Christopher Counts wins Moore Square Design Competition

Above: One of Christopher Counts’ Renderings

Back in April the city announced the Moore Square Design competition.  The competition was an opportunity for the public to get involved in the future of the square- a public that had many opinions about what that future should be. The juried competition had 79 applicants from all over the Southeast and the country. The competition was heavy and local firms showed up in a big way taking 2nd place and most of the honorable mentions.  In the end though it was Christopher Counts Studio of Charlottesville Virginia who took the first place award.

At New Raleigh, we have had a lot of conversation about Moore Square.  Writers had criticism that the block was already the city's living room, that we are trying to revitalize what is already very much alive, and very real fears of more needless gentrification.

The winner, Chris Counts, presents a design that looks at the tradition of Moore Square and then adds some novel features to the park. Counts’ entry had many of the same elements that were in other entries, rain gardens, playgrounds and a major effort to protect the existing oak perimeter. Those elements are essential in this project, as the natural elements of the park are by far the most valuable and hardest to replace.  Surrounded by restaurants and retail already, Mr Counts’ team placed a cafe in the northeastern corner of the park. That particular element seems symptomatic of a team unfamiliar with the surrounding retail climate of downtown Raleigh and the businesses around the park.  But Counts’ team also included ‘adventure playground’ and identified each of the heritage oaks in the park.  The comprehensive vision and novel features seems to have won the judges over. 

Some designs had elements that seemed contrary to the very goals of the park redesign.  Many proposals decreased the existing green space by significant amounts- bringing the sidewalk into the park as patio. Some took the hardscape to the next level, effectively paving 30% of the park.  The third place design went so far as to promote a thick promenade on the north to south axis through the middle of the park.  Another frequent pattern in the renderings: Images of the white public frolicking and drinking espresso around the perimeter are consistent across many of the designs as if to justify many of the original fears of a gentrified white washing of the area. The Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s brilliant retail report underscored how the bus station is critical in providing a steady stream of customers to downtown’s most successful retail establishments- the black owned businesses. Those businesses and their patrons make up a huge portion of the people who use Moore Square and can be seen around it. The disconnect with what the park is now and what the designer intends it to become is painfully obvious in these designs.

Still other designs proposed massive structures that would dominate the park. As one of our few green spaces in the downtown, these structures border on architectural egoism. 

Unrecognized Entry

Roger Lynn Spears of Szostak Design, Inc.

The green focused designs were favorites of New Raleigh.  Designs that preserved the existing trees and added more,  that promoted this area as a premier green space, that showcased the trees as the green gems that they are in the downtown. 

1st Prize
Chris Counts, Principal, Chris Counts Studio of Charlottesville, Va.
Team: Jenny Mikulski, Mike Smith

2nd Prize
Larry Zucchino, ASLA, JDavis Architects of Raleigh
Team: Marty Linn, ASLA, David Brown, ASLA, Sawako Bush, and Ponsak Denpattanapitak

3rd Prize
Tom Lee, Stephen Stimson Associates, Landscape Architects, Falmouth, Mass.

Honorable Mention
Samuel Reynolds, President and owner of Reynolds Jewell, of Raleigh
Team: Justin L. Montgomery, Charles d. Bradley, Phillip A. Tripp

Vincent Petrarcha, partner of Tonic Design, of Raleigh
Mike Cindric, Design Dimension
David Swanson, ASLA, Swanson & Associates
David Hill, AIA, NCSU

Eric Davis, Principal, Lappas & Havener, of Durham
Team:  Ed Dwight, Sculptor Studio
Walt Havener, Jesse Turner, Robert Pratt,  Lappas & Havener
Erin Sterling, Matthew Griffith, and Will Lambert, Frank Harmon Architect

Roger Lynn Spears, Senior Design Architect, Szostak Design, Inc., of Chapel Hill

Davin Hong, Senior Design Architect, KlingStubbins, of Raleigh.
Team: Paul Siricharoenwong, Eric Mitchell, Nick Hammer, Kristen Hawk

If any of the above labels are incorrect for honorable mentions, please email editors@newraleigh.com to let us know.  The city did not release winner names in conjunction with renderings.

The city has invited the public to comment. Send an email to designmooresquare@ci.raleigh.nc.us.

City of Raleigh's Flickr page showing sketches from open meetings

Flickr page showing all entries into the competition

 

 

• DaveB
  10/30 10:10 AM
  

  Yes, the homeless people are going to be so happy to have a new place to sit around in all day!

