Why a new terminal?
When the existing Terminal C opened in 1987, it was designed as an American Airlines hub, with travelers passing through on their way to other destinations. That meant fewer ticket counters and long security lines that today snake through too few checkpoints.

The new terminal will be three times larger, and will be able to handle 13 million passengers per year. Most of these passengers will begin and end their trips at RDU, which is why the airport opted for a new terminal rather than enlarging the existing facility. With 95 percent of passengers either leaving from RDU or arriving there as their final destination, the existing terminal simply wasn't designed to handle that kind of traffic.

The expansion project has been a long time in the making. During the 1990s, RDU officials knew that in order to serve the rapidly growing area, they would need to plan for the coming boom in airline travel. They made plans for expansion, but the shock of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — and the resulting downturn in air travel — gave the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority pause.

When it became clear that air travel would rebound, the authority moved forward with a plan to replace Terminal C with the newly designed terminal. In 2003, it approved the expansion, and this summer it will open the first phase, with Phase 2 set for the winter of 2010.

A smoother flow
Fentress Architects of Denver, headed by N.C. State University graduate Kurt Fentress, designed the new terminal as a beginning and end point, with three ticketing islands featuring 20 airline counters, 80 electronic kiosks and a natural flow for purchasing tickets, checking bags, and securing information, as well as 10 lanes of security, five baggage carousels, and 32 aircraft gates. Customs also will be more than doubled in size.

“This is the new open architecture,” says Mindy Hamlin, RDU spokeswoman, adding that it is more intuitive in its design.

Ten security lanes will speed up the awkward but necessary passenger screening, while all checked luggage will be screened behind the scenes.

“We've also built in space for future security technology,” Hamlin says.

Made from steel, glass and wood with a 60-foot atrium designed by artist Ed Carpenter, the terminal will be a welcoming site filled with sculpture, art, restaurants, and shops.

“The major exterior and interior architectural elements will be abstractions of North Carolina's agricultural, textile, and high-tech communities,” Fentress says. Its extensive use of glass lets in sunlight and gives passengers a view of the surrounding outdoors, as well as planes on the tarmac.

Home to Carolina
Travelers also will get a taste of North Carolina at the terminal, with local eateries such as 42nd Street Oyster Bar and Brookwood Farms, which specializes in world-famous Carolina barbecue.

“We knew we wanted local restaurants and shops,” Hamlin says. “We were looking for a variety of national, well-known brands and local businesses like 2nd Edition Booksellers and Carolina Alehouse.”

2nd Edition Booksellers is a locally owned used bookstore currently located in the heart of Terminal A. “It's very popular with our passengers,” Hamlin notes.

Other restaurants and coffee shops will include Bruegger's Bagels, A&W All American Food, Jose Cuervo Tequileria and a Starbucks. Chapel Hill's A Southern Season also will have a store in the concourse, alongside Brooks Brothers and University News & Sports.

“We knew what we wanted,” says Hamlin, referring to RDU reflecting the unique character and style of North Carolina.

The future of flight
As North Carolina's high-tech industry and educational excellence continue to feed the region,s growth, RDU will continue to grow as well. The new terminal is a visible part of its growth, and one that reflects the beauty of the state, the value of its culture, and the forward-thinking nature of the community,s leadership. WL

David Terrenoire is a freelance writer based in Durham and has published several books, including “Beneath a Panamanian Moon,” published by St. Martin's Press.

by Deborah R. Huso

While Denver's well-known moniker as the Mile High City might lead one to believe that this bustling metropolis is located in the mountains, it actually lies on a high plain just east of the soaring peaks of the Rockies. More than 200 of those peaks are visible from the city proper, making for a stunning skyline.

A young city, Denver was born with the 1859 gold rush on nearby Pike's Peak. While much of the feel of the Wild West remains here— legend has it that the city's first building was a saloon — Denver is a very modern city with an extensive and walkable downtown filled with museums, art galleries, and shopping. A good place to start is the 16th Street Mall, a mile-long retail district filled with shops and cafés.

