Views across Moore Square from the northeast
It has certainly been quite a few years in the making but while the movement may be slow, it’s always forward on this project. The design around a new Moore Square should be at around 40% in March of this year with construction starting this summer.
In December of 2015, the 15% schematic design was presented to council and approval was given to start permitting and getting construction documents made. Screenshots in this post are from that 15% design with the full document available on the city’s website.
Views across Moore Square to the northeast
For those that are not aware, Moore Square falls into the State’s territory so they need to give the nod before Raleigh goes ahead with their plans. All seems positive as earlier this year the North Carolina Council of State approved a partnership with the city.
As part of Governor Pat McCrory’s “Project Phoenix” initiative, the North Carolina Council of State has approved a partnership with the City of Raleigh to improve Moore Square in downtown Raleigh. While the State of North Carolina owns the property, the City of Raleigh is responsible for its upkeep. In recent years, the park has been in need of improvements, and today’s vote will start the process for that to happen.
*Improvements to Raleigh’s Moore Square Approved as Part of Governor McCrory’s Project Phoenix Initiative
We should also see strong commitment from our council on getting this project done as it was a major work item from their latest retreat.
Current plan. Click for larger.
Even with much discussion, discussion against in my opinion, the presence of the kiosk and restrooms are still shown here in the square designs. (which this blogger supports) The location has changed slightly and the new building incorporates both amenities in a smaller footprint versus the former plan.
Expect the new Moore Square to open in Summer/Fall 2017. Will Moore Square continue to house the giant acorn? That is yet to be determined.
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- Moore Square Redesign Public Workshop Tomorrow | January 5, 2013
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- Municipography, Outdoor Seating, Wilmington Street Hotel, Moore Square, and Stone’s Warehouse | December 18, 2023
Comments
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While I am all for modernizing the park it is still State property and a State of NC Parkland. NO City tax money should be spent to remodel it!
I too have heard complaints about “unsavory elements” benefiting from the new additions of bathrooms to the park. It puzzled me at first. From the rendering it is now clear what those people meant; these upgrades are going to lead to a huge spike in downtown’s ghost population! All those translucent figures gliding through the park on their way from beyond the grave to urinate will give the taxpayers a real spook at night. I’m starting to rethink my support of it and I hope you will too, Leo.
When will the public start to freak out about the possibility of transgender people using those toilets? That’s the next step, isn’t it?
I was unaware that those parks were state property. If that’s true, we should probably be worried about the state selling the land off to developers. When do we suppose that the GA will start manipulating the city into paying huge sums of money for them to keep that from happening?
what does transgender have to do with anything? A) charlotte passed some local law that apparently allows for transgender usage and B) last i checked charlotte is not the state capital (despite their insecure delusions otherwise) and anything they pass has no impact on anything to do with Raleigh.
This said the homeless and beggars are a problem currently and if they are not managed properly, could very well be a problem in Moore square again. This said, its clear the City is being very deliberate in what they are doing to minimize the negative impact they have had on Moore square for years 1)Food kitchen & salvation army have been moved. 2) Raleigh Rescue Mission will be moved and the entire east block will be redeveloped and 3) finally the Central bus station is being completely redone to clean that up as well…
I think John was making a comment on the overreach of the State (General Assembly) in local matters, such as that of a Charlotte local ordinance. (Small government my ass…) It does relate to the idea that the State owns Moore Square and could decide to mess up Raleigh’s plans like they did for Dix Park. But they do seem to be on board with the changes, or at least McCrory is.
But you are right, the homeless/panhandlers are the biggest obstacle to the park being made nicer, but there isn’t a PC way to just get rid of them all. And I’m not saying we should push them out of sight, but obviously if a decade of effort culminates in an overhaul of the square, some thought needs to be put into that aspect. Moving the food kitchen, salvation army, and mission out of the middle of downtown will help. Hopefully the GoRaleigh Station project will have a positive impact as well.
This redesign will remove all the gorgeous old Japanese maples, and the beautiful iron light posts. The consultants have concluded that Japanese maples attract winos, and iron light posts intimidate families from enjoying the park.
I’m happy that this project is moving forward. Moore Square is one of my favorite parts of Downtown. I hope that continues to develop into an anchor for Downtown AND the neighborhoods going East.
@Jeff and Uncle Jesse.
Yes. I was poking at the state government based on their recent related activity around the issue of public bathrooms and Raleigh’s parks. I am just taking them to task and to and to extreme conclusions if the worst were to be realized. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t put it past the G.A. to actually take us there.
As for the homeless, please remember that these are people that obviously need help and assistance of some sort or another. I am not assigning blame or responsibility for their situation, only that something needs to be done. Pushing aside problems won’t fix anything.
Just a thought, but, the reason the soup kitchen and the shelter are in downtown is because the homeless people are in downtown. Moving them too far elsewhere would be severely hurting the homeless. If they can’t get to the shelter/kitchen, they can’t get the help they provide. I am happy, however, to see the area being fixed up. It’s important to remember though that we can’t just fix things up and expect the homeless people to disappear. We need to do more to help them. As for panhandlers, a lot of time fraud is involved and that probably should be cracked down on. I don’t see what the restrooms have to do with anything. Quite frankly most parks only have one room restrooms meaning it wouldn’t matter who uses what restroom. Now, I’m not sure about this project which could have more than one stall in each restroom. Either way the problem is not with transgender individuals themselves. It never has been. The concern is that non-transgender offenders could attempt to abuse the law for their advantage.
You think a law against using the wrong bathroom is going to stop a sex offender? That’s a ridiculous argument.
@Jeff… good point! Fact is this law will allow individuals to be discriminated against… making it legal to do so. That is the real crime!
That law is based on either ignorance or arrogance.. and has nothing to do with protecting potential victims… but it helps create potential victims in the lgbt community!
@Marc, if the law was never really about trans people and the LGBT community in general, how come the response from the GA and the governor was to completely exclude and prevent the entire broader LGBT community from obtaining any discrimination protection by state law?
I would say that the the impetus of the law was about potential abuse of the Charlotte law but the intended victims of the law were the LGBT community all along. It just wasn’t politically palatable to attack the LGBT community directly and doing so would subject the law to more federal scrutiny. This was a golden opportunity that our 1950s thinking government was waiting for.