Rose Kennedy Greenway

Yesterday the large circular "dancing" fountain in the Wharf Section was open and operating...
 
^^
Meh.

I just walked by it and am very unimpressed. Looks like something you might find outside a halfway decent Las Vegas hotel. Would be nice in one of the smaller parks, but as the featured fountain it is very uninspired.
As I've said from the beginning the standard by which this park will be measured (by me at least) is Millennium Park in Chicago, and if you are familiar with the featured fountain there you know it is creative, funky and unique. Everything this fountain is not.
The one thing the park designers did get right in this park it the stonework. Very impressive. Granted there are a lot of Home Depot-esque pavers, but there is also a lot of real granite. They did not cheap out with the stonework and it shows.
 
The Nortth End parks are "wonderful".

The North End's new lawn

November 7, 2007

TO APPRECIATE the two parks that were formally opened in the North End this week, residents should remember what it was like to cross through here a few years ago. A pedestrian had to endure the looming shadow of the Central Artery, skirt a dingy parking lot, and brave a highway crossing clogged with cars exiting the Sumner Tunnel.

Yet thousands of people make this foot trip every day, and now they are greeted by a choice of crossings to Hanover, Salem, or North streets, two swaths of lawns, a perennial garden that changes color with the season, two fountains, and a porch-like linear plaza filled with tables and chairs available for a quick rest or a quiet conversation. Traffic from the tunnel is safely underground. In this section of Boston, the depression of the Central Artery was unambiguously worth the expense and difficulties of construction.

These wonderful parks are a tribute to the designers, the local firm Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge and Seattle-based Gustafson, Guthrie and Nichol; McCourt Construction, which built them; the hundreds of neighbors who offered suggestions; and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which supervised the project.

The parks show government at its best, so it was to be expected that public officials would be there: Senator Edward Kennedy (with his two dogs), Governor Deval Patrick, and Mayor Thomas Menino among them. "What a glorious day in the city of Boston," the mayor exulted.

And yet, even though the parks connect downtown Boston to the North End, they are not owned by the city, but by the Turnpike Authority, which will maintain them until the nonprofit Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy assumes that responsibility in the undetermined future. The Turnpike Authority is a transportation agency, not a parks manager. It is no surprise that park watchers already are noticing that the greenery is starting to show wear.

The North End parks and the other green spaces above the artery will be heavily used and require a level of expertise that the conservancy is working hard to develop. But the Turnpike Authority should not be distracted from its transportation mission. Sooner rather than later, this great series of Boston parks should be owned by the city.
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Boston Globe editorial
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ed.../articles/2007/11/07/the_north_ends_new_lawn/

Turning the parks over to the city is not a solution when the city cannot maintain the parks it already owns. And Menino is unwilling to spend the money, and cries poor-mouth about the city budget.
 
stellarfun said:
Turning the parks over to the city is not a solution when the city cannot maintain the parks it already owns. And Menino is unwilling to spend the money, and cries poor-mouth about the city budget.
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So what's with the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy?
 
^^ The conservatory is still scheduled to be the controlling body.
And yet, even though the parks connect downtown Boston to the North End, they are not owned by the city, but by the Turnpike Authority, which will maintain them until the nonprofit Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy assumes that responsibility in the undetermined future.
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I assume they are still working on getting all their ducks in a row (funding, organization, legalities, etc...)
The author was for some reason suggesting that the city assume control from the conservatory at some point in the future.
Stellarfun was rightly pointing out what an incredibly stupid idea that was.
 
Gee, I enjoyed the circular fountain. It has at least 6 configurations (I couldn't wait for them all)...it's kind of mesmerizing in its way. I'm sure a more monumental fountain would be difficult to build over the tunnel....and would likely go "the way of all flesh"...a la the Government Center fountain of happy memory (which actually worked for about 5 years before it broke down.)
 
...totally agree with the Padre. I have only seen this fountain at night and in that context have found it to be utterly captivating. Equally captivating is watching how passers-by react to the fountain's choreography. The color-changing-light-blade-sculpture-things are great as a back drop.
 
Someone should take a picture with the light blades in the background and fountain in the foreground just so we don't all think it sucks.
 
There were a ton of people stopping to watch this fountain the other night. They really seem to like these particular parks. I talked with a father and son who were biking along the Greenway and stopped when the fountain and light show caught their attention. They both gushed about how great they thought the Greenway was turning out.

This fountain does all kinds of different stuff, including spew smoke.

