East Waterfront Task Force...Design Competition

   

Swiss Bear board member cleaning up
Union Point Park

  

Design cometition judge discussing the
winning entry


 

Model of winning design -
Protected harbor & river research center 

 

  

Concept board of winning entry

In July 1983, following the City’s acquisition of the Texaco property, the Board of Aldermen designated Swiss Bear as the entity to plan the use of the Texaco property and Union Point,  granting 120 days to come up with a plan.  Swiss Bear organized the East Waterfront Task Force composed of representatives Swiss Bear, the Chamber of Commerce, Weyerhaeuser, Neuse River Foundation and the City Manager, several Aldermen and the City Planner.

The group met weekly, organized teams to clean up Union Point and visited the waterfronts of other cities including Norfolk, VA  and Baltimore MD. The Task Force determined a design competition would be the best way to obtain a creative plan for redevelopment of the Texaco property and Union Point and organized many sub-committees to include, fundraising, audio-visual and project/design. A professional advisor was hired to run the design competition and money was raised to cover costs incurred. Brochures were mailed to 3,300 architects and landscape architects in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina. In February 1984, around 15-18 firms had submitted proposals and concept drawings. Judges with impressive credentials  were selected to jury the design competition, held in the Bank of the Arts. On April 26, the announcement was made that  Raleigh architect, Edgar Carr’s submission was chosen as the winning design. His plan called for the excavation of a large part of Union Point to create a protected harbor and construction of a river research center. Over the next three years, the Task Force worked diligently to acquire the support and funding to develop this project. Numerous meetings were held with local, state and federal legislators to secure funding. Presentations were made to civic groups soliciting support. In the 1986 “short session” the request to the state Senate Appropriations Committee for $1,900,000, a third of what they originally asked for, was turned down.  

In August at a Swiss Bear Board meeting, Harold Talton said the article in the Sun Journal stating the chairman of Swiss Bear said the project was “dead in the water” was untrue. He said the statement  made was “that the current design appeared to be dead in the water”. This project didn’t reach fruition as the design was simply to radical to garner the community support required to obtain state and federal funding.

However, this was just one of many more hurdles that had to be jumped before the Park was developed in the mid-1990’s.

Susan Moffat Thomas
Executive Director