By Steve Adams | Banker & Tradesman Staff | Jan 22, 2023 |
Push for a Public Park at Pier 5
In 2021, the BPDA rejected three developers’ proposals for the long-abandoned Pier 5 in Charlestown, including two that included multifamily housing. The agency cited “serious” safety concerns due to projected rising sea levels. Nearby residents had also objected to the idea of development on the pier.
Since then, a group of local residents, The Pier 5 Association, has renewed a push to renovate the 2-acre pier as a public park. The BPDA has said it would support the project if it’s privately funded.
The Pier 5 Association commissioned a November 2021 study by DeSimone Consulting Engineers. Despite the pier’s deterioration since the Charlestown Navy Yard closed in 1975, it could be used as a public park after installation of a new concrete deck or new elevated walkway that rests on existing pile caps, the report concluded. The report did not include cost estimates.
“The cornerstone of our entire argument is that it should be a park, not privatized,” said a group’s co-founder.
Steve Adams
So far, Cutler said, the group has focused on engineering considerations, rather than specific future uses, to determine its vision for the pier.
But the combination of climate change and deferred maintenance points to a future that acknowledges the harbor’s rising profile. Tidal ponds could be incorporated into sections of the deck, Cutler said, and used for environmental education programs.
And in East Boston, The Trustees of Reservations is finalizing designs by Michael Van Valkenburg Assoc. for the third phase of Massport’s Piers Park project that anticipate the projected 40-inch rise in Boston Harbor sea levels by 2070.
Features would include a salt marsh, coastal meadow and tide pool, according to preliminary designs released in November.
The designs have a nearby precedent in developer Lend Lease’s Clippership Wharf multifamily project, the city’s first to incorporate a vegetated living shoreline that absorbs flood waters and tidal flows.
The Trustees of Reservations has raised $32 million toward the Piers Park III project, which is estimated at up to $43 million, Black said. Following selection of a final design this year, the group hopes to begin construction in 2024.