Rose Kennedy Greenway

czsz said:
I noticed that Philadelphia has this new public space, "the Porch," outside 30th Street Station:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/08/philadelphia-porch-entire-city/2885/

It's basically a bunch of poured concrete in an otherwise desolate area with some tables and programming. And yet, Atlantic Cities reports that it's monstrously popular.

I immediately thought of the Greenway, which largely sits amid a slightly less lifeless area and still often manages to be deserted, despite the endless $$s sunk into the conservancy and its festivals. And yet no one ever reports the Greenway being consistently so popular (despite also having a major train station at one end). Is this simply a matter of scale? Something to do with the specific programming (at the porch, it seems more whimsical)?

Has anyone been? Is this space just overhyped?
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Granted, I'm haven't there at all times of day (hardly ever in the morning), but I have never seen the Greenway even remotely deserted in the last two months.
 
Curious, because the only time I see it not deserted is when there's an event going on. I presume the lunch time crowd also fills it.
 
The spot around the Haymarket/North End Parks is a very "popular strip of urban parkland" though.
 
I took a run through the Greenway Parcels this morning. I was completely wrong the way its evolving. the Median Strip was a disaster. I do see potential but seriously we are getting ripped off.

Besides looking like it got trashed. Bums sleeping on benches. It sucks.
A couple of parcels are filling in nice with Greenery but the rest of the Greenway is a joke.

Somebody really needs to figure out what the Greenway Conservancy is doing with our 2.5 Million dollars a year. That is 25 Million in 10 years for WHAT? 1/2 the Greenway is cemet which had litter all over it.

Maybe Monday is clean up day.
 
The backlash on this is unfortunate. Sadly, the public correlation between the balaclava and crime is very real.

Public art will be much duller in Boston moving forward. Did you know that the Greenway already had a few sculptures installed on it? Neither did I.

People not from Boston don't believe me when I tell them Boston is a conservative city, but it is.
 
People wouldn't be complaining about art if modern art wasn't utter garbage. A mural which appears to be a giant wasted Simpsons character taking a nap isn't worthy of a prominent public space.
 
No, I'm pretty sure the only people who are complaining are the idiots who think it looks like a 'terrist.
 
The point of modern art is to get people talking, usually about social or political issues. "What is it?" "Why is it there?" "Who made it?" Etc...

It's got people talking for sure, probably not along the lines of the artists intent, but intent is all a construct, an idealized message for the masses that is always interpreted differently by every viewer.

And because of this, the mural is a success.
 
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The Mural probably has more success than the Rose Kennedy Greenway. That is why they authorized such a controversial drawing for the Greenway.

They want and need people on the Median strip now debating over this mural.

I still think this Mural was not right for this location. But what do I know.
 
Lurker: It's fair to dislike modern art, but I'm not sure a classical piece would have fit as well. Can you picture a Caravaggio making good use of this wall? Neither can I. It's a temporary space, anyway.

People not from Boston don't believe me when I tell them Boston is a conservative city, but it is.
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It's aesthetically conservative, which is what's weird to most people. It's assumed that, if the local population is enthusiastic about gay marriage and universal healthcare, they also have avant-garde fashion or artistic preferences, but in Boston people believe strongly in these things as well as an antiseptically corporate cityscape and preppy ensembles.
 
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The parallels between this controversy and the one that arose over the Vietnam-era Corita Kent Boston Gas tank mural are uncanny. Both concern contemporary artworks painted on infrastructural eye-sores. Both were suspected by some detractors of surreptitiously depicting the current boogey man of the day -- this, a Muslim terrorist; the gas tank, communist Ho Chi Minh. Both also won the immediate affection of many and were considered instant icons.

The gas tank artwork survived its controversy to become a cherished city landmark. It had become so cherished that when the tank that wore the original mural was demolished in the 90s, the painting was painstakingly recreated on the adjacent remaining tank.

I like the new vent building mural. I don't think it's supposed to depict a terrorist, but that's really beside the point. I think it's big and bright and playful and inventive and a little strange. It grabs your attention and it's fun to look at and wonder about. In other words, I think it's interesting--the most interesting thing on the Greenway. The only interesting thing on the Greenway.

I hope the Powers That Be reconsider its temporary status and make it permanent (are they really going to power wash it off in a year to restore the wall to its former blank brilliance?). If it survives long enough maybe it too will become a cherished Boston landmark and they'll be painstakingly recreating it on whatever inevitably replaces that vent building somewhere down the line.
 
^briv

Well put, and I think your point is valid regardless on whether one likes or dislikes the content of the mural. IMO, the key to great public art is a level of independence and trust in the curation. Committees and process tend to churn challenging artistic expressions into bland pacifiers. Same goes for great architecture.
 
LOL, Briv, I had completely forgotten about the huge "Ho Chi Minh" controversy that took place over Corita Kent's mural on the Boston Gas tank. And if I remember correctly, Corita Kent was a nun! Who would have thought that a colorful mural painted by a nun would have caused such a huge brouhaha! But it did!!! Thanks for your post!!
 
briv said:
The parallels between this controversy and the one that arose over the Vietnam-era Corita Kent Boston Gas tank mural are uncanny. Both concern contemporary artworks painted on infrastructural eye-sores. Both were suspected by some detractors of surreptitiously depicting the current boogey man of the day -- this, a Muslim terrorist; the gas tank, communist Ho Chi Minh. Both also won the immediate affection of many and were considered instant icons.


I like the new vent building mural. I don't think it's supposed to depict a terrorist, but that's really beside the point. I think it's big and bright and playful and inventive and a little strange. It grabs your attention and it's fun to look at and wonder about. In other words, I think it's interesting--the most interesting thing on the Greenway. The only interesting thing on the Greenway.

I hope the Powers That Be reconsider its temporary status and make it permanent (are they really going to power wash it off in a year to restore the wall to its former blank brilliance?). If it survives long enough maybe it too will become a cherished Boston landmark and they'll be painstakingly recreating it on whatever inevitably replaces that vent building somewhere down the line.
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Tell that to the poor souls fighting for our so called freedom in the middle east. No-matter what this drawing is supposed to mean (peace, Equality, whatever) Right now the public perception is that the drawing looks like a terrorist. Maybe it is plain ignorance & uneducated crowd but if somebody draws a picture portraying a Hilter type character but the entire explanation justify the drawing. That still would get the crowd complaining.
Bottom-line the General consensus is that this particular drawing is dis-respectful to the American People.

That is my opinion.

The only reason they got the okay for this drawing was to cause controversy for the Greenway. After taking a run-down Rosies park the other day I could not believe how much it really sucks. I must have been crazy to believe this was evolving better than I could imagine.

This Mural will be the talk of Boston for the next couple weeks.
 
So the image portrays a terrorists because the subject has some sort of cloth wrapped around his head. So, I guess you can also justify the recent shooting in the Sikh temple? They have cloth wrapped around their heads, why they must have been terrorists, too.
 
joebos said:
So the image portrays a terrorists because the subject has some sort of cloth wrapped around his head. So, I guess you can also justify the recent shooting in the Sikh temple? They have cloth wrapped around their heads, why they must have been terrorists, too.
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I'm saying the General Public perception.
 
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