Creating a Cultural District

The vision for downtown Cary is one that creates a vibrant, village-like environment where residents and visitors alike, come often to partake in a wide variety of cultural programs and activities, fine dining, shopping, art galleries or just a quiet afternoon in the park. Evenings are as active as week-ends and week-days, as downtown Cary becomes a place to “see and be seen”. Businesses flourish, historic properties come alive with new uses, traffic flows freely and pedestrians enjoy a leisurely stroll along Academy Street.

The newly created cultural district blends new and renovated arts facilities with the adaptive reuse of historic properties; a new sculpture park with programs and activities for people of all ages; streetscape enhancements that feature new street trees, street furniture, paving and public art; transportation improvements that allow for improved vehicular traffic flow; and the sensitive integration of parking structures with ground floor retail and gallery space making parking readily accessible to all.

Elements of the District include:

1. The transformation of Old Cary Elementary School into the Cary Community Arts Center providing spaces for theater and music rehearsal, costume and scene shops, practice rooms, visual arts classrooms, jewelry and metal lab, photo studio and group offices. A 350 seat theater will provide the community with a professional quality performance venue at a scale appropriate for many local arts groups.

2. The Cary Center for the Arts - a new performing and visual arts facility featuring a 1200-seat multi-purpose auditorium acoustically designed to accommodate theater, music and dance; a generously sized lobby that not only serves as a space for pre- and post-performance functions but also as a community facility for banquets and special events; a professional level art/exhibition gallery and well appointed performer and stage support space.

3. A Digital Media Arts Center – a place for people of all ages, but particularly for the youth of Cary to learn and participate in multi-media arts, music recording and computer technology.

4. Over eight acres of open space, providing Cary with a new Sculpture Park featuring the work of local, regional and national artists, water amenities, a café, a small informal amphitheatre and botanical landscape plantings.

5. The Waldo Rood House – relocated and restored to become an information and interpretive center providing information on “what’s happening in Cary”.

6. An Arts Incubator – fostering the growth of arts organizations. By transforming the existing Fire Administration building into space for the arts, artists and local arts groups will have an opportunity to enhance their organizations through business training, the use of collaborative office space and meeting rooms, as well as additional rehearsal and gallery space.

7. Mixed use development – encouraging private developers to invest in the downtown, offering residents an alternative lifestyle that combines three and four story residential buildings with ground floor retail, cafes, restaurants, etc; in many cases offering residents a pleasing view of the nearby sculpture park or the newly landscaped Academy Street.

8. Town Square Park – easing traffic flow in the downtown by creating a one way couplet at the southern end of Academy Street, while at the same time, creating a new public open space in the downtown. The placement of the new Cary Center for the Arts adjacent to the Town Square creates an appropriate setback for the Center, diminishing its visual impact on the street while also allowing for a generous vehicular drop-off.

9. Parking structures – providing convenient parking throughout the downtown, located within easy walking distance of businesses and cultural facilities. The ground floor of these structures will feature retail shops, galleries and services, enhancing the pedestrian environment. A pedestrian bridge will connect the southern most parking structure with the Cary Community Arts Center, providing a safe crossing at Dry Avenue/Walnut Street.

10. Streetscape improvements – that include new street trees, street furniture, special paving, crosswalks, lighting and opportunities for public art.

In addition, the Page-Walker Arts & History Center, Jordan Hall Arts Center and the Herb C. Young Community Center will continue to prosper. Providing new facilities will allow these existing spaces to refocus, returning to their original purpose.