TO: BOSTON REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (BRA)

CC:

FROM: SHERRIE S. CUTLER, AIA / sscutler@ECODESIGN.com

RE: BOSTON HARBORWALK / CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD PIER 5

PROPOSAL – “BOSTON HARBORFRONT MARITIME PARK”

WATERFRONT WALKS: BACKGROUND

Many great cities have great River Walks —Shanghai, Venice, Paris, Boston, certainly; but also

Washington DC, San Antonio, London, Zurich, Algiers, Quebec, Ottawa, St. Petersburg,

Istanbul, Hamburg, etc. Some smaller US cities striving for improvement are developing River

Walks —Savanna, Providence, Ft. Lauderdale, St. Louis, New Orleans, etc. There are famous

Canal Walks of Venice, Amsterdam, San Antonio, etc. and the famous Beach Walks /

Boardwalks / Cliff Walks of Rio de Janeiro, Atlantic City, Ft. Lauderdale, Newport, etc.

However, very few cities can boast a true, continuous “Harbor Walk”. Most port cities have a

Harbor Park or View Point like San Francisco’s “Embarcadero”, New York City’s “Battery

Park”, Brooklyn Heights’ “Promenade”, Baltimore’s “Inner Harbor”, Miami’s “Crandall Park”,

Charleston’s “Battery”, Shanghai, Sidney’s “Opera House Park” plus Rhodes, Las Palmas,

Stockholm, Helsinki, Bergen, Oslo, Bremen, Naples, even industrial Genoa.

BOSTON’S UNIQUE HARBORWALK

Boston, Havana, and perhaps a few others are unique among major harbor cities that have, or

have the potential for, a true, continuous, uninterrupted “Harbor Walk”. Boston was given this

opportunity in the Early Enlightenment Era of the BRA (Boston Redevelopment Authority) in

the early ‘70s through the initiation of the Federal Government’s granting of the

de-commissioned Navy Yard. A continuous 7-mile right-of-way along a harbor in the center of

a major city for the enjoyment of the people is rare; and it requires vigilance and constant

defending or it can be forgotten or barricaded and lost.

Once there is an appreciation for the preciousness of this amenity —an appreciation for what it

can do for the city, the job of defending a Harbor Walk becomes easier. When it is developed

to it’s full potential it will take on a life of it’s own that becomes synonymous with the city

itself as Central Park has become so with New York City.

BOSTON HARBORWALK’S POTENTIAL

To be developed to its full potential, Boston’s HarborWalk needs highlights and attractions that

mark the distance and identify the areas encompassing the harbor itself. Although some

already exist (the Aquarium, Castle Island, Fish Pier / Dry-dock & Design Center, Rowes

Wharf’s gazebo, Boston Tea Party, Fan Pier, Christopher Columbus Park, North End Skating &

Tennis, Paul Revere Park with the Charles River Dam, USS Constitution & Museum, and the

Navy Yard Boardwalk are some of them), they do not feature the Harbor itself and the “Head

of the Harbor”.

PROGRAMING PIER 5

The Charlestown Navy Yard section of the Boston HarborWalk offers the most undeveloped

potential and Charlestown is the only Boston harborfront community without a fronting park

and boat club on municipal land. The boardwalk and the USS Constitution are there, but the

walkway areas between are often interrupted and / or not maintained. Creative programming

for the use of the disintegrating Pier 5 perhaps holds the key to a concept that could achieve the

goals of greater awareness, appreciation and cohesiveness for the Boston HarborWalk.

Assembly, boat landing, expansion of Courageous Sailing Center for interscholastic,

intercollegiate and ocean racing, jogging, walking, fitness and wellness courses, Tia Chi / Yoga,

putting, outdoor museum, seaside botany, marine sciences and training, memorials, maritime

arts & crafts, quiet contemplation, harbor viewing and sailboat racing are all activities that

could be contemplated within a context of Boston’s Nautical History—all in an outdoor

Maritime Park.

CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD MARITIME PARK

Envision concentric circles, the shapes of figure eight knots, in various paving textures. Like

an elegant, low Japanese texture garden there might be an outer perimeter of a cinder and clay

jogging track with a shell and gravel walkers path inside separated by lines of cobblestone

ballast or areas of low sea grasses and accented by maritime oriented stations for exercise or

awareness around a brick paved central core. A contemplative labyrinth for decompression is

there too.

