Talking with the Designers of Raleigh’s Gipson Play Plaza

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Good morning, readers.

Gipson Play Plaza in Dix Park was designed and built over a period of several years, with the help of hundreds of collaborators and members of the public who gave their input. The result is a 20-acre combination play area and civic space that’s totally unique to Raleigh, with elements inspired by local history and nature. After much anticipation, it’s set to open to the public next month.

Curious to learn more about how the plaza’s designers made it all happen, I called two of them up. Matthew Urbanski and Hillary Archer of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, a Brooklyn-based landscape architecture firm, filled me in on some of their inspirations (and sent some great images from the design process).

Here’s an excerpt of our conversation.

INDY: Tell me about some of your favorite elements of the play plaza.

Urbanski: … We always love to ask people, ‘What are your inspirational areas in the region?’ We were directed to go west and look at the rocks and the waterfalls. We were directed towards the east and all of the beautiful plants there. And we were directed to go look at the Yates Mill, a neat historic element right down the road, and all of these things started to become a mashup in our minds about what we could do. Instead of having your typical fountain in the middle, we would do a waterfall inspired by nature, and also by Yates Mill … And that feature gives you a clue, as you come in from Lake Wheeler Road or the parking lot, that there’s something beyond. 

Archer: The site was super flat [in the beginning]. These were old ball fields where historically there were softball games between the patients of the hospital and the public. 

Urbanski: But it was a play area!

Archer: Exactly. It was a recreation area, and we kept that spirit alive.

Click below to keep reading, and have a good Tuesday. 

 —Chloe

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