ADVERTISEMENT
Boston Society of Landscape Architects Creates Lynn Wolff Fund11-01-16 | News
Boston Society of Landscape Architects Creates Lynn Wolff Fund
Inaugural Grant Goes to Women's Lunch Place


image

Lynn Wolff, FASLA (March 19, 1956 - March 20, 2016) was president and principal of Copley Wolff Design Group (CWDG) in Boston. She was among the women highlighted in LASN's inaugural Women in Landscape Architecture feature, Oct. 2015. A MLA graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (1981), Lynn had over 35 years of experience in planning and design. She was licensed in Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.


To honor the memory and work of Lynn Wolff, FASLA (March 19, 1956"?uMarch 20, 2016), the Boston Society of Landscape Architects (BSLA) has created the Lynn Wolff Fund. The Lynn Wolff Fund will be an annual grant given to one exceptional candidate or project "that builds common ground through a design improvement within the public realm."

The founding of the fund was led by Deneen Crosby, principal and director of landscape architecture at Crosby|Schlessinger|Smallridge, in conjunction with other members of the Boston Civic Design Commission who served with Wolff. The inaugural grant was announced at a fundraising event on the roof deck at 75 State St. in Boston, one of Copley Wolff's notable projects. The 2016 grant was awarded to the Women's Lunch Place (WLP). WLP (https://womenslunchplace.org) was begun in November 1982 by Eileen Reilly and Jane Alexander to give Boston area homeless women a safe haven during the day.

img
 
image

Her work and that of the firm included six parks that make up the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Pictured is the Wharf District Parks (LASN July 2011), which extend from Christopher Columbus Park to Rowes Wharf in downtown Boston. CWDG served as the local landscape architectural consultant, working in collaboration with a team headed by EDAW to design the parks.
Photo: John Horner


Wolff worked closely with WLP for close to 10 years, volunteering at the shelter and raising awareness of homelessness and poverty in the area. She also regularly created flower arrangements for the shelter. The grant will help build an outdoor garden that will be the entrance to the WLP, which will be tended by volunteers and guests of the program.

WLP has evolved over the years. In 1985, it began serving breakfast and increasing the days of operation; in 1995 it began advocacy services; in 2011 the shelter was renovated and began assisting with employment, housing and offering self-help and creative classes. Today, the dining room is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Saturday. There are showers, laundry facilities and a nap room. Medical care is provided by Healthcare Without Walls, and advocates assist the women in myriad ways. A resource center and library is available with access to computers and phones.

image

Lynn Wolff, FASLA, and her CWDG colleagues planned and designed a therapy trail, green roof and the integration with the Boston Harbor Walk for the Rehabilitation Hospital at the Charlestown Navy Yard. The primary trail is a six-foot-wide concrete walk with stainless steel handrails to aid patients. The path also undulates and slopes to benefit patients with greater strength and stamina.
Photo: Luke O'Neil


Lynn's extensive project work included such high profile Boston area projects as the Central Artery Surface Restoration; planning and design of the Wharf District Parks, Rose Kennedy Greenway; the renovation of the Frog Pond in Boston Common; and the design of the award-winning therapy trail at the new Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charleston, Mass. Work outside of Boston included renovation of an indoor playground in Columbus, Indiana, originally designed in the early 1970s by Cesar Pelli, and the design of a new Science Park at the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vermont.







Widget is loading comments...
img


Related Content