Chief among them: by creating a public square rather than a straight-through street, the plaza would have hindered automobile traffic and would have interrupted sight lines in the capitol.

The Raleigh plan called for 30-foot high lights and water features. Spanish-born Plensa is no stranger to water, having created the acclaimed Crown Fountain in Chicago.

Plensa's biography at Chicago's Millenium Park web site notes that the artist, who currently splits time between Barcelona and Paris, is best known for "numerous outdoor projects and commissions for public spaces" in cities throughout Europe and Asia. His other American projects include six translucent, illuminated statues in a renovated plaza in downtown Jacksonville, Fla., and work in Washington, D.C.

Skanska USA, the general contractor for the DPAC itself, is listed as the general contractor on this project, whose owner is the City of Durham. Bryant Durham Electrical, ABL & Associates Plumbing, and Baker Mechanical are key subcontractors on the permit.

The initial filing was disapproved by plumbing on what we would assume are technical grounds. No word yet on the design itself or what's planned for the installation, or just how ambitious this project might be in comparison with the defunct Raleigh plans.

The construction cost listed is relatively small, at $107,996 -- but with "concrete and excavation" comprising almost half of the cost, and with the term "vault" in the name, one must wonder if something subterranean is at play here.

Nothing in the building permit confirms whether Goodmon has his stamp on this or not, though given the Raleigh media exec's ties to the artist (Goodmon recently donated three Plensa statues to the renovated N.C. Museum of Art in the state capitol) it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility.