy with other roadside distraction crap w/Triad) in the middle to make the trip seem much shorter.
Last edited by Big Aristotle; 03-24-2021 at 05:19 PM..
Who is able to get from Richmond to D.C. in just an hour and a half driving?
Sounds impossible.
That trip takes at least 2 hours in the car and may often take longer than the trip from RDU to Richmond.
I don't understand someone who dislikes the peaceful and heavily-treed drive to Richmond but decides to drive up to a congested area like D.C. instead?
Maybe you just prefer bigger metros, that's ok ... just say it. You are a city person. The rural southside is just too much "nothing".
Yeah I suppose it's a more convenient-to-get-to location, but IMO it's a boring and un-interesting location. You can't really do anything else in the area other than the museum. Admittedly the outdoor space is nice to have and that would be more difficult to implement downtown.
Not to argue, but I totally disagree.
The museum has some beautiful grounds surrounding it. I see people all the time (I am sometimes one of them) who park there and use the greenway system to ride bikes in to DT Raleigh, or to Crabtree Creek/Mall area. It is near some decent eateries on Lake Boone Trail, and a hop and skip to Hillsborough Street. It is actually somewhat of a hub to enable you to "do other things in the area".
Admittedly, my perspective depends on slightly better transportation than your feet. I ride a bike, I would think an electric scooter or something would also get you around some. Just saying, it's in a great location for "doing something else".
Well, it's too far away for a random day trip and not packed with big city amenities to justify a weekend getaway. I think you could incorporate a packaged Tidewater/Richmond weekend thing to make it worthwhile. Though not on the fan district's level, etc in Richmond, even Greensboro, WS and Charlotte have charming hoods with nooks and crannies of little bars, shops throughout parts of their city.
In my experiences, the problem with Richmond is location, it's just too close to DC and if you're making a 3 hour road trip from RDU...well, DC is only another one and a half hour away. This has always been the case for me even though I have a lot of relatives that live in Richmond and Tidewater. Sometimes, I'll stop through but NoVa/DC/MD is like a magnet once I hit I-85/I-95 North from RDU.
Richmond did get a bad rap for crime like Durham (justifiably so at times). And much like Baltimore, it doesn't possess the DC flash, pomp and circumstance....there you have it. It's so close but yet so far away and not enough unique attractions to incentivize the average Joe/Jane to plan to a weekend trip...same thing for RDU.
And from Durham, that hideous boring drive from South Hill to Petersburg.....jeezus. Durham to Charlotte is busy with other roadside distraction crap w/Triad) in the middle to make the trip seem much shorter.
Charlotte and Richmond are both 2.5 from Raleigh. Easy day trip to me, and in fact we just made it last weekend. And if I want an urban or big city day trip getaway, I'm going to Richmond and not Charlotte. Additionally, the drive from Raleigh to Richmond is significantly less stressful. There are plenty of amenities in Richmond which is far more charming than Greensboro, WS, Charlotte
Quote:
Originally Posted by Going Rural
Who is able to get from Richmond to D.C. in just an hour and a half driving?
Sounds impossible.
That trip takes at least 2 hours in the car and may often take longer than the trip from RDU to Richmond.
I don't understand someone who dislikes the peaceful and heavily-treed drive to Richmond but decides to drive up to a congested area like D.C. instead?
Maybe you just prefer bigger metros, that's ok ... just say it. You are a city person. The rural southside is just too much "nothing".
I like bigger metros. But I like being in them, experiencing the city itself....not driving on their stupidly congested and chaotic interstates. Which is why I like the drive from Raleigh to Richmond much more. Peaceful. Just set the cruise control to 70, listen to an audiobook or some podcasts and enjoy.
Who is able to get from Richmond to D.C. in just an hour and a half driving?
Sounds impossible.
That trip takes at least 2 hours in the car and may often take longer than the trip from RDU to Richmond.
I don't understand someone who dislikes the peaceful and heavily-treed drive to Richmond but decides to drive up to a congested area like D.C. instead?
Maybe you just prefer bigger metros, that's ok ... just say it. You are a city person. The rural southside is just too much "nothing".
Yes, on average 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours or so, of course extreme endpoints of the metros will add time. Say from Silver Spring to South Richmond will take longer than 2 hours. That's not what I'm say about Richmond, if you're going to a place to hangout, why not the big city? It's not about preference but things to do.
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