Boston Common Overhaul

I honestly think the fear of corporations being benefactors of public space is overblown.
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I agree. The Rose Kennedy Greenway thread is littered with people longing for Millenium Park (which is, in fact a beautiful asset for Chicago). But literally every aspect of that park (down to the furniture and artwork) are named after a benefactor (corporate and otherwise). The extra resources from corporate donations make that park better, not worse.
 
Go into any almost any major museum, public library, hospital and you will see names of private donors posted/listed for all to see! Ride on any public highway and you'll see signs of private companies and organizations pointing out that they are responsible for the upkeep of a certain milage! Watch PBS and you will see that corporations, foundations, etc, fund programming. It's a fact of life here in the USA. Yes, the donors get nice events to attend or public recognition but what of it? Should we let things decay and fall apart waiting for tax dollars to fund the repairs? If people/corporations want to donate money to spruce up the Common, what's the big deal? If I see a family's name on a park bench or a paving stone with a mother's name on it, I applaud those who donated money to have such a small honor granted to them. And if I see a major corporation's name posted as a donor, I think better of such a corporation. It's good public policy to be a good corporate citizen!
 
The profit from the Boston Common Garage should all go directly to upkeep of the Boston Common.

The Common may go corporate
Group hires consultant who secured funds for NYC park

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff | September 16, 2010

The cracked concrete, missing bricks, and growing patches of bald earth on Boston Common have pushed boosters to consider a new initiative: tapping corporations to sponsor repairs and improvements to America?s first park.

Spend a couple dollars repairing a loose brick before it goes missing and having to pay $20 and considering getting money from private sector., its called prevantative maintenance.
 
There's a difference between donating something and handing it over to public control and creating a public-private partnership that maintains active links to donors. In the former situation there's much less risk that the donors' interests will control. I don't really care that public libraries are named after Carnegie or that Chicago's Millennium Park has a "BP Bridge", but it was annoying when NY Fashion Week took over Bryant Park or park maintenance was allowed to kick out people who didn't look like the sort they wanted there because it was managed by a quasi-private agency.
 
Corporate sponsorship of the Common was debated on the most recent Radio Boston. From the website:

The man who converted New York?s Bryant Park from an open-air drug market to one of the nation?s hottest public spaces is in Boston today, showing the city how it can use corporate sponsorship to spruce up Boston Common. But some people think the nation?s oldest public park needs to remain public, in every respect. We hear from both sides.
Guests:
  • Henry Lee, president, Friends of the Public Garden
  • Mike Ross, president, Boston City Council
  • Shirley Kressel, co-founder, Alliance for Boston Neighborhoods

A 20 minute podcast of the segment can be listened to on the Radio Boston site:
http://www.wbur.org/2010/10/06/branding-boston-common
 
It must be somewhere on this site, but I would expect this to be the thread. My brother said that the Common now in front of the state house is getting some new landscaping, and they are doing upgraded and new paving of paths.

My brother also said there is some drawing of it out on the common and it is currently blocked off as of today. Also something about new brick and landscaping on the state house grounds as well.

Anybody with additional information regarding this?
 
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/beacon_hill/2011/03/celebrating_a_spring_revival_a.html

City to Break Ground on Second Phase of Boston Common Renovation
The second part of the three-part project should be completed by this fall.
By Francis Brown | Email the author | March 25, 2011


The city of Boston along with the Friends of the Public Garden will soon break ground on the second phase of the Brewer Fountain Plaza and Liberty Mall renovation project on Boston Common.

This comes after the first phase, which included a $640,000 restoration of the Brewer Fountain, was completed last year.

"When you paint a room in a house you certainly look around and think of all of the rest of the house that you need to do. we looked around and saw
this area needed a great deal of work," Henry Lee, president of the Friends of the Public Garden, told the crowd at the groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday. "There's too much concrete, there's not enough grass, there are not enough trees and we hope to remedy all that. We hope to make it once again a park-like atmosphere."

Scheduled to be completed this fall, the second phase will consist of renovating a 2.5-acre piece of land around the Brewer Fountain.

"It has been the heartbeat, the center, the stage of city life in the 17th century and here today in 2011," Lee said of the park.

Additional seating, grass areas and trees as well as improved lighting and repaved concrete will all be a part of the restoration.

Once the second phase is completed, there are plans to surround the fountain will tables and chairs, a reading room area, a gourmet food truck and increased wireless internet access, according to Toni Pollack, the city's Commissioner of Parks and Recreation.

These were some of the ideas brought back to Boston by city councilor Michael Ross after he visited New York to see what it was doing with its city parks. He then helped to form a council committee to specifically look into renovating Boston Common.

"These really have been pretty extraordinary difficult times for city budgets, for individuals and it's amazing that such great things are still going on in our park," Pollack said at the ceremony.

Photo gallery linked in the article.

More info:
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/02/28/boston-common-getting-a-facelift/
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/03/23/boston-common’s-facelift-begins-at-brewer-fountain/
http://www.facebook.com/Friendsofthepublicgarden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnMicWaWKu8&feature=player_embedded
 
Thank you Lurker, I guess my brother is trustworthy then and a reliable source.
 
Today:

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Any updated pix/ -- I would expect that a lot had been accomplished in the past 3 months
 
When I went by after the Scooperbowl (couple weeks ago), it was pretty much the same thing.
 
"In order to open the park for the years ahead, we must close it for the year ahead."
 
Don't worry folks, now that the Feds have captured Whitey the city and state will finally know the exact spot under the Common where he hid his gold. The whole park improvement project front can be quickly dropped such that all the homeless drug addicts and pigeons can get right back to shitting on everything.

More likely all the work stopped when the first frosts hit and are just getting started again due to construction scheduling issues.
 
News from the future:

"City officials say completion was delayed when workers discovered the process would be more difficult than first thought."
 
What a disaster zone. Makes getting to park street station a PITA

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I didn't even know that project was taking place 'til I walked by last week. I assume this is separate from the renovation of the fountain, etc.?

Regarding the fountain work, if you look at the sign in front of it, it says, "Completion, mid-summer."

By the calendar, they still have time left, right?
 
I've gone by this a couple times in the past couple weeks; looks like an absolute war zone. I really hope this doesn't drag through all of next summer, but it probably will. There's a ton of work going on.
 
I expect that anyday now -- they'll be beginning the process of shutting down the worksite for the winter -- as I believe that Autumn begins on Friday, and in the outer burbs we've already had some frost warnings
 
There was a story in the Courant over the summer, I seem to remember, that explained why the work was being delayed. They said at the time they still expected it to be completed this year. Seeing how it looked the past two times I've been by there this week, that seems hard to believe.

This catastrophe of epic proportions is only magnified by the fact that they completely rehabbed the Brewer fountain and it's now completely off limits and mostly out of view.
 
Some sort of update on the status of the renovations, although I'll be damned if I couldn't find any sort of date attached to story.

The Brewer fountain and plaza are beginning to show signs of completion. Newly planted elms give the plaza a welcoming air and also help to define the space, creating part of the outdoor room of the Brewer plaza area. The informal bosque of trees behind the Brewer truly help frame the fountain as a terminal point.
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http://fopg.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/brewer-fountain-closer-to-completion-every-day/
 
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