Rose Kennedy Greenway

I too would like to know what happened to the climbing vines. It shouldn't be that hard to start and sustain them. The ones over in Christopher Columbus Park seem to do just fine.
 
The vines at Columbus took years, probably over a decade to look like that. I'm still shocked to see them because when I worked in Boston they were stubs.
 
It's official. The Rose Kennedy Greenway is the most expensive Glorified Median Strip in the country.

So goddam hot on the median strip without shade it might actually kill someone this week.

does anybody know the yearly maintaince to for this Median Strip?
 
There are actually vines growing up the side of the trellis - the issue is that when the vines reach the top, they will not create a canopy of shade because the top trellis' are much too far apart. Shoddy design.
 
bdurden said:
There are actually vines growing up the side of the trellis - the issue is that when the vines reach the top, they will not create a canopy of shade because the top trellis' are much too far apart. Shoddy design.
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Different waterfront park (Georgetown DC) currently under construction. Perhaps even wider spacing of the spars, but there seems to be a mesh of sorts between the spars, and perhaps something similar will also be installed on the North End's pergola when the vines get to that height. (Can't tell yet how this will look horizontally because only the vertical masts have been installed.)

perspective-3.jpg
 
I know some of the parcels have water fountains, and those seem to be the better parcels, but another thing that might be cool for RKG are those fountains that sporatically shoot a stream of water in an arch. They look like they are jumping from one spot to the next. I saw them in Epcott back in '86 and thought they were awsome. They could do a meanering path around some of the parcels and help tie them together.
 
TheRifleman said:
Predicition 2010 deaths: Two people will die on the greenway from heat exhaustion. Lack of shade and water.
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Ha. Greenway as a human rights violation? I think it already restricts the right to movement. Developing it as parks instead of housing may have had an adverse effect on the cost of living and Bostonians' right to shelter.
 
Anyone else think the mesh on the pergolas that would allow the vines to gain some purchase was either removed as a safeguard against vandalism, or simply value-engineered out of the project?
 
Beton Brut said:
Anyone else think the mesh on the pergolas that would allow the vines to gain some purchase was either removed as a safeguard against vandalism, or simply value-engineered out of the project?
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Or removed due to concerns over the shadows the mesh/vines might cast?
 
I don't think the problem is lack of mesh (though that would surely help) - I think it's that the pergolas are metal and painted brown, which means they heat up hot enough to fry an egg (or anything that would otherwise grow on it) on any given sunny summer day....the landscape architects must've skipped thermodynamics class the day they were talking about heat transfer....

Counterpoint, the wooden pergola at Christopher Columbus Park, which is covered in vines and is really very pleasant. Say what you want about Sasaki but they do a great pergola....
 
GW2500 said:
I know some of the parcels have water fountains, and those seem to be the better parcels, but another thing that might be cool for RKG are those fountains that sporatically shoot a stream of water in an arch. They look like they are jumping from one spot to the next. I saw them in Epcott back in '86 and thought they were awsome. They could do a meanering path around some of the parcels and help tie them together.
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YES. I saw that, too, was still there in the mid or late '90s. I'm not sure which of my visits it was, but I was still pretty young either way, and so I was absolutely amazed. It was like some strange watery creature diving around from spot to spot.
 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
Or removed due to concerns over the shadows the mesh/vines might cast?
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I make joke. My company built the NE park. I just asked one of our estimators if they ever had plans for mesh or anything to help the vines grow in the orignal plans. He said no. It was always just a metal pergola. And the fact that the pergola was metal was seen as a coup because it was a bigger capital outlay that would be less expensive to maintain in the long run (i.e, they were NOT being cheap).

Of course the mesh could have been value-engineered out before the plans went to bid . . . .
 
^^ Another example of what Lurker has called "Weapons-Grade Stupidity."
 
When the pergolas in the N. End park were built and planted, I had complained here, and was contradicted. Other posts insisted the vines would jump from horizontal to horizontal and fill the space. That was 2 years ago. I reiterate now that:
1. The species of vine is not appropriate for growing on a steel structure...too delicate, esp.to survive winters. The pergola at Columbus park is filled with wisteria, a very fast growing (even invasive) and strong vine. In fact, when the pergola was restructured last time, it took only a couple of years for the vines to grow back, stronger than ever. Surely the steel of the North End pergolas can support wisteria.
2. I could not believe that the wires for the vines were solely vertical. A mesh is not necessary, just a few interconnecting steel pipes welded onto the frame will be be enough to catch the tendrils of wisteria, or some other heartier vine species.
3. They still haven't fixed the fountain jets, which were supposed to be plumb to the surface and not arcing all over the place.
 
The landscape architects for the North End parks were the Wallace Floyd Design Group of Boston and Gustafson Partners (Porter?) of Seattle. Can't find a web site for Wallace Floyd, but here is one for Gustafson.
http://www.gustafson-porter.com/intro.htm

If the failure of the water feature to work correctly is a construction flaw, that should be remedied by the responsible contractor. If a design flaw,.....
 
stellarfun said:
The landscape architects for the North End parks were the Wallace Floyd Design Group of Boston and Gustafson Partners (Porter?) of Seattle. Can't find a web site for Wallace Floyd, but here is one for Gustafson.
http://www.gustafson-porter.com/intro.htm

If the failure of the water feature to work correctly is a construction flaw, that should be remedied by the responsible contractor. If a design flaw,.....
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Two different pump vaults for the NE Parks. Both systems worked fine when they were turned over to the State. However, both were run over by DOT maintanence trucks and damaged during the first or maybe second winter after completion. One flooded completely and ruined the pumps and some of the piping. The other had less extensive damage (I don't recall the specifics).

You could argue that this was a design flaw (vaults not designed to handle vehicle loads). However, I suggest that this was the fault of the maintenence worker who assumed the park was entirely safe to drive over or was too damn lazy to figure out where to put his truck.
 
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