REVINGTON REAVES

DURHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLS

2023 AIA Triangle Merit Award - Unbuilt

Murray-Massenberg Elementary School is a new community heart in southern Durham, NC. Working closely with EVOKE Studio Architecture, Revington Reaves helped create the vision for the site and provided full design services for this unique 800-student school.

Murray-Massenberg is designed to maintain the student’s connection to the outdoors through impressive views to the forest, a greenroof, and easy access to a variety of outdoor learning and play spaces.

The site features three distinct playgrounds that blend with the architecture, a multipurpose play field, a WELL edible garden, an outdoor dining area, reforested lands, and multiple small and large outdoor learning and gathering spaces. Notably, the central courtyard contains the 3-5 playground, connected to the building by a sinuous and accessible ramp, and a rainy day play space under the 136’ clear span bridge that frames the verdant forest beyond.

Murray-Massenberg is scheduled to be open in the fall of 2024!

Freedom Cornerstone is the fourth and final cornerstone along the Downtown Greenway in Greensboro, NC. The Downtown Greenway, a collaborative project of Action Greensboro and the City of Greensboro, is a 4-mile multi-use path that encourages economic development, improves quality of life for its residents, benefits urban ecology, and tells community stories through public art.

The Freedom Cornerstone explores and honors the role that Greensboro played in the national civil rights movement and features the center piece “Ascension” by renowned artist Radcliffe Bailey. Revington Reaves worked closely with Radcliffe and Action Greensboro throughout conceptual park planning, site design and documentation, and construction administration. The park features spaces that highlight Bailey’s art, engage the greenway, provide areas for gathering and reflection, and restore native vegetation and pollinators to this former road bed.

Revington Reaves collaborated with Radcliffe to bring his vision of a Dogon Ladder in the landscape to fruition. The Dogon Ladder, commonly used by the Dogon people of Mali, was used in daily life and also as a way to connect with their ancestors. The footholds of a Dogon Ladder were conceived as cross-paths in the park and include embedded shells referencing tabby, a material often used when constructing slave cabins in the South. Ascension itself features three elements combined into the piece. First, a railroad track turned skyward, transforming itself into a ladder pointing towards ascension; second, an illuminated star; and third, the hull of a ship that has been dry-docked. These shapes recall the journeys of Radcliffe’s ancestors, and also speak to a universal journey towards freedom.

Revington Reaves collaborated with Triad Design Group to design a hub for learning and innovation in manufacturing at the Sandvik Coromant Center in Mebane, NC. This state of the art addition to an existing facility provides opportunities for Sandvik to extend their expertise in manufacturing through exclusive training courses, collaborative projects, and special events.

The landscape greets visitors from around the world through a carefully orchestrated vehicular and pedestrian experience. It extends Sandvik Cormorant's brand outside of the building walls, and creates a place for daily employees, staff, and visiting professionals to gather, relax, and connect. The design includes a new main entry expression and series of linear courtyards that allow for outdoor dining and socialization. Carefully sited seating nooks accommodate various gathering sizes. Textured plantings and shade structures create visual interest and human scaled comfort. The entire landscape experience is framed by an angled retaining wall that creates a perch for taking in long views out to the extended site.

*The Lusk Center at Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro has received a 2015 Award of Special Recognition by the North Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Revington Reaves was commissioned to assist Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro with the design and construction of The John A. Lusk, III MD Caregiving Education Center (The Lusk Center). The process, in collaboration with TFF architects, included input from staff, board members, and other design professionals. The landscape will serve the needs of the public by supporting regular educational seminars that can comfortably hold up to 120 people outdoors, as well as providing more intimate outdoor spaces for daily use by staff and visitors. In addition, the design focuses attention on a recreational trail to provide clinical staff with an outdoor escape on needed days. 

Closer to the building, the design sought to reduce maintenance and costs for HPCG by utilizing tough, low maintenance plants that still provided an inviting entry for staff and visitors. Stormwater runoff is filtered through an onsite biocell that holds several species of native wetland plants that provide habitat while filtering storm runoff.

Originally established in 1929, the Clara J. Peck Elementary School serves K-5 students of the Glenwood neighborhood in Greensboro, NC. At nearly 100 years old, the existing school and its educators have honorably served the residents of Glenwood as a place of education and community gatherings. Despite this, time has taken a heavy toll on the building and the school was identified as having significant facility needs during the 2019 Comprehensive Facility Master Plan. From that study, the decision was made to design and construct a new Clara J. Peck Elementary School for Expeditionary Learning on the same parcel as the existing school.

