Ideas For the Common

There's still a farmer's market, and some evening concerts sponsored by another radio station.
 
bostoncitywalk said:
Classical is great -- but Copley really needs something sexy -- an attraction. It doesn't have to be the same thing every week or on any schedule but just a constant set of draws that give the square some life instead of lame-ness.
Click to expand...

Friend of mine represents Rita and Ziggy Marley. Zig put on a great show in Copley Square, and the "back stage" party was out of this world.
Need more of that.
 
Simple Solution

A number of years ago -- my brother proposed the DD approach to re-civilizing the "bad parts" of Roxbury and Dorchester

It might work on the Common and other Boston Parks

Its a well known fact that DD is a powerful attractant to Police -- and that the visible presense of Police decreases the propensity for crimes to be committed

Hence get DD (ok Dunkin Doughnuts) to open one or even two shops on the Common

ERGO -- Police arrive and hang around -- ERGO far fewer places for criminals to hang around and do crime

Let's think creative

Westy
 
Adding a chain to the park would be a major lost opportunity to create something authentic and attractive which is what the park deserves and needs. Adding a restaurant that serves lunch and dinner with some kind of night time entertainment would be great. Especially if it were titled something that were true to Boston that could eventually gain the reputation that Cheers or someplace like that.

Although, it would be great to increase the population of empty, stained and gritty Dunkin cups throughout the park.
 
Two words: Jazz Club.

Good cocktails, good (but reasonably priced) food, large patio, intimate band shell.

Maybe a tensile structure. Think lots of glass and greenery.
 
Two words: Jazz Club.
Click to expand...

Right on! You hit on the head with that one! From what I hear Boston used to have a very lively Jazz scene. Wally's and now the new Beehive are my 2 favorite spots in town but aren't enough to attract a great live jazz scene to Boston.
 
Why limit it to jazz? I'd love to see it bring out a younger crowd, and be a platform for all music. Emerson has a little times square-type thing going on across the street, with live performers in the window daily, it would be awesome if they could stretch it across the street.

From my eyes the common works tremendously well in terms of circulation and use, the diagram is solid through the middle, but the edges need work, and a bit around the big monument. The built infrastructure of the park needs a thorough overhaul. Hire a competent local firm with respect for historical renovation and tasteful detail work (this eliminates Halvorson thankfully), perhaps Michael Van Valkenbergh Associates (Harvard Yard, Wellesley College) or Reed Hilderbrand (Arnold Arboretum, Mount Auburn Cemetery)

I understand the paltriness of the vegetation along tremont as being necessary due to the green line tunnel, but really it can be handled better than that. Also the scale of the trees at the Boylston/Tremont corner really fails. I'm assuming also that is because of the curve of the tunnel. It would be great to bring in West 8 or some amazing landscape/urban design firm to do some sort of edge/plaza intervention there. Think crown fountain in chicago. West 8 has done some projects like this where a vital, modern, urban place is reconciled in a historical setting, without being deferential (they are contemporary designers in Europe, its kind of necessary to do that to survive). Really play off of the movie theater and the glitz and glamour of that stretch of tremont through the theater district (both existing and planned) and as the real 24 hour edge of the park.

And probably the most controversial suggestion: cut down that god awful tree that is in front of the statehouse, behind the Black Civil War unit's memorial. Am I missing something here? Why is that there? It is stunted, contorted, and violates the axis of that sloping lawn down to the fountain--er excuse, homeless urinal. Also drop a few dimes and get some real trees along that thing, and pay attention to where you plant them!
 
Pierce said:
cut down that god awful tree that is in front of the statehouse, behind the Black Civil War unit's memorial.
Click to expand...

img2244wu3.jpg
 
150889115_296a65923a_b.jpg



And even in summer, its a really bad placement. Like sticking a hand in the face.
 
I am not 100% sure, but I have hunch that this deformed trees are actually surviving Elm Trees. That's why the parks dept keeps them going even if they appear to be on life support. I recall reading some time ago that the city is continually and agressively treating the very few Elms left to keep Dutch Elm Disease at bay.
 
Of all the trees that had to survive...sheesh.
 
I just did a double take on the picture above (the tree without foilage). I didn't notice it before I posted my prior post re: the city's persistant treatment of these trees. Look closely at the pic, it appears while the pic was taken work was being done to the tree.
 
Maybe they can transplant the tree to the greenway to live with the other happy trees.
 
If you look, the two elms on either side of the Shaw Memorial have been pruned this year, leaving barely enough to keep the trees alive. Yet, these elms, and the other one cited, are part of the early plantings for the tree-lined malls that circled the Common, and so have an historic character that would only attract lots of negative attention if cut down.
 
Padre Mike said:
If you look, the two elms on either side of the Shaw Memorial have been pruned this year, leaving barely enough to keep the trees alive. Yet, these elms, and the other one cited, are part of the early plantings for the tree-lined malls that circled the Common, and so have an historic character that would only attract lots of negative attention if cut down.
Click to expand...

Very true. I guess my two gripes would be:

-one with the [long since dead] person who thought that that was a good place to plant a tree that would eventually be 70' tall (thank god this person wasn't in charge of the washington mall)

-why this axial, important space of the common (like the mall in central park) wasn't given primal importance, and even if the elms could not be saved as in central park, why wasn't the spirit of the place maintained and priority given to thoughtfully replacing the elms as they died? Its quite a powerful sightline between the dome and the fountain, very intentionally framed and setup. The bones of the park, the paths, lawns and older plantings, recognize it, but the newer plantings, lightpole layout, etc., completely ignores it, almost tries to break it up
 
I don't know if it's true or just "local legend", but supposedly someone famous planted those trees. It was either Hancock or his mistress JS Copley, I don't remember.
 
Well we'll just have to get someone famous to cut it down then
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top