Rose Kennedy Greenway

czsz said:
Um, the only thing new here is sunshine.

With the exception of the bits where people are moving in a straight line between the city and harbor, Government Center is still more lively than this.

The second to last photo reminds me of the verandah of a golf course in the off season.
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And maybe that is the difference that made the Greenway more bustling than it was before. Obviously people wouldn't go there when it is raining or when it is cold and it is just Spring. It'll be a lot more crowded when tourists arrives.
 
Equilibria said:
The vast expanses of Wharf District lawn could also be developed as buildings. The pathways and planters are nice, but a whole Greenway of them is a little excessive.

The problem is that this park is too big to use solely "park" elements, like lawns or planted paths, but too small to include "big park" elements like ponds, playing fields, etc. There's an attempt here to be as varied as possible, but there really shouldn't jut be a lawn there.

I could easily see some greenhouse enclosures there, maybe for the Park Service (what an amazing original thought...) or even for gift shops, cafes, or market stalls. Including some T entrances might help too, though I'm not sure where that would be feasible.

The nice thing about lawns is that they're blank slates. Anything could go there, and in the meantime it simply looks awkward, not ugly. Oh, and the whole Greenway is getting used plenty as it is, anyway.
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The National Park Service is planning on building a visitors center in the Wharf District parks.
 
Czsz, seriously, it isn't that bad. The Wharf District parks need work, but for the other parks, take it as the best we can get. There's little chance buildings are going on there, and still, there will be a few buildings here and there. They are doing quite good, compared to the lowered expectations we have here on ArchBoston.
 
I've walked the Greenway from Christopher Columbus Park to South Station a few times during the past few weeks of warm weather. I find most of it quite pleasant, until I reach Northern Avenue. From there to Dewey Square, the park is unlit, unpaved, and seemingly lacking in landscaping. Is there a plan for improving this section?
 
ChunkyMonkey said:
I thought MassHort was going to do some sort of subdued botanical gardens on those parcels.

http://www.masshort.org/greenway
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The parcels towards the Zakim Bridge are development parcels, with new buildings proposed.

MassHort's parcels are the three between International Place and South Station, (not including the paved Dewey Square portion). They are under construction by MassHort now and at the moment look like, well, a construction site - lots of dirt and mulch, and some tired-looking lawns. But they ought to be shaping up a lot over the next couple months.
 
Crit Happens said:
The parcels towards the Zakim Bridge are development parcels, with new buildings proposed.
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Not the ones I was referring to.

MassHort's parcels are the three between International Place and South Station, (not including the paved Dewey Square portion).
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These are the ones I referred to. Thanks for the update, and I look forward to the result. Do you know if MassHort's final plans will include either paving or lighting?
 
On that MassHort web site (http://www.masshort.org/greenway) you can volunteer on a Saturday to help plant, rake, and build out these parcels. I volunteered for a couple Saturdays. They are looking for help in two hour shifts and you can volunteer on Saturdays.
 
The former MassHort parcels you refer to are receiving temporary treatments which started last year. The end results will be pretty much what you see there now (stone dust pathways, no lights, etc) except more plantings and better looking grass. They just finished installing an irrigation system and have started additional plantings, with PelhamHall as a volunteer gardener. This is temporary. The Greenway Conservancy, the BRA, and the Turnpike are coming up with a permanent design/plan for the three parcels.

I went to the first public meeting on this last month and the some of the preliminary ideas for the parcels definitely have the wow factor and seem pretty progressive. The comments from the audience at the meeting were generally positive about the whole thing.

I will surely go to the next public meeting as it was really informative.
 
Waldorf, the MassHort site has a plant and shrub list for the parcels, no trees listed so I assume the trees are what MTA has already planted there. Am I correct in presuming the permanent designs are not resurrecting the garden(s) under glass whose cost exceeded MassHort's fund-raising ability?
 
The North End parks fountains were turned on recently. They were designed to be jets of water squirting perpendicular to the earth. They were so adjusted last Fall. Now they are squirting in arcs, quite unattractively. I've emailed the conservancey and hope others will, to correct this problem now, rather than have it become normalized. Maybe I'm the only one bothered by it, but if not, there's a contact opportunity on their site: rosekennedygreenway.org
 
Paving the way to a downtown park
First 900 'hearts' of stone sold in time for dedication
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size ? + By Thomas C. Palmer Jr.
Globe Staff / May 10, 2008
The Mothers Walk is turning out to be the most successful element of the long-delayed, nearly completed Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

more stories like thisThe Greenway Conservancy, which oversees the new park that courses through downtown Boston, said yesterday it has sold all 900 paving stones that will be installed in the Mothers Walk pathway before the park inauguration ceremony in October.

