SOUTH BOSTON - Residents of South Boston’s Fort Point
Channel neighborhood, along with the Boston Parks and Recreation Department and
landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, joined forces last
night for the first meeting about the memorial park rejuvenation on the Fort
Point Channel between the Children’s Museum and Congress Street.
In December, Mayor Marty Walsh, Governor Charlie
Baker, and family of 8- year-old Boston Marathon bombing victim, Martin
Richard, announced the reconstruction of the Children’s Wharf Park at the
Boston Children’s Museum in honor of Martin. The meeting last week was specifically
for park designers to share their vision for the memorial park while taking
into consideration community feedback. Residents expressed excitement about the youthful feel to transform neighborhood park.
“In discussion
with the [Richard] family… the aspect that they want to come through of their
son is his own lust for life and how he embraced it in the short time that he
had,” said Laura Solano, landscape architect for Michael Van Valkenburgh
Associates.
The park will have inclusive play, passive and active
recreation, improve the “Sleeper Street experience” which, according to
neighbors was less than inviting as a pedestrian sidewalk, improve pedestrian safety
and circulation, and enhance the “Harborwalk experience,” said Lauren Bryant, Boston
Parks and Recreation Department project manager.
“We want it to be comfortable and available for
everybody…embracing his [Martin Richard’s] personal spirit of inclusion, maybe
what he would’ve been like if he had the opportunity to become an adult,”
Solano added.
There were concerns on both ends.
Donohue explained that space is a factor in the park’s success, as the one-acre
of land could potentially hold upwards of 500,000 visitors from the adjacent museum.
While neighbors raised questions about transportation, parking, facility
management, and the deficient size of surrounding sidewalks come construction
time
“When you add light poles, signs and fire plugs it is
barely wide enough for two pedestrians to walk, let alone two baby carriages,”
explained 19-year resident and real estate broker, Charles Joseph, about the
Sleeper Street sidewalk issue, which went addressed by the architects.
MVVA designer and project manager Chris Donohue
discussed the designers’ approach to park theme and general landscape. The
mission is to create a space with “an amplified sense of nature in an otherwise
urban environment.”
Among the goals for a robust sense of naturalism, environment
for exploration, and space for range of experiences, such as relaxation and
play, Donohue explained that the team hopes to extend the idea of learning and
playing in one integrated experience, in collaboration with the Boston
Children’s Museum.
“Common themes [we heard] were people wanting to make
sure it’s a resourceful park in the sense that it packs a lot in a little
amount of space,” Solano added.
Stay-at-home mom Lisa Greenfield raised comment to
the designers that currently there is no place for young families to gather to get
to know each other and not a swing set in sight in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood.
“I hope that it [Children’s Wharf Park] is a
…functioning playground space that kids can climb and run…because there isn’t
that in this neighborhood. We shouldn’t have to take the T five stops to get to
an actual functioning playground,” Greenfield stated.
Joseph said he has also long awaited the renovation
of this parcel. “When I saw the news that the park was going to be named after
Martin Richard and that the Mayor and Governor’s offices were really behind
making that a reality, I had renewed hope that this was actually going to come
to fruition,” he said.
The sense of community was prevalent in the room and
almost all attendees, like Greenfield, left hopeful their voice had been heard.
“We are very excited and we hope to be actively
engaged in the process,” Joseph added.
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