Last year, I worked with several clients to photograph one of the new mixed-use high-rises in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, the Maeve, collaborating with Chris Jones and Carolina Standard Visual Media who handled drone/aerial photography. The architect was ISG formerly JDavis, interior architect Architecturefirm out of NYC, W.M.Jordan the general contractor, EDSA for landscape architecture, and Wells, formerly GATE Precast for the well, you know – precast concrete. I’ve previously photographed with most of the parties involved before and was ecstatic to work with them on this.
The Maeve is a 20-story development with a half million s.f. featuring apartments, retails suites, and a parking deck. Chris did a great job framing up the building in relation to other areas of Raleigh’s growing town. Below it’s scene in juxtaposition to the Warehouse District.
In total, this was approximately a 6 day shoot, 3 days inside and 3 out. On the ground I focused on a few tight images of the concerete-clad tower along Dawson Street. ISG did a nice job forming to the street grid, which will come in handy as the surrounding area infills.
Fresh after construction, retail wasn’t in yet, so we populated the space along the exterior entry colonnade.
W.M. Jordan was great overseeing the photography and I really enjoyed a true collaborative process in working closely with Architecturefirm on the interiors, chasing light as it was applicable. They did such a bang-up job on the inside!
From sales to security, Maeve staff were incredibly helpful in granting us access when and where we needed it, as well as participating as models in the photography.
I’m personally partial to neutral architectural palettes, especially off-white, grays and browns against natural wood, then spicing it up with colorful furniture and accessories in my own personal life, so loved the material choices the designers selected in this building.
Architectural lighting choices, both building and free-standing lamps were kept subtle in a manner not to overwhelm the space, allowing for pleasing, quiet areas to relax, gather and work.
When I reviewed the interior renderings before visiting the building and saw the 7th-floor pool deck amenity I thought to myself, “They better not have value engineered that.” and I was happy to see the most of the form in completion. Was fun figuring out some moments and vignettes.
We had some challenges gathering people as scale figures but eventually made it all work.
The pool deck is pretty luxurious as far as apartments go.
The deck even looks out towards the Weld, one of ISG’s upcoming projects near Dorothea Dix.
Carolina Standard Visual Media did a wonderful job coordinating with me aerial views connecting towards downtown Raleigh, featuring people as I directed and placed everyone into position for the shot. This is the penthouse deck that again looks towards the Warehouse District.
Inside the top-floor amenity is yet another level of interior design, material, and furnishings independent of the other two spaces, yet complimentary in tying the building together.
I often find exteriors with urban context like this as much a site study as it is shooting the building. It took many attempts to time the train schedule with the right time of day to frame the building with good weather and light.
Chris and Carolina Standard was instrumental in delivering a wide array of drone and aerial shots that illustrated the impact of this new construction in downtown Raleigh. Both building and deck were entirely clad in precast.
The building was mostly unoccupied at time of shoot, so I returned later in the fall with fuller occupancy to capture the Maeve at night with traffic streaming by. It was a challenging and lengthy process but am glad we were able to tie everything together for the clients.
