Can a Fake Plan Lead to Real Results in Raleigh?

Matt Tomasulo's proposal for an urban beach on the site of a vacant lot in Raleigh has gained a following, and sparked a conversation over the future of the site, demonstrating the power of an attractive idea, a compelling rendering and the Internet.

1 minute read

April 30, 2013, 8:00 AM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


"Tomasulo, who is also the founder of CityFabrics, a company that prints figure-ground city maps on t-shirts, wallets, and more, daringly printed and posted a large rendering on his Raleigh Beach proposal on a fence at the vacant lot in Raleigh just outside of downtown, later splashing the scene online on the proposal’s TumblrTwitter, and Facebook pages where it attracted hundreds of followers and received both positive and negative reactions from the community," reports Vincenza Di Maggio.

"His aim was to pique the community’s interests, start a conversation about the transformation of the empty, unused downtown lot, and encourage people to think about the best way for it to serve the community. If he can rally enough support for the project Tomasulo might be able to convince the property owner, 607 West Morgan Street, to transform his city-beach rendering into a reality."

Friday, April 26, 2013 in The Architect's Newspaper Blog

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

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