Design professionals in Boston are asking the city and state for more input in the development process of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the 27-acre park that will replace the Central Artery once the Big Dig is completed sometime next year.
Boston design professionals are asking the city and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority for more input in the development process of the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
While public meetings are great, they say, they are not a sufficient outlet to air specific design concerns – and expertise, overwhelmed by public opinion, has fallen by the wayside.
“It’s clear that the neighborhoods rule, and what they want goes,” said Robert Brown, the Boston Society of Architects’ representative on the Mayor’s Central Artery Completion Task Force.
A series of public meetings held throughout the city have attracted high interest from residents; several hundred attended a related forum last November. Virtual videos such as “A City in Bloom” have provided a glimpse into the post-Big Dig era and presentations from architects from the design firms have filled in the gaps about the greenway, the future 27-acre park that will connect the downtown, Chinatown, waterfront and North End. Professionals, like all residents, are encouraged to use such events as a forum for concerns and comments, but Brown says that input from an architect or designer would not only unfairly change the course of the meeting but may also elicit cries of protest from an active residents’ attendance.
“In the end, we’re all trying to work toward a better solution,” Brown said. “Community involvement is really, really good when you’re talking about programming and uses … But when it gets down to whether or not the sidewalk has a curly-Q, it’s so subjective that it’s hard for the public to do. I think it’s a little bit easier for the professionals.”
Since the beginning of the project, Brown has lobbied for meetings between greenway design teams and small focus groups comprised of professionals and residents. Shrinking a larger public forum into a smaller group would make it easier for professionals to brainstorm and get at the meat of the issues, he said.
“It took a lot of lobbying to convince the Artery [Completion Task Force] that there’s some benefit in talking to colleagues without the public or politics,” Brown said. “If we say, in a public meeting, ‘why don’t we knock this down?,’ someone jumps up and says, ‘you can’t do that, we were promised that.'”
At first, the answer for separate meetings was a clear “no,” Brown said. Since then, the city and Turnpike Authority have agreed to a couple of sessions, however. Brown said more are needed to create a fairer balance between the abutters and the experts.
Brown pointed out that the greenway is not the North End’s park or Chinatown’s park, and residents from Jamaica Plain shouldn’t feel that they don’t belong in a greenway paid for by the city and state: “It belongs to all of us, but right now, that aspect is limited.”
The Boston Society of Architects remains concerned about several other aspects of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, including ownership. The Turnpike Authority will oversee the finished park properties for the first five years; however, after that it’s unclear who will own, manage and maintain the greenway.
“What we have seen, on really successful projects, is a really invested owner,” Brown said.
No clear decision has been made. Talk over the past few months has included proposals that the city – since the artery cuts through its core – should take over, while others suggest that the city share management with the Turnpike Authority.
The segmentation of the public meetings also concerns the Boston Society of Architects. North End residents meet about the park abutting their neighborhood, those from Boston’s waterfront area hold independent meetings on their section of the greenway and Chinatown residents host their own forums. How do those pieces fit into the big picture? Brown says it’s a question that needs more attention and discussion.
The city and state have taken a step in that direction with the formation of a Blue Ribbon Committee and the hiring of Ken Greenberg, an urban planner from Toronto charged with advising the city about park development and its overall cohesion with the city. Greenberg also has worked on Boston’s Fan Pier project and Cambridge’s Kendall Square and North Point.
“There are a few things that are happening,” Brown said. “Hopefully, the Blue Ribbon Committee and Ken will help broaden the discussions.”
In the meantime, the Boston Society of Architects will continue lobbying for its suggestions, including increasing the emphasis on design, adding community values in the design review, establishing a panel of notable urban thinkers, educating the public and encouraging participation in the design process, organizing community groups and coordinating development parcels with the park.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority did not immediately return phone calls for comment.
Kristie DiSalvo may be reached at kdisalvo@thewarrengroup.com.
