Improvements to Historic Garden in Raleigh Honor Civil Rights Hero

The Wooten Company worked together with landscape architecture group McNeely Associates to provide water and sewer utilities infrastructure for a comfort station and shade structure in the park's expansion and enhancements. The scope of services included civil engineering design, bidding assistance for the owner and construction administration.

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Gardens was originally constructed in 1990. The park includes a memorial wall of 2,500 bricks inscribed with the names of local and national supporters of the facility. The wall surrounds a life-sized bronze statue of Dr. King and a 12-ton granite water monument serves as a memorial to the area's notable pioneers of the civil rights movement.

In 2012, the City established a Public Leadership Group of representatives from several local organizations. The group held public meetings to solicit ideas and suggestions on the expansion of the memorial gardens. The City incorporated that feedback into a master plan and subsequently a schematic design and contract documents.

One highlight of the expanded gardens will be a Civil Rights Path with future educational stations offering visitors an opportunity to learn key details and history about the struggle for racial equality in the United States. Other new features include a masonry screen wall with a memorial to local civil rights leaders, a comfort station with drinking fountains, an expansive covered patio with grills, improved signage and lighting, additional parking, and additional seating.