• T-Plain
  10/30 10:28 AM
  

  So after all this, we pick a design that barely changes the park. That should be a clue.

• smitty
  10/30 11:32 AM
  

  Ain’t broke? Don’t ‘fix’ it.

• KarlP
  10/30 02:14 PM
  

  Moore Square is a chronic under-achiever, and the winning design does not seem destined to improve it much.  Far from being the city’s living room, the Square often seems more of a broom closet: cluttered, dusty and uninviting.  Just blocks away, City Plaza managed to push the envelope.  Back at the Square, Moore of the same doesn’t cut it.

• joe
  10/30 02:29 PM
  

  Please tell me there is a component to get rid of the entire East Block with the salvation army, food kitchen, etc.

  move those and watch the current park ‘clean up’ all by itself.  we wouldn’t need to redesign a park that will just get ruined with makeshift plastic beds, liquor bottles, and cigarette butts all over the ground.

• Michael
  10/30 04:10 PM
  

  It’s difficult to connect the captions with the figures because of the spacing, but I think the second prize entry is superior to the convoluted mess that won.

• Brian
  10/30 06:32 PM
  

  In agreement with most so far. Something has to be done about the homeless, in a socially-conscious and humane way, this is the main problem. The approved changes seem so superficial. I certainly hope my cynicism is proven wrong and it is a successful makeover. Maybe then it would help out the City Market.

• CJT
  10/30 06:54 PM
  

  The 1st place concept does everything but meet the most fundamental needs of a redesign.

• coalwagon
  10/30 08:18 PM
  

  i head out to Moore Square with folks from the Brooks Ave church of christ to bring food on wednesday nights. most of the men who stay or at least congregate there have proven to be more approachable, conversational and simply rational than those I’ve encountered scattered around the city or staying at the s. wilmington st shelter. of course I’m generalizing, and that’s just a personal observation, but I feel it’s worth mentioning simply because in conversations such as these, the homeless are often treated as a unit which can be picked up and placed elsewhere to make way for the city’s endeavors. it’s easy to forget that while there are plenty of irrational men (and women) in the mix, there are also lots of men who can hardly believe that they are sleeping outside, and had work until recently. they, too, are part of the city just as we are, are the individual variances must be considered. Raleigh will be making more trouble for itself by displacing people with few other places to go.

• JRD
  10/31 02:48 AM
  

  Nothing is wrong with Moore Square except for the fact that it is “the city’s living room”.  If they had all those events at Nash square, it would look the same way.  Moore and Nash square have classic city park layouts and thats what I like about them.  There’s nothing wrong with them the way they are.  Thats not to say they cant be improved.  I think this design sucks.  If any design were to be chosen it should be the one that got second prize.  There is nothing special about this design.  I think the next competition should be what to replace that horrible firefighter memorial with in the middle of Nash square.  This will be the second time the city has dropped the ball with these two parks.  IMO

• TSnow27604
  10/31 10:34 AM
  

  Moore Square is not a park nor is it a nature preserve.  It is a public space meant to be used by the citizens of Raleigh that current is a mess in my opinion.  Criss-crossing paths with no destinations, a mish-mash of trees, and an eroded slope.  Sometimes we trample it with concerts but honestly, most of the time it sits empty with an occasional person on a bench or a passerby.  And I would argue that Nash Square is even worse when it comes to fulfilling it’s intended purpose.  Believe me, I am as anti-sprawl as the next person (and more-so than most) and very much appreciate greenspaces but these 2 locations need to be intelligently redesigned so they can become inviting, enjoyable public meeting places.  And while we’re at it, “Caswell Square” is covered and surrounded by buildings and the Governor’s Mansion sits on “Burke Square” but the block beside the mansion is empty.  Why not work a deal to have the state sell the block surrounded by Jones, Edenton, Person, and Blount to the city so we can at least create the 3rd of our 4 intended squares?  I’ll offer up the use of my home county’s name and suggest “Guilford Square.”

• JRD
  10/31 01:11 PM
  

  TSnow27604,

  How dare you suggest more green space for a block that is so obviously perfect for Raleigh’s next great parking deck.  Unbelievable.

• Bradley
  10/31 04:47 PM
  

  People need to learn to walk!!! We have enough parking decks to fill Miami! Let’s build a trainsit system for the whole triangle and give people incentives on their taxes to use it

• Jim
  10/31 04:49 PM
  

  Lappas & Havener’s design looks tight.  Look at how it accommodates surrounding uses, but is flexible in adapting to future use.  PS, this is landscape architecture, not architecture (and note F. Harmon is on the L&H team).