Buyers of the $500 pavers can have them inscribed and dedicated to mothers or anyone who inspired them. The funds will go toward an endowment for the parks.

"The program has been wildly successful," said Lisa M. Mykyta, who runs the program for the conservancy, a private nonprofit organization.

An overwhelming percent of the sold pavers are dedicated to females - many honoring mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers - Mykyta said, and more than half of the buyers are women. About 14 percent of buyers purchased more than one paver. Dorothy Terrell, a member of the conservancy board, said she bought six to honor female relatives.

Lorraine Goodwin of Concord bought the last paver yesterday morning, after reading a local newspaper story about the program, even though she has never visited the new parks.

"I knew about the Greenway, but I didn't know they were doing these pavers," Goodwin said. "I thought this would be very nice to do for my mother," who was from Stamford, Conn.

The stone will read: "Dolores P. Rubino, With our Love," and will carry the names of Goodwin and her husband, Steven, and daughter, Beth.

Goodwin considered including her mother's maiden name, but she said it was "a long Polish name, and I'm not even sure it would fit across."

The program allows purchasers to honor one person on each 6-by-6-inch cobblestone-like block, with a choice of phrases, such as, "With Love" or "Thank You." It also allows engraving of a date - but not two dates, because conservancy officials didn't want the Greenway to resemble a cemetery or memorial garden.

At first only middle initials were to be allowed, but so many prospective purchasers wanted their mothers' maiden names on the stones that middle names are now accepted. The cost of the pavers is tax deductible.

Mykyta said 37 percent of those ordering are from the Boston area, but orders have come in from as far as Barcelona and China.

Conservancy officials conceived of the Mothers Walk pavers as a fund-raiser to contribute to the park's long-term maintenance and to education programs. Unsure of how successful the program would be, they set a deadline of June 30 and said any stones ordered by then could be manufactured, inscribed, and laid in place along the walkway by the Greenway's official dedication on Oct. 4. Its overall fund-raising has yielded about $20 million through a variety of public and private donors, which it will use to begin operating and maintaining the post-Big Dig parks, which it is assuming from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

More than 50 of the pavers have already been placed in the walk.

The program has been so successful that the Conservancy is offering 500 more of the pavers for sale, but does not guarantee they will be installed by the dedication. They can be bought online at rosekennedygreenway.org or by mail.

One hundred pavers are being reserved for students in Boston schools and members of youth organizations.

The Mothers Walk is in keeping with the Greenway as a tribute to the mother of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, for whom the mile-long corridor of parks and public space is named. It extends for four of the 12 blocks of the Greenway, between Atlantic Avenue at Christopher Columbus Park and the Evelyn Moakley Bridge.

Mykyta said there will be a "paver locator" on the conservancy's website, so anyone planning to visit the Greenway can find a paver he or she is looking for.

The stones are manufactured of strong concrete and are engraved with lasers, the letters then treated with black Lithocrome stain so they stand out.

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.
 
stellarfun said:
Waldorf, the MassHort site has a plant and shrub list for the parcels, no trees listed so I assume the trees are what MTA has already planted there. Am I correct in presuming the permanent designs are not resurrecting the garden(s) under glass whose cost exceeded MassHort's fund-raising ability?
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They did plant a few more trees that were not on the list and by a few more, I mean less than 10. They are relying solely on donated plants.

The Garden Under Glass idea is gone, dead, and buried (in the dirt that is those parcels). MassHort's only involvement are these temporary landscape treatments.
 
Padre Mike said:
The North End parks fountains were turned on recently. They were designed to be jets of water squirting perpendicular to the earth. They were so adjusted last Fall. Now they are squirting in arcs, quite unattractively. I've emailed the conservancey and hope others will, to correct this problem now, rather than have it become normalized. Maybe I'm the only one bothered by it, but if not, there's a contact opportunity on their site: rosekennedygreenway.org
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I noticed that too, they look really pathetic now. I'll have a chat with someone.
 
Waldorf said:
They did plant a few more trees that were not on the list and by a few more, I mean less than 10. They are relying solely on donated plants.
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This spring MassHort planted about 25 to 30 trees over and above what the Turnpike Authority (Big Dig) planted.

MassHort purchased most of the shrubs and trees, though in some cases they've accepting donations to cover the cost. They've grown many of the flowering perennials themselves and purchased others. But you are right that donations play an important role, and in fact the actual work of planting is being done mostly by volunteers, although MassHort staff continue to do much of the heavy lifting.
 
