Rose Kennedy Greenway

Menino fixed up the skating rink on the Common and will not allow anything to diminish his success. That's why he nixed the planned rink at fan Pier.
 
Corey said:
Is there some room for a seasonal skating rink anywhere here? Greenways are lovely in the summer when they are all green but in winter tend to become a cold and deserted area.
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Its a very short walk from the DCR owned rink in the north end, which is open to the public for 4 months at no cost (rentals are $5) and available the rest of the year for a fee (you pay something like 60$ for an hour for the rink, and if you want it all for yourself, then so be it)
 
Yeah, but that's an indoor rink. It's a different experience from an outdoor rink.
 
I guess having an indoor rink near the greenway is good enough for now. At least you can skate there without freezing. I'm just trying to think of some things to do with the greenway in the winter besides avoiding it. Maybe I'm just not a fan of winter. I guess you could do some sleigh rides or cross-country skiing on it.
 
I actually don't think a small outdoor rink on the Greenway would be bad. I know that there is an indoor rink nearby, and that the one on the Common is clearly the big one in the city, but it's a pretty unique experience on a winter night to be out skating in the middle of the city.
 
Cultural center debut delayed

Greenway project will be scaled back, put off until 2012
By Geoff Edgers
Globe Staff / September 20, 2008

Organizers trying to build a cultural center on the Rose Kennedy Greenway will delay the start of construction until at least 2012 and downscale the project from the jagged four-story building designed by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, leaders of the project confirmed this week.

But the group pushing the New Center for Arts and Culture says it is still committed to parcel 18 of the Greenway, which sits just outside the Boston Harbor Hotel. The center, once expected to cost $80 million, will now come with a price tag of $50 million to $70 million and be smaller than the 67,000-square foot building once planned.

The two-year delay is the latest setback on the Greenway. Several other projects, ranging from a covered garden planned by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society to the Boston Museum, have also struggled to come to fruition. Once scheduled to open in 2010, the center will now be open no earlier than 2014, organizers say.

And the shift comes as the center searches for a new leader. Former chief executive officer Daniel Neuman, hired to open the doors of the New Center, left this summer after less than two years on the job to return to a teaching position at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Organizers refused to blame Neuman's departure for the delays. Instead, they said the factors are many, ranging from a weakened economy to the need to examine more deeply what the New Center should include.

"We are totally committed to the Greenway and the project, but what we felt is, as we are building our image and recognition within the community, with the need to hire a new CEO, we were better to put off the start of the project for a few years," said Robert Beal, chairman of the New Center's building committee. "We're totally committed to continuing to work with Daniel [Libeskind]. We're committed to move forward."

Beal said it was too early to know how the project - which was to have included galleries, seminar rooms, a cafe, and a 350-seat theater - will be downsized. Libeskind, whose designs include the Jewish Museum in Berlin and Imperial War Museum in Manchester, England, could not be reached for comment this week, but a representative from his office said that the "architectural process is dynamic" and that the architect is committed to building the Center.

Since it was unveiled in 2004, the center's mission has been to develop connections among groups historically separated by race, geography, and religion. Even without a building, it has presented a range of programs and exhibits in recent years, including a show about Jewish women and their salons at Boston College's McMullen Museum of Art. It will present the upcoming "Promised Land: Exodus and America" festival - which includes films and a talk with authors Gish Jen and Jamaica Kincaid. The festival will take place at a range of locations, from Northeastern University to West Newton Cinema, from Oct. 22 to 26.

Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservatory, said she agreed with the Center's decision to delay. Much has changed in the last five years, as new performance spaces have opened throughout Boston.

"They've got a good board and a very good chairman and a real status," said Brennan. "They have a proven track record of doing wonderful programs that are a good mix of scholarship and diversity in the community. I think it's a powerful, good organization."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.

Link
 
The Rose Kennedy Greenway was one of those great ideas that no one took the time to properly think through. It's better than a highway, no doubt, but this is just one misstep after another.
 
^^ Yeah, but let's be fair about this.


Who had time to think it through? It all happened so quickly!

One day there is a highway and the next -poof- nothing! Who could have seen that coming?
 
Hi all I am new here.....

Regarding the Greenway, I am just perplexed, as I am with most developments in this city, by how the majority of the RGW projects appear to be so poorly planned.

In the case of the Cultural Center though; I think a downscaling is a good idea. A four story building on any parcel is simply too large and too tall. Something in the ballpark of the ICA, imo, is more fitting for the parcel and what they had in mind for the Cultural Center would be better located on the ICA plot.

Whatever they put on the Greenway, I think that it must either be very flat and low to the ground or if taller, thin and predominately lattice/glass.

But it shouldn't dominate the greenery of the plot like the former Libeskind model, it should be surrounded by the green and a part of it. The model below is just not right for the location imo and it gets dominated by the surrounding city buildings.

This isn't Millenium Park....the whole point of the Greenway is the feeling of continuity you get from the beautiful space instead of that highway that I and most of us have tried to forget....

