OT Marshall Architects
When the aging Raleigh Springs Mall was pegged for renovations, Tom Marshall, CEO of OT Marshall Architects, was excited to take on a project in an area that was near and dear to his heart.
A Raleigh native, he remembered the initial construction of the old mall.
“I’m from Raleigh and as an architect, I remember riding my bicycle to the mall and watching the construction. It was the largest thing being built in my day, so it was an exciting thing,” says Marshall. “The mall was sort of the community icon. It’s where we all went to enjoy ourselves, where we went to meet our friends.”
Marshall and the City of Memphis launched planning and construction on the new Raleigh Springs Civic Center in 2018. A lot of care went into retaining the community feel that the former mall had brought to the neighborhood.
Shops were replaced with a public library that doubles as a communal meeting place. A trail and lake were also created to provide a safe place to walk. But the defining feature of the Civic Center is its skate park.
Designed by world-renowned skate park developers Wormhoudt, the skate park sits at one end of the lake and attracts a myriad of faces. And while the park has become a neighborhood staple for youth, the idea was initially pushed for by the elderly residents of Raleigh.
“The Raleigh Community Council realized that the future rests with the youth, and so they wanted to bring diversity to the area,” explains Marshall. “This is probably one of Memphis’ most diverse areas. There’s a large number of African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic Americans that come to the skate park. Young and old as well.”
OT Marshall Architects
Before renovations, local skaters would use the mall as an impromptu hang-out spot. In doing so, they would bump into elderly members of the Raleigh community that used the area as a walking trail. “It was the older folks that in the community center that said, ‘Hey, we need to give those poor kids a real place to skate,’” says Marshall.
“There was a lot of communication between folks that that were inhabiting the mall for the purposes of their morning or afternoon walks and the skateboarders,” he continues, “and so we wanted to design something that integrated both.”
Patrick Tionloc, a local skater that came to Memphis from the Philippines, say that he likes how the park gives skaters in Raleigh a place to call their own.
“I got into skating when I was in college in the Philippines, but I stopped skating when I got into the states because I didn’t know there was a skate park in Memphis,” he says. “I like that now there is a place that’s really easy for the beginners who want to get into skating or for people that are experienced.”
