As my flight made its final approach to Charlotte’s Douglas International Airport, I could see several shimmering glass and chrome skyscrapers poking out of an undulating green canopy of trees. The city looked like a mirage, a shining, metallic Oz bathed in the green aura of the surrounding countryside.

The gleaming structures — the 60-story Cesar Pelli-designed Bank of America Corporate Center, the 48-story Duke Energy Center, the 47-story Hearst Tower (another Bank of America building), the 42-story One Wells Fargo Center and the 40-story Bank of America Plaza building — tell just a part of Charlotte’s revitalization tale.

Over the past 35 years, Charlotte remade itself from a quiet, run-of-the-mill Southern textiles town into a major banking and insurance center, the country’s second-largest financial services hub after New York City. Yet through astute urban planning or serendipity, or both, as the city became infused with well-paid finance professionals and sophisticated banking offices, it still managed to capture its Southern soul and maintain its laid-back, small-town ambience.

These days, a fresh-food public market thrives on East 7th Street; new museums and cafés line South Tryon Street; and a snazzy light rail line is turning former derelict blocks into streetscapes filled with mini-parks, bike trails and pop-up musical events. Uptown streets are lined with crepe myrtle, ginkgo and Yoshino cherry trees. Fountains throw spray on colorful flowerbeds, and office workers taking leisurely lunchtime breaks read paperbacks on shaded benches. The city exudes a quiet, mid-19th-century Carolina charm that seems at odds with the hulking glass spires above it. And the former brick textile mills? Many of these iconic structures have been converted into attractive residential lofts, art galleries and restaurants, as in the eclectic NoDa District, or into warehouses and office space in dozens of neighborhoods.

“Charlotte’s development exemplifies what a wonderful, modern city this is,” said Cheryl Myers, senior vice president, planning and development, for Charlotte Center City Partners. “The city has great architecture, and we have terrific new museums and theaters, and the Uptown and South End districts have become a very desirable place to live.”

The housing crisis and national bank failures cost this finance-oriented city almost 16,000 jobs in 2008 alone and sent it reeling, unsure if recovery was even possible. But there is no doubt that in the gentrified neighborhoods of South End, Ballantyne, Dilworth, NoDa, South Park, the historic Fourth Ward and the new office parks outside the beltline, one can see just how far Charlotte progressed from the horrendous economic abyss.

With a diversity of firms relocating to Charlotte and its suburbs every month, and cold-weather-state retirees seeking better lifestyle opportunities under the warm Carolina sun, the Charlotte Metroplex remains one of the “hot” regions in the nation in terms of economic growth. From 2000 to 2010, no American metro area with a million or more residents grew faster than Charlotte. With its financial services firms creating thousands of jobs, and existing industries thriving with the help of the region’s low energy costs and pro-business culture, the Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord metro area recently ranked 10th on Bloomberg’s list of U.S. “boomtowns.”

More than half of the Fortune 500 firms maintain a presence here, including the headquarters of Bank of America, Lowe’s, Nucor, Duke Energy, Family Dollar, Sonic Automotive, Domtar and SPX. Electrolux consolidated its North American headquarters in Charlotte in 2011, and Chiquita Brands relocated here last year.

Charlotte’s corporate neighbors play big roles in supporting the city’s sports and cultural venues and educational and outdoor programming. Bank of America Stadium is the home field for Carolina Panthers NFL football games, and Time Warner Cable Arena is where the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats play. Wells Fargo is the largest corporate underwriter of arts programming in the city, supporting Opera Carolina, North Carolina Dance Theatre, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, the Mint Museum, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture.

Duke Energy sponsors the 2013–14 season of the Blumenthal Performing Arts “Broadway Lights” series and other community projects, while Branch Banking & Trust, a North Carolina financial company since 1872, is naming rights sponsor for the Charlotte Knights’ BB&T Ballpark, a 10,000-seat minor league baseball stadium expected to open for the 2014 season.

While new residential communities, shopping centers and office parks fill up the space outside Charlotte where farms once stood, the city is going vertical as private developers construct mixed-use towers to increase residential, office and commercial space in center city. More than 7,100 new residential units opened in Uptown in 2012, and more than 15,000 new residents now enjoy the easily accessible restaurants, sports and cultural venues. In the rapidly growing South End, nine residential projects under construction will increase that neighborhood’s population more than 60 percent to 5,000 by the end of 2013.

With the local economy expanding, money is flowing into transportation infrastructure. The city’s first light rail opened in 2007; new funding is expanding the popular LYNX Blue Line from center city to the UNC-Charlotte campus, with additional stations and commercial activity increasing property values along the new route.

In a city drenched in corporate brand names, business travelers will find almost 40 major meeting venues, ranging from the various Marriott, Omni, Hilton, Hyatt and Westin properties to the sprawling Ballantyne Hotel and Lodge and the ultra-deluxe Ritz-Carlton.

NASCAR Hall of Fame Museum © Redwood8 | Dreamstime.com

The Charlotte Convention Center, with more than 126,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, 280,000 square feet of exhibit space and a ballroom that adjoins the NASCAR Hall of Fame via an over-street walkway, is the largest meeting venue in the region. Numerous cultural institutions also offer private function space, including the Mint Museum, one block from the Convention Center, and the Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture.

SCENIC DRIVES

For a full-day excursion, take Interstate 77 North to Exit 73 (60 miles; 75 minutes) to visit several of the 25 to 30 wineries in North Carolina’s Yadkin Valley region. After exiting, watch for purple and green grape cluster signs to nearby vineyards. The local roads meander along rolling farmland with great views of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and there are many opportunities to stop for wine tastings.

Closer to Charlotte is Crowders Mountain State Park, via Interstate 85 West to Exit 10 (35 miles; 40 minutes). Using Crowders Mountain Drive, the park is part of the Kings Mountain range; its highest point, Pinnacle Peak, marks the northern end of the range, which extends into South Carolina. You wouldn’t think such a wild-looking environment could exist so close to Charlotte’s urban towers, but the easily accessible eight-mile route through the park offers amazing scenic vistas as well as hiking and rock climbing.

For another great drive, follow North Carolina Highway 24 East to the small town of Badin (47 miles, 60 minutes), a starting point for exploring the Pee Dee River Valley. Badin, noted for its unusual French-inspired townhouses, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and from there a series of local roads parallels the river and leads to nearby Morrow Mountain State Park and Uwharrie National Forest.