Raleigh is drawing up plans to reshape Nash Square, the 234-year-old downtown park that sits directly across from the city’s nearly finished 17-story municipal building. The redesign could bring wider paths, more seating, a lifted tree canopy, and new pedestrian crossings linking the square to the tower — and city officials are even asking whether the North Carolina Fallen Firefighters Memorial at the park’s center should be moved.
A New City Hall Reshapes the Conversation
The push to remake Nash Square is tied directly to the Raleigh municipal building rising across the street, which is projected to open in spring 2027 and is currently around 80% complete, according to the city website, as reported by The News & Observer. That tower, known as the East Civic Tower, is a 370,000-square-foot facility built to consolidate the city’s municipal workforce, backed by $221 million in bond financing approved by the North Carolina Local Government Commission in February. Raleigh City Council awarded the professional services contract for the Nash Square Public Realm Plan to landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand PLLC in December, with the firm leading a multidisciplinary team that includes subconsultants Toole Design and A Gang of Three, according to the City of Raleigh.
Raleigh has no cost estimates yet for the potential park updates, per the report. T.J. McCourt plans to return to the Raleigh City Council with an update early next year, the outlet notes.
Wider Paths, More Seating and an Opened-Up Center
Among the changes under discussion: new paths, pedestrian crossings and a wider central route through the square, along with an expanded circular central path and an enlarged plaza at its heart. The redesign would also open the park’s corners with new paths and add more seating across different parts of the square, along with additional shade, according to the same report. City parks director Mitchell Silver said the goal is to make the park feel more open and safe, and proposed lifting the lower parts of Nash Square’s tree canopy — noting that the low-hanging foliage currently obstructs visibility in the square. Under that proposal, canopy foliage could be transplanted higher off the ground while the city works to protect the historic oak and willow canopies that give the square its shade.
Reclaiming Street Space From Cars
Raleigh is also considering reclaiming vehicle parking spaces for pedestrians on streets adjacent to the square, a move that would narrow West Hargett Street and add tree-filled islands along it. Silver called the Hargett Street additions a great solution complementing the new City Hall, per the outlet’s report. The idea of returning street space to pedestrians has deep roots: over the 20th century, Nash Square’s original footprint shrank from nearly five acres to about four acres as city officials repeatedly cut into its edges to widen streets and add parking, according to The Raleigh Connoisseur. Reclaiming that street space along West Hargett and McDowell streets would help restore some of the park’s historic boundaries, the outlet notes.
The Firefighters Memorial’s Uncertain Future
At the center of the debate sits the North Carolina Fallen Firefighters Memorial, home to “Heroism & Sacrifice,” a bronze sculpture by Carl W. Regutti depicting four life-size firefighters responding to a building collapse, according to the North Carolina Fallen Firefighters Foundation. The memorial was dedicated in 2006 with 164 names of firefighters who died in the line of duty dating back to 1902, and the foundation has since reported that the site now needs physical expansion because the number of names requiring engraving has exceeded expectations, per a blog documenting the memorial’s history.
Silver said the memorial’s possible relocation should remain under consideration, and he has asked whether it could be moved as part of the redesign, according to The News & Observer’s reporting. The proposed changes may also include removing the low brick wall that currently surrounds the memorial. But Raleigh cannot decide the memorial’s future location on its own — McCourt said the North Carolina Fallen Firefighters Foundation would need to support any final recommendation before it moves forward.
Who Actually Owns the Square
That constraint traces back to who holds the deed. Nash Square is state-owned property managed by Raleigh, and official city bidding addendums make clear the foundation maintains the memorial while the city only manages the park grounds and public spaces, according to a filing on the North Carolina Vendor Portal. That split ownership means Raleigh cannot unilaterally decide the disposition of monuments or land uses within the square, a limit that has already shaped the park’s history — descendants of former News & Observer publisher Josephus Daniels voluntarily removed his eight-foot bronze statue from Nash Square in June 2020 over his documented role inciting the 1898 Wilmington race riot, according to INDY Week.
A Square Nearly as Old as the City Itself
Nash Square has existed for more than 200 years, established in 1792 as one of five original public squares in surveyor William Christmas’s plan for Raleigh, modeled on Philadelphia’s grid layout. Today only Nash Square and Moore Square remain as open public parks from that original 1792 plan, according to the Cultural Landscape Foundation. The park’s current diagonal path layout dates to 1940, when a Works Progress Administration project rebuilt the square and formally institutionalized its municipal maintenance…