The Downtown Aquarium is another of the city's most popular venues. While it offers a variety of exhibits on sea life — including some 15,000 fish — the aquarium also features exhibits on desert and rainforest species, as well as rare Sumatran tigers, less than 500 of which are known to exist.

Denver also is home to Six Flags Elitch Gardens, one of the country's only downtown amusement parks, as well as three stadiums hosting eight professional sports teams, including the Denver Broncos and Colorado Avalanche.

The nightlife in Denver is hard to beat. The city brews more beer than any other in the country and is home to both Coors and Anheuser-Busch breweries, both of which offer tours to visitors. Each October, the city hosts the Great American Beer Festival, where visitors can taste one of the 80 varieties of beers brewed in the city at one of its hundreds of restaurants or live music and dance clubs.

Painting the town isn't the only way to spend an evening in Denver. Visitors can take in performances at the Colorado Ballet or Colorado Symphony Orchestra at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, which features a Tony Award-winning theater company and is the largest of its kind in the world.

Those interested in Native American culture can see a vast collection of art — including rugs, beadwork, baskets and pottery — at the Denver Art Museum. It is one of the most extensive collections of Native American art in the world, representing every tribe across 2,000 years.

One of the best things about Denver, however, is the landscape that surrounds it. The city's western edge opens up to vast stretches of national forest land, and Rocky Mountain National Park is located an hour-and-a-half drive north, making for an ideal day trip. Along the way, visitors can drive along Mt. Evans Highway — the highest road in the U.S., which climbs ridges in excess of 14,000 feet — and can experience a sprawling view of Denver from the site of Buffalo Bill's rave on top of Lookout Mountain.

Skiers will appreciate Denver's access to the slopes. Dozens of ski resorts are located within an hour's drive of the city, including the slopes at Vail, Breckinridge, Keystone, Beaver Creek, and Arapaho Basin. Denver's Ski Train takes visitors directly from the historic Union Station on day trips to Winter Park Resort, taking passengers through the stunning winter scenery of the Flatiron Mountains and South Boulder Canyon.

The city's crystal-clear weather is an added bonus. Remarkably, Denver has more sunny days per year than Miami Beach or San Diego, ensuring that non-stop fun can be accompanied by non-stop gorgeous weather. WL

Deborah R. Huso is a freelance writer based in Blue Grass, Va.

GOING GREEN
Seven steps to a healthy, environmentally friendly landscape

by Ray Easterling

Drought. Watering bans. Plagues of locusts. What's a yard-conscious homeowner to do? While there haven't been any locusts — yet — it's still becoming almost impossible to maintain a lawn or landscape, right?

Maybe not.

The reality is that most lawns are chemically dependent on a host of products to survive and thrive. Lawns that are addicted to a cycle of fabricated fertilizers and daily doses of irrigation quickly have become hangover headaches for homeowners in light of recent water shortages.

Thatch, an accumulation of organic matter at the soil surface, is caused by excess fertilizer, not by mulching grass clippings, as it often is believed. This can lead to shallow root growth and can prevent water from penetrating deep into the soil.

To reduce the amount of thatch, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends raking lawns or using a machine that slices through the thatch layer to break it up. Sprinkling a thin layer or topsoil or organic compost over the lawn also can help.

“Using organic or recycled materials increases the health of the landscape, decreases our carbon footprint and creates sustainable, healthy environments,” says Rhonda Goolsby, owner of Green Sky Sustainable Design in Carrboro.

As the taps run dry, here are some cost-effective and environmentally friendly changes that can have a significant impact on your lawn's overall health.

Think small
According to Evan Blewett, landscape designer for Apex-based LandArts, the first step is to consider reducing the amount of lawn.

“We eliminate lawn from areas where it's not going to be used,” he says, adding that the company typically reduces lawn sizes by 30 to 60 percent.

“Commonly, that would be on the side of the house. Any area that's large enough and level enough to be a good play area we would keep enough of that space.”

Lawn reduction can save plenty of water, notes Blewett, who recently appeared on Home & Garden TV (HGTV).

“You're also reducing the need to fertilize, and of course a lot of fossil fuel use by not needing to mow those areas and maintain them,” he adds.

Goolsby recommends using recycled materials when creating hardscapes such as garden sheds and decks, while using materials such as mulch, sand, gravel, or loose stone when creating pathways that are pervious, which will allow the water to percolate down into the soil.

“No matter what direction you decide to go in terms of utilizing the extra space, keep the area pervious to help with replenishing watersheds and protecting green space,” she notes.

Cut higher
One of the simplest things to help a fescue lawn is to set the lawnmower higher, ideally above three inches. Longer grass has more leaf surface to take in sunlight, which enables it to grow thicker and develop a deeper root system, helping it to survive drought, tolerate insect damage, and fend off disease.

According to the EPA, mowing high can produce stronger, healthier grass. A general rule of thumb is to mow often enough that you never cut more than one-third of the height of the grass blades.

“By cutting higher, you shade the ground, so you reduce evaporative loss,” Blewett says. “By cutting higher, by shading the ground, you also reduce the amount of light that penetrates so that weed seeds can't germinate.”

Add tough turf
Grasses vary in the type of climate they prefer, the amount of water and nutrients they need, their resistance to pests and tolerance for shade, and the degree of wear they can withstand.

Thanks to the area's location in a transition zone for turf, fescue lawns aren't the only options available for homeowners.
“People (should) begin to look at warm-season grasses that are better adapted to North Carolina, especially in the Piedmont and eastern parts of the state,” says Carl Matyac, an agricultural extension agent with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension in Wake County.

“Consider things like Bermuda, zoysia grass and centipede,” he adds. “Once they're established, they're essentially zero maintenance. They're extremely drought-tolerant, require essentially little to no nitrogen to fertilize on a regular basis, (and have) fewer diseases and insect problems.”

Make amends
Amending soil is another option when cultivating a healthy lawn. No matter the soil type, it's best to add organic matter such as compost, manure or grass clippings periodically to improve the soil. Organic matter in particular can help lighten a predominantly clay soil, and can help sandy soil retain water and nutrients.

“Amending clay soil is a critical component of having a water-wise landscape,” notes Marie Cefalo, water conservation coordinator for the Town of Cary. “That has a significant impact upon the efficiency with which water reaches the roots.”

Soil can be amended in the short-term by spreading compost — either purchased or from a compost bin — across the landscape, and in the long-term by adjusting mowing habits.

“Leave the clippings on the lawn using a mulching blade on a mower,” Blewett advises. “If you have a mulching mower, great. If you don't have a mulching mower, you can retrofit a blade affordably for probably $15. So leave the clippings on your lawn.”

Add mulch
Another way to conserve water and make use of leftover space is to plant beds using mulch, which can reduce evaporative loss by up to 70 percent.

“Instead of getting rid of leaves, mulch them back into the lawn,” Goolsby says. “This adds beneficial nutrients to the soil.”

“Probably the best thing you can do for a landscape in terms of water conservation, building the soil, increasing the survivability of plants and decreasing the weed populations is to mulch,” Matyac seconds.

“You're adding material to the soil that will increase the infiltration of water when it does hit,” he adds. “It increases the tilth of the soil, so you increase the amount of oxygen that's able to penetrate into the soil, thereby having roots that are able to grow and develop, (providing) much stronger and healthier plants.”

Be a drip
According to the EPA, it's best to water only when the lawn truly needs it, and then to water slowly and deeply in order to train the grass roots down. Frequent shallow watering trains roots to remain near the surface, making the lawn less able to secure moisture during drier periods.

“During the summer, our demand for water doubles from wintertime demand,” Cefalo says.

“If people can use water wisely then we have a great benefit.”

