Last night about 50 people were invited to a brainstorming session to create a vision for the City Square. The site where Jaume Plensa proposed a square last year is now a blank canvas for all of us to create what we want. The only rules are that the street must not be obstructed (for 40′ across) and the street must be flush with the street itself to allow for large events.
The event was sponsored by the Urban Design Center and Designbox. Using a similar format to that used at Sparkcon, tables of eight people a piece each tackled an assigned topic. One table had technology, one had the square as a 
symbol of the city, one had programs, etc. Our table tossed around ideas for water. We started by writing three memorable thoughts/feelings from our experiences with great water projects. These ideas were grouped together to form 5 main themes: A river runs through it, splish splash, chill out, Surpise!, and Nectar of Gaia.
We then arranged some ideas which incorporate each of these themes and came up with a couple of interesting ideas. It begins when Mother Earth erupts with her nectar from the Wilmington Street sidewalk between the BOA and Progress I buildings. The blob of water will leap out of the ground on to a plate mounted on a pole. Once it lands, water is shot out of that plate to another nearby, higher plate. The water seems to hop up to each successive, higher plate (made of various materials to create differing sounds), until ultimately the water has hopped all the way to Fayetteville Street. At this point the water hops from the high plate into the street where jets of water successively explode in a serpentine pattern down Fayetteville Street to the Marriott area. This has the effect of involving a symbol of the earth inviting one to explore the plaza; a plaza so powerfull that water flows up to the experience.The street could be defined not by giant dark gray Greek revival pots, but by small foaming water bubblers.
Additionally, a water feature against the front of the BOA building resembling the face of a breaking wave could be a great respite on a hot day. The parabolic incline could be made of glass and have a large video display underneath. As water flows down the slope, the video could show anything from water flowing upward, fire, acorns, whatever. The water would pool at the bottom with ankle deep water for a few feet in the plaza. At each pedestrian access the same video feature could be shown on video boards submerged in the sidewalk.
While our concept is by no means a working model, it shared many, many features that other tables created. Nearly every concept involved water jets, video displays, and flux. Nearly everyone in the room felt that the plaza should offer a different experience for each visit. No doubt these ideas are seeds from Plensa’s concept. However they go to show what was right about his vision.
Personally, I think a lot of the concepts presented at the meeting’s conclusion could be tied in with a theme and slogan like "Find Yourself…In Raleigh". Themes of water looking for its purpose, people finding themselves in video displays, and the like could all tie into a single purpose without the area looking like a wayward hodgepodge of leftover amusement park features.
As with Sparkcon, the ideas will be compiled into a tidy presentation to the City Council early next month. The main purpose of the brainstorm was to give the City Council some idea about what sorts of infrastructure will be needed in the plaza. Whatever is the case, we still have a chance to have a City Square that people want to be a part of.
