Exploring Winston-Salem and the Piedmont Triad Region
Winston-Salem, NC
Piedmont Triad Region
Winston-Salem is in the heart of North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad region, which is home to more than 1.5 million people. It is situated halfway between Atlanta and Washington, D.C., less than 90 miles from the Charlotte metro area and the Raleigh/Durham metro area.
Business and industry
The Triad, and Winston-Salem in particular, is a hub for banking, finance, entrepreneurship, biotechnology, medical and high-tech enterprises, all of which build upon the area’s traditional industrial base.
Wake Forest actively supports downtown Winston-Salem’s Wake Forest Innovation Quarter, a magnet for area entrepreneurial, life science and information technology enterprises. Honda Aircraft located its world headquarters and production facility at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, while FedEx also established a major hub for its operations at PTI. The area also is the center of furniture manufacturing and sales, and is home to the annual High Point Furniture Market, the largest event of its kind in the world. Other major local employers include VF Corporation, Ingersoll-Rand, Hanesbrands, Reynolds American and Wake Forest University Medical Center.
Winston-Salem was recently named by Businessweek magazine as one of the top 20 cities in the nation for “The Best Places to Start Over”.
Quality of life
Winston-Salem is well known for its arts culture; the city is home to a professional symphony and an opera company, several museums and art galleries, and numerous theater groups. The city ranks among the nation’s leaders in per capita contributions to the arts, and is home to the highly regarded University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the biennial National Black Theatre Festival.
Recreation
Need a reason to get out and enjoy Winston-Salem’s year-round mild climate? You’ll find plenty of golf courses, camp sites, hiking trails and fishing spots, and the nearby mountains and foothills make it easy to pursue cycling, canoeing, kayaking and rafting. Winston-Salem is just four hours from North Carolina’s renowned beaches to the east and two hours from the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains to the west.
Sports
Sports fans can enjoy the excitement of Atlantic Coast Conference action or take a short trip to Charlotte or Raleigh for NBA, NFL or NHL games and NASCAR races. The surrounding Piedmont Triad also hosts many minor-league baseball teams and professional golf and tennis tournaments.
Accessibility
Thanks to its ideal geographic location in the Southeast and its suburb infrastructure, North Carolina enjoys extensive and efficient transportation service. North-south Interstates 77, 85 and 95 and east-west Interstate 40 criss-cross the state and place Charlotte within one day’s drive of 55 percent of the U.S. population.
Direct flights are available to Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro from most major U.S. metropolitan areas. The airport is only 30 minutes from campus. The city is located near the intersection of Interstates 40 and 85.