According to Blewett, it's important to consider irrigation that's more targeted than broad sprinklers can accomplish.

“Drip irrigation is definitely the way to go,” he says. “It's very thrifty as far as water use goes. If irrigation's not in the budget, we don't sweat it too much. We just take it into account with our design, and use more drought-tolerant plants.

Plant appropriately
There are countless drought-tolerant plants available, so it's best to do a little homework before making selections for your plant beds.

“Choose things that are adapted to the area,” Matyac cautions. “By selecting plants that are well-adapted, you're going to reduce the overall need for any kind of pesticides and insecticides, and also increase the likelihood that plants are going to survive once you do get them in the ground.”

According to Goolsby, if soil is healthy, the area is suitable for particular plants and care of plants are maintained properly, there will be no need for artificial intervention via chemicals.

Overall, these steps can reduce maintenance and limit environmental impact. But if they're adopted by many homeowners, the effects can be quite profound. WL

Ray Easterling is a freelance writer based in St. Louis.

ENDLESS BLOOMS
Luscious gardens dot the region

by Laurie Bazemore

Rudyard Kipling once wrote that the gardens of England “are not made by singing, 'Oh, how beautiful!' and sitting in the shade.” If Kipling were around to visit the most well-known gardens in Durham and Chatham counties, he might have said the same about the labors required to maintain these sculpted settings.

The faunal finery at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, North Carolina Botanical Garden, gardens of Fearrington Village, and Witherspoon Rose Culture add nationally known sanctuaries of botanical study and horticultural design to the Triangle's wealth of research and cultural resources. See what these gardens have to offer.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens
Situated in the middle of Duke University's West Campus, the 55 landscaped acres of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens are a well-known destination to take in more than 800 species of southeastern native plants without the distraction of unleashed dogs or an unboundaried game of football. A posted list of visitor etiquette gently reminds visitors: “Duke Gardens is a living museum, not a park or playground.”

Its bulb-rooted feast of perennials celebrates Duke School of Medicine Professor Dr. Frederic Hanes' early 20th-century desire for a display-oriented garden to showcase his beloved irises. Today, its staff promotes Duke Gardens as a diverse setting for both cultural and educational experiences.

In 2006, Duke Gardens received a Museum Assessment Program (MAP) two-year grant from the American Association of Museums to invest in native plant collections management. Last October, its Culberson Asiatic Arboretum hosted the dedication of the teahouse-styled Durham-Toyama Sister Cities Pavilion, celebrating the two cities' 18-year relationship.

“(Duke Gardens) should not be recognized as just a pretty place,” notes Greg Nace, director of horticultural operations. “We want to meet the standards of a nationally recognized learning environment.”

North Carolina Botanical Garden
Similar to Duke Gardens, the North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCBG) promotes stewardship of natural areas as a conservation-driven, nationally renowned center for botanical research, teaching collections and conservation initiatives. Its more than 700 acres of University of North Carolina (UNC) lands encompass nine display gardens, the 88-acre Piedmont Nature Trails, UNC campus' Coker Arboretum and Battle Park, and the 367-acre Mason Farm Biological Preserve.

Apart from research and teaching activities, NCBG visitors participate in workshops and guided tours, or simply learn via self-guided strolls through its display gardens. At the Garden of Flowering Plant Families, visitors can read about plant family relationships between tobacco and petunias, where dissimilar plant groups have essentially “learned” to grow side by side.

During the 1920s, Dr. William Coker, UNC's first professor of botany, formed a comprehensive botanical sanctuary south of the main campus from a teaching collection of shrubs and trees at Coker Arboretum. By the early 1970s, campus and local environmentalists had advanced Coker's vision by sowing “habitat gardens” of native North Carolina plants across the state. Population surges ranging from flowering dogwoods to fox grape led to NCBG's modern-day mission of “conservation through propagation” to protect the state from native habitat loss.

