The North End Parks are the two northernmost parks on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, built over O'Neill Tunnel in Boston, Massachusetts and adjacent to the neighborhood known as the North End. Two landscape architecture firms (Boston's Crosby, Schlessinger, Smallridge and Seattle's Gustafson Guthrie Nichol) designed the 3-acre (12,000 m2) North End Parks.
The North End Parks are built on Boston Big Dig parcels #8 and #10, which lie on opposite sides of Hanover Street. Parcels #8 and #10 were reserved by Boston's zoning code to be "programmed, designed, and detailed for the primary benefit of the adjacent North End community through the development of a series of spaces which invite both residents and visitors to use the park while clearly delineating a neighborhood presence and oversight of the park." [1]
The 3-acre (12,000 m2) parks are a significant "hinge" point between the grand civic spaces of Quincy Market, Government Center, Haymarket and the intimacy of Boston's oldest neighborhood. The city's historic Freedom Trail, which used to sit in the dark shadow of the elevated highway, weaves through the park.
The North End Parks site is defined by the surrounding streets—John Fitzgerald Surface Road, North, Cross and Sudbury streets—and by the O'Neill/I-93 tunnel structures and interchanges at the Callahan and Sumner tunnels beneath the parks. Once a "land bridge" that connected the peninsula of Boston with Sudbury Street to the west, the site has a rich history, more than 300 years, as a crossing ground for Bostonians. This site was also the low point between Beacon Hill and Copps Hill and subsequently was the logical choice for a mill canal that connected the swampy area known as the Mill Pond (later the Bulfinch Triangle) with the bay.
GGN [2] and Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge [3] designed North End Parks. The opening ceremony for the parks was held on November 5, 2007.
The North End Parks design concept features flexible spaces including green landscapes with a path system, plazas with pergolas and water features that run through both parks and appeal to a wide range of people, including North End residents of all ages and the thousands of tourists and Bostonians who visit each year. The enthusiastic involvement of the neighborhood and an engaging public process were essential in shaping the design of a new "front porch" for the North End.
A boxwood hedge frames the perennial gardens of irises, lavender, peonies and poppies that border the western edge of the parks. A variety of plants will flower continuously through spring, summer and fall. Trees such as magnolia, ash and a larger Washington elm adorn the parks. As a vibrant expression of Italian origins of today's North End, the community porch pergola is planted with flowering vines.
Chairs and tables and benches abound to read a book or enjoy a local slice. The parks leaning rails on Hanover Street feature quotes from some of the North End's prominent residents as well as a timeline of historic events. The parks are divided by the reconnected Hanover Street, which can be shut down to connect the two parks.
The North End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It has the distinction of being the city's oldest residential community, where people have continuously inhabited since it was settled in the 1630s. Though small, only 0.36 square miles (0.93 km2), the neighborhood has nearly one hundred establishments and a variety of tourist attractions. It is known for its Italian American population and Italian restaurants. The district is a pending Boston Landmark.
Government Center is an area in downtown Boston, centered on City Hall Plaza. Formerly the site of Scollay Square, it is now the location of Boston City Hall, courthouses, state and federal office buildings, and a major MBTA subway station, also called Government Center. Its development was controversial, as the project displaced thousands of residents and razed several hundred homes and businesses.
Haymarket is a subway station in Boston, Massachusetts. It serves the MBTA's Green and Orange lines, and is located at the corner of Congress and New Sudbury streets in Downtown Boston. Haymarket allows transfers between the Orange and Green lines, as does North Station one stop to the north. Haymarket was named for Haymarket Square, which has served as a produce market since around 1830.
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is a linear park located in several Downtown Boston neighborhoods. It consists of landscaped gardens, promenades, plazas, fountains, art, and specialty lighting systems that stretch over one mile through Chinatown, the Financial District, the Waterfront, and North End neighborhoods. Officially opened in October 2008, the 17-acre Greenway sits on land created from demolition of the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway under the Big Dig.
Hyde Park is the southernmost neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Situated 7.9 miles south of downtown Boston, it is home to a diverse range of people, housing types and social groups. It is an urban location with suburban characteristics.
