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MAURICE HOWARD (HAL) MCNEELY JR., ASLA (1936-2013)
Born in Greensboro NC, McNeely came to Raleigh in the mid-1950's to study at the NCSU School of Design. After graduating around 1960, he joined the office of fellow Richard (Dick) Bell, whose landscape architecture practice had grown into one of the most respected in the Southeast. During that time, McNeely is credited with designing the Brickyard Plaze at NC State's signature paving pattern, using only whole bricks to cut down on the time and cost of cutting half a million of them to fit. The same bricklaying style shows up in the walkways at both houses McNeely designed and built for himself in Raleigh's Oak Park neighborhood.
In 1972, McNeely started McNeely Associates with partner Larry Deese. Over five decades, the firm's community work included the All-Children's Playground; the Cary Community Appearance Commission and Public Art Master Plan Committee; the Oak View historic preservation project; the Raleigh Planning Commission; the Wake County Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee; the J. C. Raulston Arboretum; the Raleigh Rescue Mission; and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Gardens. McNeely was President of the NC Chapter ASLA in 1977-78 and received its Past Presidents Appreciation Award in 1987. Leadership passed in 2006 to Dennis E. Pitts, Larry J. Ragland, and Keith M. Downing, who carried the practice forward under McNeely's name until 2016. Research by Mike Salmon.
1963 - The Hal McNeely House, 4916 Grinnell Drive, Raleigh NC. Landscape design also by McNeely.
1969 - The Hal McNeely House II, 4613 Oak Park Road, Raleigh NC. Landscape design also by McNeely.
1974 - The McNeely Associates Office Building, 6112 St. Giles Street, Raleigh NC. Landscape design and conceptual architectural design by McNeely. Left: photographed in 1995. Right: in 2021, following a complete renovation. McNeely Associates operated here for over 20 years before moving to 5501 McNeely Drive, Raleigh NC.
Sources include: son Brian McNeely; colleague Dennis Pitts of McNeely Associates; McNeely Associates PA, "About McNeely Associates" (archived); Kyle Wurtz, "An Interim Campus Landscape Is a Master Class in Reuse," Landscape Architecture Magazine (ASLA), October 29, 2024; The Cultural Landscape Foundation; City of Raleigh; Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress, 2017; NCSU Agromeck yearbook, 1959; Wake County real estate records; Brown-Wynne Funeral Home & Crematory / Dignity Memorial obituary.