BLOC [83]

PROJECT DETAILS:

LOCATION: RALEIGH, NC

WHEN: 2018-2021

TYPE OF WORK: PROFESSIONAL

ROLE: DESIGNER

LANDSCAPE TEAM: CHARLES BRADLEY, RACHEL STEVENS

CLIENT: HERITAGE PROPERTIES

DESIGN PHASE: DD-CD-CA

CONSULTANT TEAM: GENSLER, MCADAMS

AWARDS: 2022 NC ASLA MERIT AWARD

PROJECT BRIEF

I was a designer for this large urban courtyard in the heart of downtown Raleigh. The design we delivered consists of an outdoor space that includes sculptural seating areas, a meandering corridor, and various planting pockets whose fluid forms are inspired by the site’s natural history as the headwater of a Rocky Branch Creek tributary. The construction was completed in February 2021.

MY ROLE ON THE PROJECT

My role on this project consisted of taking the previously established schematic design concept through design development and into construction documentation. This was my first deep dive into custom construction documentation. The schematic design featured various fluid-shaped hardscape elements, such as curbs, seatwalls and planter edges. Precast concrete was the chosen material for these flowing landscape elements and it was my responsibility to draft 2D construction details and model the site in Rhino 3D while taking into consideration the site’s topography as well as the joints and transitions between different materials.

Starting with a plan drawing and some generic precast seat wall section details, I modeled the proposed design. In Rhino 3D, I could easily construct an oblique 30’ long, 3’ wide 18” tall block with rounded edges, but, having chosen precast concrete as our construction material, that wasn’t how things were going to work for the builders.

THOUGHTS ON MATERIALS AND DESIGN

The whole thing about precast concrete is that it is “pre” cast, meaning the concrete is poured and solidified elsewhere, in a highly controlled environment (that makes it easier to achieve smooth, high-quality pieces of concrete in unusual geometries – what we were going for). The downside of precast is that you then must transport the concrete pieces to your site and install them there. Transporting and installing a large precast block is logistically challenging and expensive.

This meant that we needed to break down the precast elements into segments, or smaller precast pieces. This posed another financial challenge, because the more unique pieces we had, the more expensive the design was. Each unique precast piece needed a unique mold to form it. The more molds we needed, the more expensive our project was. If we could find ways to repeat precast pieces within the design, we could use the same mold more than once and the project would be less expensive.

However, the fluid SD design was highly irregular and the changing topography on site meant that even if in plan view the shapes were the same, they had different heights or were interfacing different materials that made it difficult to repeat the same piece. This taught me that designing with modular elements from the beginning would have been a great way of saving money, time, and effort further along in the design process. We tried to redesign our project to make it much more modular, but that posed a lot of new layout changes and challenges that would have a ripple effect throughout the design work we had already done. Besides, the client loved the way the SD layout looked and was willing to spend more on unique precast pieces. We decided to find another way to make the project cheaper.

Originally, we had envisioned the precast pieces as solid precast blocks, but during the value engineering process, we found that we could use precast concrete caps instead. Underneath the precast concrete caps, we’d have cast-in-place (CIP) concrete foundations which were significantly less expensive. We moved forward with this solution. To the right you can see the evolution of the precast concrete details before value engineering (as solid blocks) and into caps atop CIP concrete in the final version.

PAVING DESIGN

Another fun part of the design for Bloc 83 that I was involved in is the paving pattern. During schematic design a three-tone ombré pavement pattern evocative of a meandering riverbed was suggested. The challenge was determining what pavement material could be used to achieve this effect. We selected a hexagonal concrete unit paver that came in three different tones and developed a set of rules for a pavement pattern blend that achieved the desired outcome. The drawing above attempts to explain pattern and was included in the 100% CD set. However this pattern detail did not give the contractor enough information to know what to do on site, so the contractor submit an RFI (request for information) asking for clarification. During the construction administration phase I went back to the plan and clearly indicated the color of each paver in a detailed paving enlargement plan (drawings to the right). I applied the pattern rules I had set out, but ultimately made some changes, realizing that it was difficult to implement those pattern rules exactly with the irregular geometry of the site.

SKATER: FRIEND OR FOE?

This was a question posed by Eric Davis (Principal at Surface 678) during a lunchtime presentation. Landscape architects might be notorious for armoring their sites with skateboard deterrents. Perhaps you have noticed them in urban plazas.

Smooth, concrete, especially at curb and seatwall height is a very attractive surface for skating, (or so I’ve heard - I’m not a skater myself). A smooth concrete finish is often desired by the client, the designer, and the skater. The client and the designer might like the smoothness because they consider it aesthetically appealing. The skater might also find the site aesthetically appealing but is mainly interested in sweet skating surfaces. The client usually doesn’t want their property to become a skate hub. The designer is trying to meet the client’s needs, which means that the skaters and the designers are at odds.

Because I’m a landscape architect, I designed custom skateboard deterrents for this project. I enjoyed drawing those custom details. Instead of having protruding deterrents our project has sunken deterrents in the form of voids along the edges of the precast concrete and wood seat tops. Getting to a level of detail where I was thinking about alignments between the deterrents (spaced every 3’) with the precast concrete joints (spaced every 6’) and the depth of the void (the height of the wooden seat top) was very satisfying.

After visiting the site on a Saturday in March, I went for lunch at the nearby Morgan Street Food Hall. There, a couple fourteen-year-old skaters asked to join me at my picnic table. I explained that I might be their nemesis because I was a landscape architect who designed skateboard deterrents. They told me not to worry, they had a solution for smoothing over the deterrents in our design, as long as no security guards stopped them.