Working closely with SHP Architects, Revington Reaves helped craft a vision for the future Peck (Pre K-8th) that extends expeditionary learning beyond the building walls. It provides opportunities across age groups to connect, experience and learn through a series of dynamic courtyards, engaging play spaces, and connected outdoor classrooms. Seating areas, from a shared learning stair to comfortable nooks, are nested throughout the exterior allowing students and teachers space to learn through highly interactive, collaborative and iterative processes. Play spaces go beyond the basic play structures to offer opportunities for socialization, connection to nature, and exploration. Featuring native plants, the courtyards offer space for art pin ups, small and large gatherings, and contemplative seating. Future phases will include a woodland trail with natural learning opportunities, community garden, and expanded athletics. The school, with intimately connected and thoughtfully designed interior and exterior spaces, will become a place to support the development of the whole child fostering a safe space to become lifelong learners and engaged citizens.

Peck Elementary is currently under construction with plans to open its doors to new learners in the Fall of 2024.

The Aquatics Master Plan is creating a long-term vision for the future of public pools and spraygrounds in Greensboro. The City of Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department currently manages 4 outdoor pools, 1 indoor pool, and 2 spraygrounds. The pool facilities are aging and in need of significant repairs. At the same time, trends in aquatics have shifted towards people seeking more interactive water elements.

Revington Reaves provided community engagement and landscape architecture services on the master plan. The community engagement consisted of 8 pop-up events and 1 online survey. During these events, 1,146 community residents provided feedback about their aquatic preferences. This data was summarized and is being used by the full design team to inform the master planning decisions.

Services provided by Revington Reaves include public information and outreach materials, public engagement plans, meeting facilitation, community input data analysis, and site plan and amenity design. 

The newly constructed North Beach landscape serves as the outdoor heart of campus for Greensboro Montessori School. Formerly an empty field, this re-imagined space brings students, faculty, staff, and families together. It allows for informal gatherings such as school lunches and outdoor classes. It also accommodates larger community wide events including soccer games, fall festivals, and performances.

The space features a series of long, terraced walls that overlook the athletic fields, an amphitheater with pervious pavers suitable for outdoor classes and small performances, an upper event lawn with a shaded deck, stone seating nooks, and adjacent playground. The final design was the result of an in-depth engagement process that translated the vision of students, faculty, and families' aspirations into a diverse and multi-functional landscape.

Location: Greensboro, N.C.

Plan2Play is a system-wide master plan of Greensboro’s diverse system of neighborhood parks, regional parks, recreation centers, public gardens, and an extensive network of greenways and trails. The plan seeks to guide the future development of parks and recreation opportunities in a city that has experienced significant population growth, demographic shifts, and an aging infrastructure of recreation facilities.

Lead by Agency Landscape, the project has been informed by robust community and stakeholder engagement that included city-wide community conversations as well as numerous community pop-up events. These engagement opportunities elicited in-depth conversations about the current state of the City’s parks and recreation offerings and the community’s desire to ENHANCE existing facilities through reinvestment, EXPAND offerings to underserved areas, and create stronger CONNECTIONS within the City’s diverse trail system.

Revington Reaves was asked by High Point University to design a butterfly garden that featured a mountain stream, Koi Pond, and five of artist Brian Keith’s creations. Keith’s art consisted of a 13’ foot high bronze sculpture entitled “New Wings” along with four custom benches that evoke the whimsy of butterfly led tree swings.

Located at the corner of the Plato S. Wilson School of Commerce, Revington Reaves sited Keith’s work within a garden nook that centers around a three-tiered fountain. This intimate space provides a tranquil garden setting for both students, faculty, and staff to connect and unwind.

The fountain begins with a bubbling mountain stream leading into an irregular-shaped Koi pond framed by custom bluestone caps. The circular fountain with Brian Keith's sculpture, "New Wings," rising above the Koi pond adds an artistic and dramatic focal point within the garden. Gentle grade changes allow the fountain and sculpture to be experienced at various heights. Students can soar with the girl from above while sitting on the butterfly benches, or enjoy the drama and splash of the fountains from the irregular courtyard below. Rocks, boulders, and circular tables and chairs offer a diversity of seating and gathering opportunities. The entire space is framed by a diverse palette of pollinator friendly plants that provide texture, beauty, and ecological function by supporting local biodiversity.