“We were popularizing the wonderful, colorful, interesting and diverse native plants of North Carolina,” recalls Dr. Peter White, NCBG director and UNC professor of biology and ecology.

“We also wanted to discourage damage to wild populations through folks simply digging them up,” he adds. “This is especially a problem for those plants that don't produce many seeds, grow very fast or disperse very far.”

Today's large-scale propagation initiative at NCBG focuses on amassing a different type of green. As of last November, it had raised $9 million of the $11 million necessary to complete an environmentally sustainable Visitor Education Center. Already under construction, the completed center will integrate indoor and outdoor spaces to illustrate the need for conservation-minded stewardship within habitats shared by people and plants.

“I think the building is getting lots of attention and will be a lot more noticed as it begins to take shape,” White says, noting that the design earned a N.C. Sustainability Award in 2004.

Fearrington Village
South of UNC's botanical nerve center, the yellow dahlias and bright nasturtiums of a quiet country inn's flower beds fortify a sensory escape with a brush-up on southeastern flora. Known by reputation for its Mobil Five Star restaurant and top-tier retail, hospitality and residential life, Pittsboro's Fearrington Village charms residents and guests alike with its historic British garden replications.

The garden settings that Fearrington Village developer R.B. Fitch and his wife, Jenny, visited on family trips to England inspired Jenny to plant Fearrington's first gardens around the Village Center during the early 1980s. Today, her legacy keeps eight full-time gardeners busy maintaining approximately 60 planting beds.

The rose-draped trellises that make Jenny's White Garden a fairytale wedding destination exemplify the expertly cultivated natural beauty at Fearrington Village. Often seen working in the Village Center gardens, head gardener Donna Mears and her team answer guests' horticultural inquiries and lead tours of Fearrington's gardens on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. In support of responsible cultivation, they use environmentally responsible garden techniques and materials, and propagate native plants in Fearrington's greenhouses, some of which provide a food source for wildlife.

“Our plant choices are mostly based on suitability to our climate, and we borrow freely from the flora of similar climates from around the world,” Mears explains.

Greg Fitch, vice president of the Fitch Creations Team at Fearrington, provides the resources, as-needed input, and, as he puts it, “a lot of creative license to go where they want to go.”

“The gardens have always had to look sharp year-round for the many different groups who visit the Village Green,” Fitch notes. “Whether you are a Fearrington resident in for a newspaper or an inn guest from Cary, the gardens set the mood here.”

Witherspoon Rose Culture
In a large public garden, some simply contemplate, while others work to cultivate a picturesque garden of their own. For the cultivators, Durham's Witherspoon Rose Culture provides on-site personal rose care to residential clients and small businesses.

Launched in 1951 by R.K. “Bob” Witherspoon, the rose culture service today cares for more than 74,000 rose bushes across North Carolina and in Danville, Va. From instructing clients on rosebush maintenance to handling the entire maintenance pre-cutting, Witherspoon customizes its services to a customer's desired level of involvement.

“Most of our customers like for us to do the dirty work,” notes David Pike, president. “They get a lot of exercise and enjoyment out of cutting and sharing their roses.”

Similar to the conservation mindset applied at public gardens, Witherspoon has adopted gardening techniques that are not harmful to surrounding plant life. Gardeners locate rosebushes where they will not compete with tree or shrub roots, plant with native soil, and use a low-pressure irrigation system. Respectful of the region's extreme drought, Witherspoon uses its own well and a retention pond for most of its water supply.

In 2002, a natural mutation of Witherspoon's pink-blooming Tiffany rose produced its first white bloom in the month Bob Witherspoon died. This mutation, or rose sport, never reverted back to its pink coloration, and the R.K. Witherspoon rose was born.

When a blooming rose bursts forth, its natural beauty rewards its gardener for learning to simulate how it might thrive on its own. Against a present-day collective conscience to treat the natural world kindly, a blooming rose's change of color might acknowledge that nature too has a little room to grow. WL

Laurie Bazemore is a Triangle-based freelance writer.