Haymarket Square is the historic name of a former town square in Boston, located between the North End, Government Center, the Bulfinch Triangle, and the West End. The square was a well-known feature of Boston from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, when the buildings around it were demolished to make way for the Central Artery and Government Center. The Haymarket produce market continues to operate at a location near the historic site of the square.
A planned unit development (PUD) is a type of building development and also a regulatory process. As a building development, it is a designed grouping of both varied and compatible land uses, such as housing, recreation, commercial centers, and industrial parks, all within one contained development or subdivision.
Mission Hill is a ¾ square mile, primarily residential neighborhood of Boston that borders Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Brookline and Fenway-Kenmore. It is home to several hospitals and universities, including Brigham and Women's Hospital and New England Baptist Hospital. Mission Hill is known for its brick row houses and triple decker homes of the late 19th century. The population was estimated at 15,883 in 2011.
The Lakeside Apartments District neighborhood, also known as The Gold Coast, and simply as The Lakeside, is one of Oakland's historic residential neighborhoods between the Downtown district and Lake Merritt. In the context of a Cultural Heritage Survey, the City of Oakland officially named most of the blocks of the neighborhood "The Lakeside Apartments District," and designated it as a local historic district with architecturally significant historic places, and Areas of Primary Importance (APIs). The greater neighborhood includes the interior blocks officially designated as a local historic district and the 'Gold Coast' peripheral areas along Lakeside Drive, 20th Street, and the west edge of Lake Merritt, areas closer to 14th Street and the Civic Center district, and blocks adjacent to downtown along Harrison Street.
India Basin is the easternmost neighborhood of San Francisco, California.
Forest Hills is a part of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Forest Hills is characterized by hilly terrain and wooded areas within and adjacent to its borders. In general, the area slopes upward from Hyde Park Ave and downward from Walk Hill Street.
Tremont Street is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Inner Belt District is a 126-acre (0.51 km2) industrial district located in the southeastern portion of Somerville, Massachusetts. Along with nearby Brickbottom, the Inner Belt is a historically industrial zone of Somerville, with factories, warehouses, distribution centers, railroad connections, regional maintenance facilities, MBTA and Amtrak offices, retail stores and a hotel.
Hanover Street is located in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts.
The West End Museum is a neighborhood museum dedicated to the collection, preservation and interpretation of the history and culture of the West End of Boston.
Haymarket in Boston is an open-air market on Blackstone, Hanover, and North Streets, next to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway between the North End and Government Center.
Parkville is a neighborhood on the west side of Hartford, Connecticut. Centered on Park Street and stretching from the railroad overpass just west of Pope Park to the West Hartford town line, and Capitol Avenue to Interstate 84, Parkville is a densely developed, mixed-use neighborhood that is mainly working-class. Its name is derived from its placement at the junction of the North and South Branches of the now-subterranean Park River. Most of the eastern half of the neighborhood was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
Shannon Nichol is an American landscape architect and founding principal of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN), located in Seattle, WA. Nichol has led many of GGN's landscape design projects including the designs for Boston's North End Parks, Seattle's Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation campus, and San Francisco's India Basin Shoreline. In 2018, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Design in the category "Architecture."
Piers Park is located on the southwest side of East Boston, overlooking Boston Harbor and downtown Boston. Designed by Pressley Associates Landscape Architects of Boston, the 6.5-acre park was conceived to reclaim a condemned industrial pier for recreational use, allowing residents and visitors direct access to the waterfront.
With adjacent Parcel 8, master plan envisions this as both civic space and a neighborhood park. Only small structures with a footprint of 600-square-feet or less are allowed, and they can cover a maximum of 5 percent of the parcel. Article 49 of the city's zoning code says Parcels 8 and 10 "should be programmed, designed, and detailed for the primary benefit of the adjacent North End community through the development of a series of spaces which invite both residents and visitors to use the park while clearly delineating a neighborhood presence and oversight of the park."
Coordinates: 42°21′44.49″N71°3′21.15″W / 42.3623583°N 71.0558750°W