Rose Kennedy Greenway

Looking at the above picture, I wondered how a building put up in the twenties (Independence Wharf originally dates back to 1927) could look so 1970s bunkerish, and as I started searching around my photo collection, I realized it WAS renovated some time back then.

This late-'50s image shows what must be the original incarnation (at left):

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kz1000ps said:
Yup, Independence Wharf, aka 470 Atlantic Ave was renovated from top to bottom around 2001.
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<----- This guy did the top 2 floors. Yeah it was a renovation, but it was my first "high rise" work in Boston. Also, my first sprinkler calcs. 12th & 13th floors I think, William Gallagher was the tenant. That's why this building will hold some special place for me I guess.

They were just building the vent stacks then that are now surrounded by the IC. Must've been 2003.
 
kennedy said:
Parks are meant to be spaces for unstructured activity,
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Really??? Does this rule apply to all parks?

kennedy said:
those paths force you to walk along looking at flowers.
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...hateful, insidious landscape architects! What a ridiculous notion! Who would want to do that???

kennedy said:
Especially at the parcel directly in front of the IC.
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As Ron pointed out, this is a Mass Hort parcel...their specialty: horticulture.

Kennedy, the example you're searching for can be found in the Mall in Washington: it is simply grass and trees and wide sidewalks oriented with the street grid. It works beautifully there, but it is not a design solution that would be appropriate for every park.
 
But it would be appropriate for most of the Greenway parks. The horticulture should been in beds around the edges, or in the gardens on the IC/Fed side sidewalks that really display the flowers. The middle of the park should not have these unattractive, unused gardens breaking up space that could be used by everyone, more of the time. And yes, these rules apply to most urban parks-it should be a place that everyone can enjoy and do whatever they please at, so long as it doesn't harm others.
 
I must have missed the part (earlier in the thread?) when you explained how this fits w/the Public Garden. Some of the Esplanade and the Fens too, right?

kennedy said:
But it would be appropriate for most of the Greenway parks. The horticulture should been in beds around the edges, or in the gardens on the IC/Fed side sidewalks that really display the flowers. The middle of the park should not have these unattractive, unused gardens breaking up space that could be used by everyone, more of the time. And yes, these rules apply to most urban parks-it should be a place that everyone can enjoy and do whatever they please at, so long as it doesn't harm others.
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Keeping a city vibrant requires a variety of spaces and housing types and neighborhoods and restaurants and shopping venues...key word: variety. We shouldn't attempt a one-size-fits-all solution for any urban space. Both nature and humanity eventually reject a monoculture. The Public Garden with its meandering paths and flower beds is just as critical to the appeal of the city-holistic as is the very popular open lawn at the Christopher Columbus Park. Also, next time you're down on the Greenway, take a closer look at the North End Parks as well as 3 of the 4 Wharf District Parks; they are as you describe: "horticulture should been in beds around the edges."

Some decry the lack of uniformity of the parcels on the Greenway, but, I personally enjoy the variety, and variety is SOOO Boston. I agree that there is something lacking about the Wharf District parcels, but I blame the architectural edges (or lack thereof) more than I do the design of the parks.
 
Boston02124 said:
today from the 10th floor on high st
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Excuse the quick photochop, but I really think this is the slate we should be working with. I can't help but think a space like this could have contained a park/plaza that would actually get some use.
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I'd love to be in the meeting where you explain to the IC people why they won't be allowed to have pick-up/drop-off anymore.
 
I'd like to see more trees on these parcels, like many more and bigger. I'd also like to see large scale sculpture and maybe a gazeebo or two and some trellises like Christopher Columbus Park has. I'd like to see some real fountains and not the type presently installed. In short, I'd like to see more of what comes to my mind when I think of a park. There is not one structure that anyone can actually sit under on a hot sunny day here. Even the trellises at the North End Parks will take about 10 years for whatever vines they planted there to grow to create some sort of shade.
 
It didn't take 10 years for the vines to fill out in Christopher Columbus. Remember: vines are weeds.
 
Meadowhawk said:
I'd like to see more trees on these parcels, like many more and bigger. I'd also like to see large scale sculpture and maybe a gazeebo or two and some trellises like Christopher Columbus Park has. I'd like to see some real fountains and not the type presently installed. In short, I'd like to see more of what comes to my mind when I think of a park. There is not one structure that anyone can actually sit under on a hot sunny day here. Even the trellises at the North End Parks will take about 10 years for whatever vines they planted there to grow to create some sort of shade.
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There was a newpaper article last year on that, probably posted in this thread somewhere. The Conservancy intends to do something about shade untill the trees mature. This is the first years they will have control.
 
Pine trees would actually be great. They grow relatively quickly, will retain their greenness during the bleak winter months, and link Boston horticulturally to the forests of northern New England (let's face it, the Financial District parcels could badly use an antidote to all the salmon coloring and flashy glass...it screams sunbelt).

Let's give up for a minute on these being successfully orthodoz urban spaces and see what we come up with. Imagine one or three of these parcels were thickly planted with pine, and had a bubbly creek running through it, like the streets of San Fracnsico in Ecotopia. We already have a Post Office Square for sunning; this would be a miniature retreat where one could step out of the most densely-built part of the city and into a little wedge of Maine. What would-be Thoreau looking for an escape from his/her cubicle could resist a stroll over and along the brook? The smallness of the parcels could actually enhance the illusion by making it all the more spectacular. The ramps, etc. would matter far less.

In these parcels, Boston could realize itself as a fully American city instead of laboring to create the perfect Italian piazza that will never materialize.

Just thinking out loud.
 
I like that thinking. I'd much prefer having these horticulture parcels turned into little oases of north New England, right in the city, rather than have some little flowers budding half the year. It would be so much prettier, I think especially in front of South Station. And especially during the winter-we've got to stop denying that it happens in Boston.

Justin, I'd do another photoshop if I had it, but I don't. I like what you've done, that's the basis of my idea. How about a plaza with a more active porte-cochere, a nice fountain, and maybe a pedestrian rotary in front of the IC? Or maybe that would look better in front of the Boston Harbor Hotel. Either way, I can imagine many more people using a big lawn like that more than I can see using those stupid paths and gardens.
 
The Monte Carlo Grand Casino in Monaco keeps popping into my head, as an example for the plaza in front of the IC or BHH.
 
kennedy said:
...And especially during the winter-we've got to stop denying that it happens in Boston.
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I agree with the idea of making something that would work year round. I prefer summer-time but we should strive to make our cities inviting in the winter as well. Does anyone have some examples of green spaces/plazas/parks that work especially well in colder climates? I'm thinking there should be some good examples from Russia and Canada and such.

PS - City Hall version
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You guys need to inform yourselves about the Greenway. Parcels 19, 20, and 22 are called the Dewey Square Parks. MassHort was stripped of their designation in the Fall of 2008 by the MTA and the Greenway Conservancy. The Conservancy has just begun maintaining these parcels.

Currently, the BRA and Conservancy are working together on a redesign of these parcels. They will remain open space but will contain welcome center, cafe, film screening area/skating rink, stage, and possibly other amenities. This redesign is still in the planning and design phase. There have been a few public meetings about this project. Hopefully this project will break ground later this year or early 2010.
 
I tried to come up with something funny to put in a photo but then I realized I don't have photoshop. So, in place of the brick in the above photo, imagine a cranberry bog. Then, laugh.
 
In line with the pine trees idea (which BTW I love):

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ignore the stupid palm trees, they get put in on the sidewalks automatically.
 
^ That's the basic idea. And at ground level, something like a milder version of this scene from Franconia Notch, with International Place towering above

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