Stop to test your strength at hoisting a mainsail or weighing an anchor. Check your balance by

walking a gangplank, learn to use a sextant and the difference between an octant, an atrolab and

a Loran —compare them to our new GPS systems. Try your hand at some knot tying at a

“Knot Station” or weather prediction at a “Weather Station”. Read a chart or set your spyglass

on the winning skipper of the frostbite fleet to appraise the set of his sails! Then warm around

a recessed fire of an old whaling ship. Identify a sloop, catboat, ketch, schooner, cutter, yawl,

bark, and brigantine from models or actual boats. Carve Whalebone. Climb a lighthouse. See a

progression of Coast Guard lifeboat, lifesaving and rescue equipment; then would you like to

talk to a Recruitment Officer? The elderly riding on solar-powered rickshaws. Join the Bunker

Hill Yacht Club. Arrange to set signal flags for your own message—Congratulations!

Welcome! A Proposal? Get married under the tent of the small Non-Denominational

Memorial Meeting Space at the end of the Pier! (A memorial to all the War Veterans and the

9000 Men and Women who worked and shipped out to active duty and de-Commissioned and

were serviced by the Navy Yard.)

A SAMPLER OF MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME HISTORY

Programming and exhibits might come from any and all institutions of our State’s rich heritage:

the park could serve as a sampler or public relations announcement of what these Museums

and Institutions offer:

● Peabody-Essex Museum (Satellite Museum)

● Boston Marine Trail

● Boston Marine Society

● Boston Marine Museum

● US Navy

▪ US Coast Guard

▪ Mass Maritime Academy

▪ Longshoreman’s Union

▪ Interscholastic and Intercollegiate Sailing Programs (Tabor

Academy, etc.)

▪ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

▪ NE Historic Seaport / Schools for Children

▪ Boston Science Museum

▪ USS Constitution / Museum / USS Caisson Young

▪ New Bedford Whaling Museum

▪ Churches (Waterfront Annex)

▪ Bunker Hill Yacht Club (Charter still existing!)

▪ ETC.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES (NOTES)

Boats on exhibit would be displayed at eye level—sunken into openings in the pier. The recesses

also serve as moats to protect exhibits. Talking podiums explain exhibits and sing sea shanties.

All design toward providing a low profile and preserving views to the harbor. Low profile

physical design would be set—nothing over 15’ and only in specific spots (Except for masts,

yardarm, observation platform, etc.). Maximize use of water shuttles, Nautical theme.

FINANCING (NOTES)

▪ Acquisition of Pier 5 with Land Bank type organization(s)

▪ Donation of Pier 5 to Community (Contributions to BRA of 2% are made on completion

of sales of Navy Yard Condominiums, etc.)

▪ Development transfer rights & zoning transfer rights-Central Artery, Navy Yard Parcels,

etc.

▪ Tax Incentives

▪ Major Donations from Friends and City

▪ Corporate Sponsorship

▪ Contributions from Maritime Museums to form promotional satellites (As per

Guggenheim in Balboa, Spain, etc.)

▪ Funding ideas also include sell-a-brick/ballast, etc.

▪ Memorial Crypts for ashes in caisson in pier at $10,000. each. (We’ll all need one.)

▪ Baltimore receives considerable $’s from their extensive boat tours of submarines, Coast

Guard, Lightship, historic vessels, water.

▪ Boston offers only a few harborfront restaurants and even those are threatened and

crowded. A more elegant and adult restaurant experience is needed by the community,

the city and it’s visitors…and would contribute greatly to the financing.

▪ Charlestown / Bunker Hill Yacht Club charter still exists; an eager membership base

awaits.

▪ ETC.

PARTIAL LISTING OF MARITIME MUSEUMS WITH OUTDOOR EXHIBITS

The following maritime museums are largely interior, but have exterior components:

▪ Peabody Essex

▪ National Maritime Museum of UK

▪ North Carolina Maritime Museum

▪ Mystic Seaport

▪ Long Island Maritime Museum

▪ Herreshoff Marine Museum

▪ Baltimore Inner Harbor (Many Historic Boat Tours at docks.)

▪ Ft. Lauderdale River Walk (See fundraising website.)

▪ ETC.

Many older museums, including Maritime Museums, have a surplus of exhibit material stored

away for generations without viewing. A new trend in museum management has been to

establish satellite museums, which help to maximize their programs and encourage interests to be

pursued further at the perhaps more remote or space constrained “Mother” or “Central” Museum.

This approach has been extremely successful with the Guggenheim Museum in Balboa, Spain

and has been credited with reviving a failing port city and turning it into an important tourist

destination.

The Charlestown/Boston Community, Massachusetts and the Country deserve a major

Maritime Park and preservation of this historic Open Space at the Head of Boston Harbor.