

Raleigh’s Central Prison, the first prison constructed in North Carolina, sits on 29 acres off of Western Boulevard amid a rapidly changing part of town.
It’s one of the most exciting locations for an MLB stadium but also happens to be the most complicated.
As Raleigh’s downtown footprint grows, central prison becomes more and more out of place. Located between NC State, Dix Park, Boylan Heights, and the revitalized warehouse district, this land is prime for a unique and exciting development.
Just last year the American Institute of Architects’ held a design charrette called “Connections 81.2” in which they imagined what could one day replace the prison at this site (and the adjacent Governor Morehead School). Opening up that amount of land immediately got our attention and got us to start digging into how a stadium or district would fit in.
While there are no current plans to move central prison, the excitement around the project got the city’s attention and got the public starting to imagine the possibilities. If Raleigh keeps growing as expected, the prison will be moved at some point and what better to take its place than Major League Baseball.