Piedmont Triad

The Piedmont Triad, or Triad, is a north-central region of the U.S. state of North Carolina that consists of the area within and surrounding the three major cities of Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point. This close group or "triad" of cities lies in the Piedmont geographical region of the United States and forms the basis of the Greensboro—Winston-Salem—High Point CSA. The metropolitan area is connected by Interstates 40, 85, 73, & 74 and is served by the Piedmont Triad International Airport. Long known as one of the primary manufacturing and transportation hubs of the southeastern United States, the Triad is also an important educational and cultural region and occupies a prominent place in the history of the American Civil Rights Movement. The Triad is not to be confused with the "Triangle" region (Raleigh / Durham / Chapel Hill) directly to the east. As of 2008, the Piedmont Triad has an estimated population of 1,603,101 making it the 30th largest CSA metropolitan area in the United States.[1]

Contents

Counties

† Sometimes included as part of the region

Municipalities

The name indicated in italics is county in which city is located.

Primary cities

Secondary cities over 10,000 in population

Other municipalities under 10,000 in population

Education

Educational institutions

More than twenty institutions of higher education are located within the Triad, including:

Three prominent boarding schools also call the Triad home: Salem Academy, Oak Ridge Military Academy, and the American Hebrew Academy.

Museums

Major art and historical museums contribute to the cultural climate of the region, including the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), The Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Old Salem, High Point Historical Museum, Mendenhall Plantation, the Weatherspoon Museum of Modern Art (located on the campus of UNCG), Blandwood Mansion and Gardens, the Greensboro Historical Museum, Guilford Battleground National Military Park, and the Charlotte Hawkins Brown State Museum. The area also has its fair share of scientific museums, such as SciWorks, the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, the Wake Forest Museum of Anthropology, and the Natural Science Center of Greensboro. The North Carolina Zoo, the world's largest open-air natural habitat zoo, is located just outside of the Randoph County city of Asheboro.(Museums of the Triad)

Economy

Industry and manufacturing

The Triad area is notable for large textile, tobacco, and furniture corporations. The Triad remains a national center for textile manufacturing, represented by corporations including Hanes based in Winston-Salem, and International Textile Group, based in Greensboro. Tobacco remains a prominent crop in the Triad's rural areas and many tobacco companies like Lorillard Tobacco Company of Greensboro, and Reynolds American, based in Winston-Salem, call the Piedmont Triad home. Numerous furniture manufacturers are also headquartered in the Triad area, especially in the cities of High Point (deemed the "Furniture Capital of the World"), Thomasville (known as the "Chair City"), and Lexington. The furniture and textile industries have in turn spawned large trucking, logistics, and warehousing businesses in the area. Popular brands like "Thomasville" and "Lexington" are derived from the names of these cities. Recently, however, many furniture and tobacco factories have been closing and/or laying off workers across the region in response to escalating industrial globalization.

Technology and biotechnology

After many of the old industries in the area began to die out, many Piedmont Triad cities began encouraging technological businesses to move into the Triad. Winston-Salem, for instance, founded within its downtown the Piedmont Triad Research Park, a highly interactive, master-planned innovation community developed to support life science and information technology research and development. Dell, Inc. in the early 2000s struck a deal with local officials allowing for the construction of a new computer assembly plant near the Triad city of Kernersville. Additionally, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the largest institution of higher learning in the region, and North Carolina A&T State University have joined forces to establish the Gateway University Research Park, a technology-based entity which will focus its efforts on a host of biological, life, and environmental science research projects. Upon full build out of the project, it is expected to be housed by two 75-acre (300,000 m2) campuses, employ approximately 2,000 people, and generate $50 million dollars per year to the Triad economy. LabCorp, one of the largest clinical laboratories in the world, has its corporate headquarters and several of its testing facilities in Burlington.

Shopping

The following are the most prominent regional shopping centers/malls in the Piedmont Triad region:

Transportation

Primary highways

For more details on this topic, see North Carolina Highway System.

The triad is home to an extensive freeway network, which is in the process of undergoing a major expansion. Four major Interstate highways and numerous secondary Interstate routes and US routes serve the region:

Interstate highways
US highways

Mass transportation

Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation (PART) is the Triad's 10-county regional organization with the goal of enhancing all forms of transportation through regional cooperation. PART Express Bus provides express service to each major Triad city from Piedmont Triad International Airport, while Connections Express connects the Triad to Duke and UNC Medical Centers. PART also has Express Bus service to outlying counties that surround the Triad including Surry, Stokes, Davidson, Yadkin, and Randolph Counties and soon to be Davie County. PART is also administering and developing several rail service studies that include both commuter and intercity rail. For more information on PART visit PART's website

Government

Many western Piedmont Triad counties and municipalities belong to the Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments while many in the east belong to the Piedmont Triad Council of Governments.

Protected areas

The Piedmont Triad has several protected areas, which lay entirely or partly in the region:

Media

Newspapers

The following are prominent newspapers in the Piedmont Triad region and the counties each newspaper covers.

Television stations

All of the Piedmont Triad region belongs to the Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point television designated market area (DMA). The following are stations that broadcast to this DMA. These stations are listed by call letters, virtual channel number, network and city of license.

See also

References

  1. ^ Source: US Census Annual Estimate of Population Table CBSA-EST2007-02
Piedmont Triad
Location
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Higher education
Protected areas
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