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And here's one of the NE park at night:

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I like the view that the Greenway gives of the Rowes Wharf arch from far away (e.g. Quincy Market). But I doubt that view will still exist once the New Center for Arts & Culture is built.

On the few warm days that we've had since the North End parks opened, I've seen many people sit at those 'front porch' benches.
 
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Too bad it's almost winter. Those fountains are probably going to be shut off soon but I agree, the Greenway is turning out pretty well.
 
I came across an old file which had the planting list for the Greenway. It was developed as part of the contract solicitation. I've retyped the list with respect to trees, and omitted the bushes and ground cover. The underlined portion is described as coding for the planting plan sheets.

As I recall, the plants had to be grown through 1 or 2 New England winters before delivery. I can't say that this is a final list of whats actually being planted -- treewise -- along the Greenway. I know they had to change some of the planting because of insufficient soil on top of several tunnel sections. The number before the tree name is the number of trees for that sectionb of the Greenway. The largest number of plants of any one type on the list were 20,000 climbing hydrangeas. The deciduous trees were generally to be 2.5 to 3 inches caliper. The evergreens between 8 and 10 feet high. The trees for Parcel 18 were to be 3.5 to 4 inch caliper.

LP-001 through LP-003

254 European Hornbeam
164 Chinese Elm
55 Japanese tree lilac


LA-01 through LA-06

112 Austrian Pines
112 Serbian Spruce
56 European Hornbeam
57 Chinese Elm


L-161 through L-193

9 Washington Hawthorn
95 Gingko
29 Haika Thornless Honeylocust
15 Saucer Magnolia
4 Japanese Flowering Crab
8 Bloodgood London Plane
8 Sargent Cherry
7 Kwanzan Cherry
26 Pin Oak
6 Regent Scholar (tree)
38 Greenspire Littleleaf Linden


LS-301 through LS-892A

15 Armstrong Red Maple
12 October Glory Red Maple
103 Halka Thornless Honeylocust
8 Skyline Thornless Honeylocust
67 Bloodgood London Plane (tree)
4 Aristocrat Gallery Pear
39 Northern Pin Oak
20 New Harmony American Elm
12 Valley Forge American elm
49 Lacebark Elm


L-314 through L-893A

38 Armstrong red maple
58 October Glory Red Maple
3 Red Horsechestnut
4 Washington Hawthorn
44 Skyline Thornless Honeylocust2
7 Adams Flowering Crab
25 Aristocrat Gallery Pear
77 Regent Scholar (tree)
6 New Harmony American Elm


L-033 through L-047

1 Serbian spruce
14 Paperback Maple
13 Columnar Eurpoean Hornbeam
2 Washington Hawthorn
25 Shademaster Honey Locust
3 Saucer Magnolia
6 Persian panotia
17 Aristicrat Gallery Pear
70 Red Oak
20 Japanese Pagoda (tree)


LS-773 through LS-776 Parcel 18
(Parcel 18 is in front of international Place, almost two acres in size.)

5 Bald Cypress
5 Dawn Redwood
1 Oriental Spruce
1 Serbian Spruce
1 White Spruce
2 American Hornbeam
2 American Larch
1 Amur Maple
1 Black Locust
1 Castor aralia
1 Cucumber Magnolia
2 Downy serviceberry
2 European Hornbeam
2 European Larch
1 Golden Rain (tree)
2 Golden chain (tree)
1 Hardy Rubber (tree)
1 Horsechestnut
2 Japanese larch
1 Katsura
3 Kentucky coffeetree
4 Lacebark elm
1 London plane (tree)
1 Maidenhair (tree)
3 Paperback maple
3 Sassafras
1 Scholar (tree)
1 Sourwood
3 Southern Catalpa
1 Stewartia (tree)
1 Sycamore
1 Tulip (tree)
1 White ash
3 Yellow wood
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The fountains make the light blades look even cheaper.
 
I went by the main fountain today and it seemed to be off...the north end parks were running, however.
 
I went by the fountain area tonight...disappointed that it was off. VERY DISAPPOINTED that the area was taken over by skateboarders....ruining the stonework as always.
 
Padre Mike said:
I went by the fountain area tonight...disappointed that it was off. VERY DISAPPOINTED that the area was taken over by skateboarders....ruining the stonework as always.
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Atleast someones using the Greenway.
 
Geez, why can't used that nice new skate park that was buil....

oh, right.
 
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