Builders play the name game

West - 222 Glenwood - Hue - The Dawson on Morgan - Edison - The Lofts at Glenwood South - RBC Plaza - Hudson - Bloomsbury Estates - The Paramount - Quorum Center - Boylan Flats - Palladium Plaza

RALEIGH -- Employees of Ulanguzi Creative Strategies huddled around a glass conference table one evening last year, trying to come up with a name for a planned downtown condominium project. Fueled by pizza and coffee, they spent hours scrawling hundreds of ideas on white boards.

There were fancy names: Astor Tower, The Luxe, The Brone.

There were lower-case names: one, spot, level, modan.

There were even lower-case-umlaut names: domo, moLo, mod raleigh.

Nothing fit.

Months later, Ulanguzi's client, developer Gregg Sandreuter, visited the construction site at the corner of West and North streets.

His eyes wandered to the street signs. And without pizza, coffee or dry-erase markers, proclaimed the name: "West on North."

"When you talk about naming a building," he said, "keep it simple."

The number of condos in Raleigh's core is expected to double within two years and could quadruple within four. And as competition grows, developers are doing everything possible to make their projects stand out. For many, that includes just the right name.

So developers, who used to name the structures they brought to life, are increasingly turning to marketers to brand their babies.

Take Trammell Crow Residential. The company had no problem naming 222 Glenwood, a condo project named for its address on the bustling entertainment strip.

But when it came to a project across from City Hall, identity became more of an issue.

The developer couldn't rely on its Dawson Street address, because it was already synonymous with a successful condo project next door, The Dawson on Morgan.

Trammell Crow adopted a working title, The Nash, because of its location catty-corner to Nash Square. But that was too ... blah.

So the company turned to The King Partnership last fall.

Within days, King employees generated 65 potential names. They drew inspiration from projects in Australia, London, New York, San Francisco, even Hoboken, N.J. And they looked to Raleigh's history.

"It became this gigantic pool of creativity," art director Christy Bauerlein said.

Finally, the list was whittled to one three-letter word: Hue. It encapsulated the project's design, which includes prominent blue and yellow exterior features.

"The architect really envisioned something that would hit the demographic in the eye and be opposite of ministry-of-housing gray," said Steve Ulin, King's creative director. "... Every prospect for that condo, they see themselves as different. They're young and upcoming; they're the young turks."

And "Hue" was easier to type into a cell phone, said Jenny Martin, King's business development director. "How hard is it to text 'The Dawson on Morgan'?" she asked. "BFF. Hue. You do the math."

But would it fly? To find out, King gathered two groups -- one of downtown condo owners, one of potential buyers -- and sat them around an oak table in a North Raleigh conference room.

A moderator asked them how they felt about colors, textures, fixtures and, of course, the name.

Trammell Crow directors watched from behind a two-way mirror and took notes.

Two months later, Trammell Crow introduced Hue. The branding process took about half a year.

Building name evolves

"It becomes a huge exercise," said David Ravin, a vice president at Crosland, which is planning apartments at Boylan Avenue and Tucker Street, blocks west of Glenwood Avenue.

At first, Crosland decided to go simple, naming the project after its address, 712 Tucker. Upon further review, and some consulting, it is leaning toward "The Lofts at Glenwood South."