The future Windsor / Chavis joint use facility is creating a new idea for how library services and parks and recreation mingle in Greensboro. The project seeks to take traditional uses of Windsor Recreation Center, Chavis Library and Nocho Park and merge them into a single innovative facility. The result will be a dynamic community heart that will house creative and essential resources, programs, and activities from both the City of Greensboro Public Library and Parks and Recreation Departments

As part of a larger design team, guided by Vines Architecture and Evoke Studio, Revington Reaves led community engagement for the project. Engagement strategies centered around meeting people on their own space and time and developing creative ways for individuals to express their thoughts across multiple mediums. This culminated in a variety of community pop-up events such as Dudley High School Football Games (Go Panthers!), the GSO Public Library zone at the NC Folk Fest, The Male Ball Ministry, online surveys, social media connections, and more traditional neighborhood association meetings.

Fisher Park is noted to be one of Greensboro’s oldest city parks. Located in the historic Fisher Park Neighborhood, the forested park follows a sinuous creek and features trails, historical elements, diverse plantings, and a playground. It provides users with a strong sense of nature while being located within a short walking distance to downtown.

Revington Reaves, in collaboration with the City of Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department, developed a master plan for the future of Fisher Park. The master plan was guided by a robust community engagement campaign featuring in-person pop-up events and a series of online surveys. Early guiding principles include managing for plant diversity and health, elevating furnishings and play, restoration and maintenance of trails and historical elements, and improved accessibility within the park.

The Guilford County Behavorial Health Crisis Collaborative is an innovative complex of two specialized facilities designed to meet the unique needs of children, adolescents, and adults experiencing behavioral health crisis. The center was formed as a collaboration between Guilford County, Sandhills Center, and Cone Health to bring specialized care to the Piedmont. The facility is made up of a mental health urgent care center and two 16-bed facility-based crisis centers: one for adults, the other for adolescents and children.

Led by TFF Architects, Revington Reaves provided landscape design services, including the design of six specialized courtyards. These courtyards serve as therapeutic spaces with access to plantings, natural light, exterior seating, and opportunities for recreation and respite.

The Jan Van Dyke Courtyard is an enclosed, open air courtyard at the Coleman School of Dance at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. The courtyard has long been an unused patch of green within the building that was created during architectural additions.

Revington Reaves adapted the courtyard to serve as an active space for students and faculty to collaborate, rest, and perform in. The courtyard features a plank paver surfacing, bluestone pavers, and moveable furnishings all set within a garden frame.

Location: Greensboro, N.C.

North Buffalo Creek Park creates a new vision for a recently decommissioned water reclamation facility in Greensboro, NC. The park, currently in planning, is a joint-collaboration between City of Greensboro Water Resources Division and City of Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department and is the product of extensive public engagement within both the adjacent and city-wide communities.

The result of this engagement process combined with the design’s team creativity yielded a park design that responds directly to the communities needs: public gardens for food production, outdoor shelters for family gatherings, easy access to unique play equipment for youth, and fitness loops and trails. In addition, the project features the adaptive reuse of three significant structures that support a large outdoor amphitheater, an outdoor skatepark, and a flexible educational building.

Location: Greensboro, N.C.

Greensboro’s first public parklet will soon be a place for downtown visitors to gather, relax, and socialize. Located in the heart of Greensboro’s historic downtown district, the parklet will occupy two parallel parking spots directly in front of Cheescakes by Alex at 315 South Elm Street.

Working with a diverse stakeholder group lead by City of Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department, Revington Reaves designed the parklet from concept through construction documentation. The parklet is designed to be fully accessible and features a bar and café tables and chairs that will animate the streetscape. Elevated planters will provide a green backdrop against the adjacent street.

Location: Greensboro, N.C.

The Wesley Long Hospital main entry created spaces of respite and comfort in an area previously dominated by concrete. Large areas of landscape were reclaimed from asphalt through realignment of the drive aisles. Areas previously devoid of seating received ample seating options as well as three decks for staff, patients, and visitors. Canopy trees were installed to create a sense of human scale and provide shade along the entry walks. A consistent planting palette and site furnishings were selected to help create a sense of uniformity between the three existing medical facilities.

Location: Greensboro, N.C.

The Summit Avenue Streetscape renovation project will create stronger physical connections between Greensboro’s vibrant downtown and the historically significant Dunleath neighborhood. The streetscape will provide tree-lined sidewalks, new crosswalks, buffered bicycle lanes, planted medians, and significant stormwater and water service upgrades.

