Raleigh City Council members reviewed three possible playground designs for Moore Square at a retreat on September 19, with a net-like, wavy structure called Ground Discovery drawing the most support. The proposed play area would replace the large community tables currently sitting in the square’s southwest corner, next to South Blount Street, and could cost up to $1.8 million depending on which design moves forward.
The push to reimagine that corner of the park comes as city leaders look for ways to draw more families downtown. According to the News & Observer, city staffer Stephen Bentley told council members the community tables currently in that spot are not being used as intended, and that people have instead been using them to store belongings. All three design options would sit atop a pour-in-place rubberized surface meant to ease maintenance and improve accessibility, and the location was chosen partly because it has less impact on underground utilities, which helps keep costs down.
Three Designs, Three Different Price Tags
Ground Discovery, the option that seemed to win over the most council members, is described as a net-like wavy structure for children that fits beneath the park’s existing tree canopy, with an estimated cost of $1.5 million to $1.8 million. Council member Jonathan Lambert-Melton said the design seemed safest for users while also preserving the tree canopy, the outlet’s report notes.
The second option, Canopy Tower, would be a 20-foot tower children could climb inside, pitched as a vertical landmark that would create a visual connection between Moore Square and the nearby Marbles Kids Museum. It’s also the cheapest of the three at an estimated $800,000 to $1 million. But council members raised concerns that it offers fewer play spaces and includes concealed areas where loitering or other unintended uses could occur, per the same report…