New Raleigh Convention Center seeks LEED certification

The $192 million, 509,000-square-foot Raleigh Convention Center, designed by architectural team TVS of Atlanta; O’Brien/Atkins of Research Triangle Park, N.C.; and Clearscapes of Raleigh, N.C.—as well as structural engineer of record Ross Bryan Associates, Inc., of Nashville, Tenn.—opens its doors this month after six years of planning and three years of construction.

The publicly financed facility brings 150,000 square feet of exhibit space to the city in which more than 135 conventions have already been booked through 2023. The center also adds 30,000 square feet of meeting space, which includes 19 meeting rooms and a 32,000-square-foot ballroom.

The Raleigh Convention Center is designed with North Carolina’s industries and history at heart. Woven millwork and an intricate ballroom ceiling reflect the state’s heritage in textiles and technology. The design team worked hard to weave the new facility seamlessly into the urban fabric of downtown Raleigh. "This team committed to several key planning decisions during the early stages of the process, such as the decision to bury the exhibit hall, which facilitated a building in scale with its community and other good urban design elements," says TVS Principal Scott Sickeler. "For a building of this size, it is very intuitive and interesting to navigate."

Three-fifths of the building is buried below grade, making the facility more approachable on a pedestrian scale, while also relating it more appropriately to the surrounding neighborhoods. All four streets surrounding the center feature their own grand entries with elegant canopy features. An outdoor plaza was also created on top of the exhibit hall, adjacent to Salisbury Street, offering both an arrival space for the facility and refined urban open space in Raleigh. The plaza features a water fountain, coffee shop, a special two story meeting space and the main entry to the convention center.

Dudley Lacy, a project executive at O’Brien/Atkins, notes, "The design team worked closely with the community and its leaders to design a convention center that sensitively engages the downtown Raleigh neighborhoods, including their offices, hotels, theaters, shops, restaurants, and residences, with an inviting scale and transparency that embrace Raleigh’s vision for Livable Streets."

The design of the Raleigh Convention Center features numerous innovative design techniques, including sustainable strategies, spun columns, a "shimmer wall," and ballroom ceiling panels made from glass fiber reinforced plaster (GFRP). Five years ago, when planning for the Convention Center was underway, and the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification process was still in its infancy, the city of Raleigh and the design team were determined to make the convention center green. Sustainable strategies include water-efficient landscaping and fixtures, construction waste diverted from landfills, recycling program, energy-efficient lighting and thermal control, materials with recycled content that were manufactured regionally with low VOCs, and an Indoor Air Quality Management Plan.

The 75-foot-tall curtain walls facing Salisbury Plaza and McDowell Street at the Center lean outward 7 degrees. Borrowing an idea from everyday cell towers or light poles, the design team chose to use spun columns. A high-strength concrete mix with low water content is spun in a high speed rotating custom mold to form a smooth, dense, blemish free surface.

"The design team of O’Brien/Atkins, Clearscapes, and TVS collaborated to make this convention center represent the uniqueness of Raleigh and North Carolina," says Steven Schuster, a principal and co-founder of Clearscapes. "The building pulls from the rich architectural heritage of our capital city and incorporates many integrated public art opportunities, many of which are in place for the opening of the center and others that will enhance the facility over time."

One of these artistic features is a stunning 9,300-square-foot shimmer wall. This art installation, which successfully disguises cooling towers and exhaust grilles, is comprised of 79,464 small aluminum plates that are pinned only at the top, allowing them to "shimmer" in the breeze. A monochromatic super graphic, an image of an oak tree, was applied by painting individual metal pieces. The result is a work of art that can be easily seen from the nearby highway. During the day, the wind animates the wall, and during the evening hours, integrated LED lights further enhance the civic identity of the convention center.

A second artistic element of the facility can be found inside the Center’s ballroom. A 3-D woven ceiling was designed out of GFRP. Intricately intertwined panels create texture and the look of the ceiling changes when viewed from different angles.

The new building is expected to generate approximately 1,200 new jobs regionally and more than $259 million in additional economic benefits. The official opening of the Raleigh Convention Center took place on Sept. 5-6, 2008, amid live music, a parade, and fireworks.