Revington Reaves provided streetscape design services for Phase II of the project from LeBauer Park to the railroad underpass. Design concepts included using native plants, creating pedestrian comfort, and the integration of new materials with the existing historic character of the neighborhood.

Independence Park is a 24-acre urban park located in the Elizabeth Neighborhood in Charlotte, NC. Created in 1924 under the design stewardship of landscape architect John Nolen, the park is noted to be the oldest public park in Charlotte. The park was originally designed to be a contiguous ribbon that crept informally up the hollow but has been fragmented by roads and disassociated uses over time as the city has grown.

Mecklenburg County Parks oversaw a diverse team of consultants, led by Agency, to create a new master plan for the park that guides renovations and program additions while maintaining the prominence of many of the park’s historic elements.

Revington Reaves supported the project by providing ecological planning services that helped understand, restore, and integrate the parks natural systems that include a prominent native forest canopy, complex and hidden drainage ways, and fragmented habitat corridors that move throughout the park to the adjacent greenway.  

Location: Greensboro, N.C.

The entrance to Wesley Long Hospital has been renovated to help visitors more easily locate the primary entrance along Friendly Avenue. This renovation consisted of establishing a strong campus identity along Friendly Avenue through the use of a new stone wall, improved signage, exterior lighting, and by incorporating and expanding westward the existing woodland as a backdrop.

The iconic stone wall defines the campus edge, and sensitively steps down the hillside responding to changes in topography. The plant material was selected to focus views to the main entry and create clarity. Both new informational and wayfinding signage help visitor awareness as you approach from either Friendly or Wendover Avenue.

Location: Greensboro, N.C.

Healing should begin when you enter the hospital’s campus. This thinking guided a study to evaluate the visitor experience on the campus of Wesley Long Hospital in Greensboro, NC.

The goal was to turn a campus full of confusion and conflict into a place of clarity and calmness. In the Landscape Master Plan, the main entry road has been re-aligned to aid wayfinding and reduce vehicular / pedestrian conflict zones, parking adjusted to accommodate larger areas of entry landscape, and the building entry made more comfortable and safe through clearly defining drop-off and pedestrian zones.

Location: Greensboro, N.C.

The Interactive Resource Center (IRC) is Guilford County’s only day shelter for people experiencing homelessness. The IRC provides many services to guest such as showers, laundry, mailing addresses, medical and behavioral health care, and employment services.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the IRC needed an exterior renovation that helped support the important mission of the work happening inside the facility. Revington Reaves led this renovation by creating a site plan that creates safe and shaded places for guest to gather outside, garden beds for fresh produce production, and identity through landscape and signage. The landscape palate is low maintenance and created with volunteer care efforts in mind. Revington Reaves provided site design and construction phase services for this project.

Location: Greensboro, N.C.

The Childhood Enrichment Center at Christ United Methodist Church is a pre-school serving children from birth to age 5. Both the church and the school needed a flexible space for entry, gathering, and special events at their secondary entry.

The new patio provides these services and can function as a meeting place for parents in the morning, a small outdoor classroom space for the school, and a flexible event space for groups boy scouts and other small church groups. Traditional materials, such as brick and pre-cast concrete related to existing architecture and blend with the surrounding woodland environment. The project also addressed multiple grading and drainage issues through the thoughtful placement of trench and area drains.

This vision involved removing a large portion of a concrete driveway that previously abutted the back of the home. By removing the concrete and reclaiming the landscape, the home gained an inviting entry that doubles as an outdoor entertainment space.

The project also improved access from the home to the adjacent pool and created a new and easily accessible kitchen garden. Materials such as bluestone, brick, and pea stone, were carefully selected to integrate with the architecture of this historic Greensboro home.

Location: Greensboro, N.C.

Greensboro’s Cultural Center is the heart of arts and culture in the city. The Acoustic Park is an opportunity to extend the Center’s mission outside of the building and invite the public to explore their creativity and learn more about arts in the City.

The Acoustic Park occupies a small area between the celebrated LeBauer Park and the Cultural Center. The park features an interactive musical experience with Harmony percussion sets and shaded seating for spectators. The adjacent walk contains locations to feature the work of local sculptors, and small outdoor rehearsal spaces for musicians. This park strengthens the connection between two of downtown’s great assets and offers an adaptive and inclusive acoustical experience for visitors.

Location: Fayetteville, N.C.

Revington Reaves assisted in the development of the Methodist University master plan. Led by Sasaki, the plan sets a framework for the growth of campus over the next twenty years. Plan highlights include strengthening the campus core through strategic infill, enhancing student life opportunities, and improving ecological stewardship on a campus with rich biological assets.

