Blue Ridge Biomedical Corridor

A vision proposal for activating the Blue Ridge Road corridor in Raleigh, NC as a mixed-use biomedical and innovation district. Developed as a capstone for RED 512: How Cities Are Built at NC State University, the project maps existing institutional anchors — UNC Rex Hospital, NC State's West Campus, the NC Museum of Art, and the NC DHHS — and argues that coordinated stakeholder governance and strategic upzoning could unlock the corridor's latent economic potential.

The proposal draws on the Cleveland Health-Tech Corridor as a precedent, demonstrating how aligning anchor institutions under a unified corridor identity drove over $1B in investment and 7,000 jobs. Our team proposed a Blue Ridge Corridor Development Authority, targeted state land reallocation, and a mixed-use zoning framework to establish Raleigh's own biomedical identity before competitors like Nashville and Atlanta cement their lead.

Collaborators: Grady Hartis, Mia Gemignani, William Lin.