As the project's design lead and in close collaboration with the client’s chief architect (and doodle-ologist), Chris directed a multi-disciplinary consulting team of engineers, lighting, signage, and water feature designers. The new welcoming design carefully re-calibrates the edges with new sculptural elements, gathering spaces, signage, and gateways.

The team employed comprehensive sustainable stormwater strategies to capture and store the plaza runoff and recharge the groundwater. The stored water is used for irrigation, to saturate the piles of the historic church structures and supplement water levels for the reflecting pool.

At the heart of the modernist composition, the reflecting pool was wholly retrofitted to re-waterproof the garage structure beneath. The pool basin was reimagined with a new custom black granite "surface." When empty, the new reflecting pool simulates the effect of light-play on rippling water to provide year-round activation.

Chris also led a comprehensive lighting masterplan that illuminates the buildings and new plaza elements. The composition transforms the plaza at night, providing safe lighting levels without additional lighting posts and masts – preserving the plaza's minimalist tranquility. The recently landmarked plaza was originally designed in the 1970s by architects I.M. Pei & Associates and Araldo Cossutta, Associated Architects.