Paul is the co-founder of the SPARKcon, the South’s preeminent conference on creativity, member of the award-winning DesignBox, created the graffiti mural at Marbles Kids Museum and artwork for the CAT Bus Art-on-the-Move project, editor of HellCar Magazine, two-time champion of the Xtreme Suburban Endurance Event, as well as author/illustrator of several books, including “101 Ways to Add Stress to Your Life,” “Sleepwalking Batman in Plaid Pajamas,” and “Man V Liver.” Known for his humorous paintings with characteristic bold colors and steady lines based on his Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel “Onion Head Monster Attacks,” Paul Friedrich is one of the artists-writers in the forefront of the LowPop art movement. November 2015 CreativeMornings/Raleigh event (global theme: Work) with guest speaker Paul Friedrich. Once the STAC recommendation(s) has/have been made, TTA will evaluate the land it has acquired for future transit use and explore options for the land's future.CreativeMornings/Raleigh with Paul Friedrich 'A decision on those transit corridors is expected by the planning organizations late next spring. 'The STAC is to have recommendations for studying future transit corridors by late 2007,' Schulz says. In an e-mail, TTA spokesman Brad Schulz says that the TTA has adopted a 'wait-and-see' stance on future use of the Dillon buildings, based on the recommendations of a 38-member Citizens' Special Transit Authority Commission. 'There are some real opportunities here.'īut what does the TTA make of these opportunities? 'This part of Raleigh, at least in my mind, is the elbow that connects Glenwood South to downtown,' Khalifa says. Khalifa agrees, saying that turning the buildings into studios would bring additional business to the area. 'The smaller projects seem like the most viable and interesting, because a small business owner can purchase a building and both use it for themselves and lease out part of it,' Panzarella says.

According to Panzarella, redeveloping DesignBox's home base only took a few months and less than $100,000.

Panzarella points out that a repurposed existing building can take only a few months to be up and running as a business, while doing a new building from the ground up can take at least five years. The building that once held a printing press and, later, a moving company now hosts a variety of graphic designers, animators and other creative types, including Onion Head Monster cartoonist Paul Friedrich. In DesignBox's West Martin Street headquarters, Panzarella eagerly points out how the concrete floor has been polished, how '14 years of paper dust' has been cleaned out of the rafters, and how the walls and ceilings have been painted light, soothing colors. Khalifa and Panzarella are gung-ho to see the older buildings repurposed as studiosafter all, it's worked for them. 'When stalled, that seemed to produce an opportunity,' Panzarella says. They've proposed a solutionwhy not repurpose the buildings as live/work spaces for artists? Problem: The rail line's still in limbo, and so are the buildings.Īly Khalifa and Isaac Panzarella are two members of DesignBox, a creative collective that opened an office near the old Dillon buildings in March.

They've remained empty since late 2005, when they were bought out by the Triangle Transit Authority as part of the TTA's plans for a 28-mile rail line. The seven red-brick buildings adjacent to the large Dillon Supply building off of West Martin Street in downtown Raleigh are a melancholy sight.

A view of the Dillon Supply building off West Martin Street in Raleigh

Designbox downtown raleigh