WALTER was delighted to welcome the author Frances Mayes to a special luncheon with 125 WALTER readers at the Umstead Hotel & Spa on a Sunday in late April. This latest in our series of WALTER EVENTS combined literary conversation with gourmet food…
by Liza Roberts photographs by Nick Pironio In a modest bungalow along the grassy, unmowed edge of Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Hospital campus, Dave Rose presides over the Triangle’s most comprehensive music and entertainment empire. Unless you’re a music geek or one of…
The hospital’s second floor – which once housed patients, a delivery room, and a nurses’ station – became home. by Liza Roberts photographs by Catherine Nguyen It takes a visionary to dream up things that don’t exist and make them real. It…
Anyone who has (or who has ever had) very young children knows that there’s a vast difference between travel and vacation. With very young children, you can travel far, wide, or luxuriously, but a vacation you will not have. Even…
by Liza Roberts photographs by Nick Pironio “It does something for you. Something rich and powerful and exciting. It has to be around.” Jim Patton is in his Chapel Hill apartment, surrounded by extraordinary art and talking about it. “I can’t imagine…
When Albert Einstein famously said that “imagination is more important than knowledge,” he did more than make daydreamers feel better about themselves. He zeroed in on the source of innovation, adventure, and progress. At Walter, we often remark on the…
by Liza Roberts photograph by Robert Willett After his workday, in a study filled with memor- arablia from a 28-year career in the U.S. Army, N.C. Secretary of Transportation Tony Tata writes thriller novels. He writes about special forces officers, combat missions,…
by Liza Roberts Ten years ago, Ashley Harris was an optimistic 27-year-old entrepreneur with a bank loan and a big idea: to sell high-end designer fashion in Raleigh. Today, she’s a successful and seasoned retailer whose Vermillion boutique has earned real…
by Liza Roberts photographs by Catherine Nguyen Living above the store is a good way to ensure working around the clock. Even when “the store” is a gorgeous 1891 Queen Anne Victorian mansion set on nearly five lush acres, there’s an…
by Liza Roberts photograph courtesy of Highwoods Properties “It’s fun to be a part of downtown,” says Highwoods Properties CEO Ed Fritsch. He’s admiring the Raleigh skyline from a vantage point four miles north, atop Highwoods Tower. But Fritsch isn’t talking…
by Liza Roberts photographs by Tim Lytvinenko “I need to make.” Justin LeBlanc’s fingers fly across a swath of mesh, attaching zip-ties to fabric in careful rows. “I’m a maker. If I don’t make…I go crazy.” Not that there’s any…
by Liza Roberts photograph by Nick Pironio When Raleigh artist Luke Buchanan met developer James A. Goodnight, Buchanan was pouring drinks behind the bar at Poole’s Downtown Diner, where he works many evenings. The two developed a rapport, and Goodnight became…
by Liza Roberts photographs by Carla and Kristopher Williams Christmas time at Donna and Kirk Preiss’s house is a fairy tale – an enchanting story with 1,500 characters. Each is an ornament on one of the Preiss’s 13 Christmas trees,…
by Liza Roberts photographs by Nick Pironio “The way people work is changing,” says Citrix vice president Jesse Lipson. “Work and play used to be clear-cut. Those lines are blurring.” As a result, “The nature of an office has changed.”…