Still though, why so effing long??? Ugh....


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The cultural Center design was too linear, reminiscent unfortunately of the linearity of the old elevated highway. It even had a similar bulk and height.

It would be better to instroduce some buildings whose main axes are perpindicular to the Greenway. This would serve to tie the seperated sides of the city together and break up the Greenway's highway corridor effect. A few buildings could be designed to span over the Greenway roadways onto adajcent parcels, at right angles to the Greenway.
 
This is one exception where I must agree that height is not necessarily a good thing. I think it would be cool to have a building such as this one begin on one parcel, and have a bridge over to another parcel where another portion of the building is located, kind of like what Charlie suggested above. It creates a sense of continuity and it wouldn't dominate either parcel.

Now obviously that is out of the question for this particular project, as it seems like they are downsizing the whole thing. However, if another project were to come along, I think that this might be an interesting option to explore.
 
I don't really like the idea of a building that spans over the roadways -- see the Government Center Garage discussion. It might be OK if it were just a glass skywalk like the ones at the Prudential Center.
 
That's what I was getting at, Ron, more of a glass skywalk connecting the two sections rather than a big block of a building. That's precisely the reason that I dislike the Government Center Garage so much.

Anyway, it looks like a group is interested in the possibility of ice skating on the Greenway:

Group envisions a Greenway on ice

By Noah Bierman
September 21, 2008

Ice skating on top of the Big Dig seems like such a subversive act - gliding blissfully and gracefully over a $15 billion engineering saga full of blunt bolts, noisy vents, and smoggy cars.

You can't do that right now, but it is very likely to happen next year.

Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, told Globe editors last week that she is looking seriously at adding a temporary ice rink to the strip of overhead parks.

It's high on a list of several ideas under consideration to lure more people to the Greenway.

"It will not be a successful park unless it is a happening place," Brennan said.

During the Greenway's first full summer in operation, it appeared that the waterfalls and shady areas were the most popular. But much of the Greenway was too passive and hot to attract many people.

Brennan is now exploring the use of installing temporary tarps to shade some areas during the hotter months.

The conservancy will officially take over operations of the Greenway Dec. 1. Members are hoping an Oct. 4 inaugural celebration will persuade people to see the park's potential as a community gathering spot.

But as time goes by, Brennan realizes she needs more attractions to draw people in.

She said Greenway members will spend the next few months looking at possible locations for a temporary skating rink that could open next fall.

"The technology of these has gotten much more sophisticated and reliable," she said.

Once they get a skating rink going, I envision one of those Disney on Ice-style programs where little kids come to watch skaters dressed as giant bulldozers and dirt-moving trucks in a grand reenactment of Big Dig construction.
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mdd said:
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This is a perfect parcel for creating some kind of shield/link from Faneuil Hall to the north end. With some kind of shop/cafe on the ground floor, I think it would promote movement from the Faneuill side to the Columbus park Side while blocking some of the ramp noise.
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This is exactly what's needed here and elsewhere on this ill-conceived swathe. Your proposal has the added benefit of somewhat concealing the amputation of "Mercantile Mall." Saints preserve us from another Greenway-inspired "intervention" like the one by Bruner Cott at the end of State Street.
 
The parcel outlined in red has already been given over to the Armenian park, however.
 
I love the idea of an outdoor rink here. (By the way, outdoor rinks can have small walls around them as well -- I know the Common rink does)
 
Here, here... the braintrust at the BRA loved the Brunner Cott design. It would be great to see the mercantile mall disguised in some way.

The ice rink might work in front of the exhaust stacks on the mass hort parcels...at least until something more permanent is settled upon for that space.
 
arent they planning or were planning 'The Boston Museum' on the parcel next to it, the hilly parcel above the tunnel? Or is that idea kaput like the architect they hired to design it?

but why put a rink there in that relatively small area? that parcel is perfect for a sculpture imo...

sure it isn't very civic come wintertime but do we really need two rinks so close to one another?

and I am looking at the photo of the Armenia Memorial and it looks nice...the jet black sculpture would do well to take away from the Merc Mall brick stump

I'd like the sculpture to be a bit taller but it is still nice and the city doesn't have to pay for it...plus from the article:

"The park's central sculpture is a 12-sided geometrical shape. . The dodecagon will be built so that it can be reconfigured every year, a symbol of how immigrant communities are reshaped once they establish themselves in America, Kalustian said."

Still though...it is way out in left field for such a prominent location: it is interesting how groups can put pressure on the different governing bodies when they put foward the money....

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/06/26/greenway_park_to_remember_genocide_horror/

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The 'Boston Museum' was planned for the ramp parcel just north of the Armenian parcel. That plan has been jettisoned, and now the museum instead would like to build on the still-unassigned vacant all-land parcel next to the Haymarket pushcarts.

(To clarify: when I said I loved the idea of an outdoor ice rink 'here', I meant the Greenway in general, not the Armenian parcel specifically)
 
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