More shrubbery on the way for the Mass Hort parcels. Seems like cheap is the overriding theme on the greenway.
YMCA will revive plan to build on greenway
But this time project will be less expensive
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | April 5, 2007
A year and a half after the YMCA of Greater Boston scrapped plans to build a modern recreational facility on the emerging Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway downtown , its board has voted overwhelmingly to have another go at it.
This time, though, the YMCA will attempt to design and build a less expensive facility than its first proposal, which in September 2005 had grown to almost $70 million and prompted the organization to withdraw from the project .
"This is not just a toe in the water," YMCA president John Ferrell said yesterday of his board's near-unanimous decision to proceed. "This is a good-faith decision to go forward." He said YMCA executives hope to raise money for two years , start construction in 2010, and open about two years later.
Ferrell said the new estimated cost is about $35 million. Originally the Y proposed a facility that was priced at $42 million, but that figure rose dramatically as the cost of building on a block over Interstate 93, with five vehicular ramps, was refined. Tishman Construction Co. has been advising the Y and has budgeted a 16 percent contingency for inflation and other increases, Ferrell said.
In 2003, the Y was the first organization designated by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to build along the corridor that replaced the old elevated Central Artery. It is to be situated on a block between North Washington and New Sudbury streets along the North End .
The state Legislature earmarked $16 million for the Y, from a $31 million fund it created to help three nonprofit institutions build their proposed facilities on the three Greenway sites that have highway ramps.
Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, a private group that will manage the new parks, welcomed the Y board's decision. "There is the service not only to the adjacent neighborhood but to all the families downtown, and the young professionals," Brennan said. "It will bring another set of park visitors in."
The Y's earlier plan was for a 150,000-square-foot building, including about 50,000 square feet that would have been leased . The lease space has been eliminated from plans, but the 70,000-square-foot facility now planned will still have a pool, fitness space, teens and family activities, a child-care area, community space for residents, and a welcoming center -- including restrooms -- for visitors to the two blocks of North End parks just to the south. The Boston Business Journal was first to report the new plan, online Tuesday night.
CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares Inc. of Boston was the original architect. "There's no reason I know we would not go back to them," Ferrell said. But, he added, "We'll be starting from scratch with a new design."
Meanwhile, at the other end of the Greenway, the conservancy and turnpike authority are pushing ahead with plans to do a minimal amount of landscaping on the three park blocks between the Moakley bridge and South Station, to have the sites ready for this summer.
More than 15 years ago, those blocks were designated for parks and a winter garden structure to be developed by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. But after MassHort failed to make significant progress on its grand plans and the three blocks faced the prospect of being empty for the foreseeable future, the Turnpike is planning for the near future to proceed without the organization. Meanwhile, the Boston Redevelopment Authority will conduct a public process to determine what permanent structure, if any, should be built there.
Linda Jonash, manager of design and construction for the conservancy, said at a meeting of the organization this week that there isn't much money available to improve those blocks. "It may not be knock-your-socks-off park material," she said, but they will have grass, trees, and brick sidewalks, and will open to the public soon.
"We don't want to do something short-term that impinges on our ability to do something long-term," said Peter Meade, chairman of the conservancy.
Although the greenway won't formally open until fall 2008, it will be substantially complete a year earlier, and events have already been scheduled. Brennan said the first big event on the greenway will be July 22 and feature picnics and arts, cultural, and history activities.
That date is the anniversary of Rose Kennedy's birth. The mother of Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the late president, John F. Kennedy, she is the namesake for the parks created by the Big Dig.