Not directly about Boston but...

This pertains not only to the Greenway but also to the large number of beautiful-but-probably ill-conceived parks near North Point along the Charles and similar parks demanded for, well, every development site in Boston, from Columbus Center to the "Dainty Not" site.

It looks like Washington, DC, is realizing that turning itself into a meadow isn't the best way to give residents an interesting way to spend their time; the city is encouraging more and more (particularly waterfront) developments where there was once empty, underused parkland. Hopefully Boston will someday exercise see the light...

Full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/09/AR2008050901011_2.html

Excerpts:

Along Washington's rivers, parkland and cafes are out of balance. We have more than enough waterfront parkland and not enough waterfront cafes.

This explains why, in last Sunday's perfect spring weather, such an immense throng gathered at Washington Harbour in Georgetown.

Where else could people have enjoyed the sunshine, cool breezes, fabulous views, and decent food and beverage service? Washington Harbour is one of the few places in the District on the Potomac River where boats can tie up, pedestrians and bicyclists can promenade, and people can chatter and watch one another.

Just upriver, the National Park Service is putting finishing touches on Georgetown's new waterfront park. Filling the space between the river and the Whitehurst Freeway looming over K Street, the park stretches along the Potomac from the end of Wisconsin Avenue toward the Key Bridge. Adding that to the existing park next to Washington Harbour will give Georgetown a continuous waterfront park more than 2,000 feet long.

Yet this park would be so much better if it included a couple of well-designed pavilions housing cafes, with terraces or decks overlooking the river, both to compete with Washington Harbour and to enhance the park's magnetism and vitality. Such destinations can happily coexist with the park and still leave plenty of green landscape.

Providing additional park space along the river in Georgetown is justifiable. But Washington has abundant waterfront parkland. What's missing is a range of accessible, architecturally appealing places along the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, places with chairs, tables and umbrellas, with waiters and waitresses happy to serve you, in addition to grass, trees, flowers, shrubs and benches.

Fortunately federal and D.C. planners, as well as many citizens and public officials, have realized in recent years that creating architecturally activated waterfront destinations and preserving and enhancing waterfront parkland are not mutually exclusive.

This is beginning to yield results. Well underway on the north shore of the Anacostia River is the Southeast Federal Center, next to the historic Washington Navy Yard. The complex will include not only waterfront promenades, gardens and terraces, but also eateries and shops, all backed by a mix of high-density governmental, commercial and residential buildings.

Immediately west and southwest of the Southeast Federal Center is the rapidly changing neighborhood around the new Nationals Park. Plans call for waterfront destinations between the ballpark and the river, just upstream from the recently realigned Frederick Douglass Bridge.

Across the Anacostia River, ambitious plans for the redevelopment of Poplar Point envision mixed-use destinations at the waterfront, not just park expansion.
 
Re: Not directly about Boston but...

itchy said:
This pertains not only to the Greenway but also to the large number of beautiful-but-probably ill-conceived parks near North Point along the Charles and similar parks demanded for, well, every development site in Boston, from Columbus Center to the "Dainty Not" site.

It looks like Washington, DC, is realizing that turning itself into a meadow isn't the best way to give residents an interesting way to spend their time; the city is encouraging more and more (particularly waterfront) developments where there was once empty, underused parkland. Hopefully Boston will someday exercise see the light...

Full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/09/AR2008050901011_2.html
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Itchy, this was an op ed by a professor of architecture at Univ of Maryland.

As for your characterization of DC developing empty, underused parkland, that's not the case. The new Georgetown waterfront park, mentioned in the article, was previously a large surface parking lot, a la Fan Pier, and before that the home of a rendering plant and an asphalt plant. The new developments beside the just-opened baseball stadium and the old Navy Yard will be built on former industrial property, e.g., cement plants.

One of the major developers in the Navy Yard area is Forest City. They have the waterside parcel Their website for "The Yards" is:
http://www.dcyards.com/

Their vision:
SNAG-01840.jpg


IMO, it makes Fallon look pretty good.

PN Hoffman will redevelop an existing waterfront area, known as Maine Avenue. This was initially developed 30-40 years ago as a string of hotels, restaurants, and fishmonger boats.

http://www.pnhoffman.com/about/pdf/1130vision.pdf

Currently,
swoffice.jpg
 
Why does the second one need redevelopment? It looks like it is already full of boats and has a pleasant walkway along the marina edge.
 
^ Just because it's not abysmal doesn't mean there's not room for improvement.

Maine Ave. feels like a socialist beach resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
 
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