During the design process, Revington Reaves developed diverse strategies for ecological stewardship that influenced the master plan. These strategies included stormwater management concepts, erosion mitigation tools, and the renovation of existing rain gardens to improve functionality. Lastly, the plan sets conservation goals for large tracts of contiguous woodlands along a mile of Cape Fear River waterfront for habitat, recreational, and educational value.

Location: Slippery Rock, P.A.

The Robert M. Smith Student Center at Slippery Rock University serves a student population of 7,600. The 104,000 square foot building is located on an important east west campus connection, and knits together residential and academic programs.  The student center, completed construction in 2012, and was imagined through a client-centered process that included interviews, focus groups, and meetings with students, faculty, staff and other stakeholders to identify project goals and objectives. The building houses a new dining venue, cafe, several lounges, bookstore, student organizations suite, and conference center. The project is LEED Silver Certified, and includes a variety of green elements. 

We worked collaboratively alongside the project architects to carefully design and site the building in a way that preserves the existing forest and steep slopes.  The landscape is terraced, featuring an upper dining lawn and a lower linear walkway andparking area.  Other features include terraced seating walls, green-roof, native meadow planting, reforestation planting, gabion retaining walls, and pervious parking.  Innovative stormwater management techniques are featured through a sunken lawn that doubles as both student gathering space, and water filtration system.  A copper cladded fountain adds interest and life to the front entry.

Revington | Reaves team members led the development of the above landscape project while employed by Sasaki. Revington | Reaves is not associated with Sasaki

Location: West Lafayette, I.N.

The master plan for Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, was forged through a collaborative process that included the students, faculty, staff, and administration. 

This public land-grant institution, with a student enrollment close to 40,000 is the size of a moderate sized city.  The campus environment envisioned through the plan is centered around a series of broad goals which include preserving the University’s larger agricultural land-holdings, building a strong campus core within the existing and unique campus neighborhoods and districts, developing a simple integrated transportation system,  and creating program synergies through strong mixed-use districts.  

Revington | Reaves team members participated on the above project while employed by Sasaki Associates, Inc. Revington | Reaves is not associated with Sasaki.

Location: Evanston, I.L.

The master plan for Northwestern University imagines a new campus framework that builds off of the historic campus structure to create a series of new and iconic open space expressions that engage both the adjacent city and Lake Michigan. 

New building locations and functions are strategically sited to enhance functional relationships between the academic, administration, residential, and student life hubs of the University.   Design concepts were inspired from a series of careful studies that explored historic campus development, existing program distribution, ecological systems, and circulation and knowledge flows. 

Revington | Reaves team members participated on the above project while employed by Sasaki Associates, Inc. Revington | Reaves is not associated with Sasaki.

Location: Storrs, C.T.

This study carefully examined the current conditions of campus property. Landscape design recommendations were then made that would improve landscape beauty, enhance campus safety and function, reduce adverse environmental impacts, and reduce maintenance costs with quality objectives. 

Issues addressed included improving the pedestrian environment by using vegetation to shade walks and highlight views. Pedestrian and vehicular conflict points were identified and recommendations were made to reduce conflict through the use of paving changes, cross walk additions, and the creation of planting beds. To help visualize the recommended changes, a series of before and after graphics were developed. 

Revington | Reaves team members participated on the above project while employed by Sasaki Associates, Inc. Revington | Reaves is not associated with Sasaki.

Revington Reaves collaborated with Sasaki on the Colgate University master plan. Our role was to assist the team in understanding the hydrology of a complex campus with dramatic topographic changes and a history of regular flooding. In addition, we investigated the role of campus land uses such as the golf course and Taylor Lake on water and habitat quality.

The resulting master plan created a framework for campus growth that provides clear strategies for residential life facilities, student life facilities, campus circulation, and hydrological improvements.

Location: High Point, N.C.

Located in High Point, North Carolina the design for the Headquarters of Home Meridian International is intended to provide an outdoor gathering space for informal social gatherings as well as a quiet exterior respite for employees during work hours.

Canopy trees, evergreen screen plantings, and seasonal grasses create a comfortable environment from the southern heat. Granite benches create structure in the design, and are combined with other site furnishings to provide a variety of seating options. The design is structured around a grid that shifts at the southern edge to create privacy and allow for plants to break up the hard-scape. A living fence edge, populated by native vines, creates a screen from the surrounding parking area.