• CJT
  10/31 05:41 PM
  

  Jim,

  If you really examine the needs of the project objectively it does not require a great deal of landscape modification.  And why not?  Simply because this is a historic landscape and one cannot seek to preserve that landscape with elements that mask its historic features. So although at first glance one might say this is a strict landscape architecture project, it really involves a more diverse approach.  Developing a plan that defines itself as a singular new installation that also preserves and further compliments historic elements is the only rational solution.

• JRD
  11/01 03:08 AM
  

  CJT,
  WTF?  If you could translate all that into English that’d great.

  Bradley,
  The whole parking deck think was a total joke, sorry, its difficult to convey sarcasm through written words alone.

  Raleigh,
  I hope funding for this project will dry up and this design will be forgotten, at least for enough time to find a design that everyone can agree on.

  “City leaders”,
  Why dont you let the people of this city vote on the design they like best.  It seems clear that the winner is not the favorite.

• CJT
  11/01 08:41 AM
  

  JRD,

  What I meant to say:  You can’t preserve the existing topography, pathways, and established trees by significantly modifying the landscape.  And with that, anything new you install at one period in time should all go together.  For example, if you build a stage and a pavilion they should match and look contemporary.  That way a park visitor can see the difference between the preserved elements and new ones.  Furthermore anything new should also be complimentary to the historic elements.  So in Moore Square’s case, a new pavilion or stage could have details that cue off music or commerce.  Then your new elements are not only differentiated from the historic ones they also compliment them.
  ___

  The preservation part is more subjective, but in this case it makes sense to preserve the existing pathways with new materials and use them as part of a cohesive whole-park plan.  Some of the most interesting submissions require the demolition of all those pathways which is not to say they’re bad, but it seems sad.  (And it violates the Secretary of the Interior’s standards and will likely not be approved by the NC State Historic Preservation Office).  There are some discarded submissions that don’t destroy the paths and are still exciting.
  _____________

  I totally agree with your comments to the city leaders, you should pass that along to the through the public response email address.

• arthurb3
  11/10 10:19 AM
  

  By far the best design, although, I do like the second one, as well. They both hold true to the original design

• CJT
  11/10 11:15 AM
  

  > zero cohesion
  > most physical historical elements are destroyed
  > adds hardscapes that serve no functional purpose
  > children’s play areas abut City Market, this is a mature district
  > designated stage location is surrounded by same grass that doesn’t hold up
  > no permanent stage (why do anything if not adding a permanent stage?)
  > offers no aesthetic elements that draw pedestrians or motorists
  > significant topographical modification that totally blocks through-park site lines
  ________________
  The project calls for significant site modification with very little value added.  It does not address maintenance issues, adds no cohesive functional/aesthetic theme, does not seek to accommodate performances, significantly modifies the historic landscape and its historically significant features (directly violating Secretary of Interiors standards for treatment of historic landscapes), has absolutely no conversation with the park’s historic and current uses, and has no relevance to Raleigh’s intrinsic values.
  ________________
  The City Government wants something World class and even cited Millennium Park in Chicago as an exemplary public space.  Is this design comparable, in any way, to Millennium Park?  Obviously, Millennium Park is 6 times larger and features far less greenway than Moore Square.  However Millennium Park’s variety of installation, interactivity, and thematic fortitude are fundamentals not only adaptable to Moore Square, but seem a perfect fit for its uses and historic facets.
  ________________
  This is an interesting and creative design, but it’s completely wrong for this project.  Why would be spend a dime on this?

• JRD
  11/11 04:40 AM
  

  CJT,
  Right on.  I think the majority of raleigh will agree.  It should be voted upon as I suggested.

• Spatula
  12/04 12:03 AM
  

  Agreeing with David about that Roger Lynn Spears entry. That looks significantly better than what we’re getting. The winning design has too much fluff. Lots of trees with a great big open lawn in the middle sounds just right.

  There were a couple interesting entries that proposed a large art piece - a spire, a cube, or one particularly outlandish sculpture. I liked all of those. They might be more appropriate for other areas around the city - possibly a renovation of the mall at the state government complex.

• Holy
  12/31 06:39 AM
  

  Oh wow that was really lovely, i actually loved reading it, thanks for sharing it with us. Great work, thanks fro sharing it with us.

  r4i

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