Historic East Cambridge in Contemporary Context As the sixth colony to declare American statehood in 1788, Massachusetts had made its mark in world history well before the 19th century. But the Old Colony State could not exude centuries of heritage if the Old North Church in Boston or Minuteman Historical Park were the only maintained landmarks. The historic character of an entire area -- and its present-day value -- requires preserving, restoring, and interpreting individual places that lend character or ambience to an area, whether or not they collectively become tourist attractions -- a Martha's Vineyard or Cape Cod. In Cambridge -- home of the nation's oldest university, for instance, events better known by locals might not even be known by Cantabrigians without concerted efforts to enrich residential and business districts through preservation, restoration, and interpretation of historic elements in contemporary contexts. This layered approach to urban redevelopment guided three East Cambridge projects noted for innovative incorporation of period detailing for which Carol R. Johnson Associates, Inc. was the consulting Landscape Architect. Lechmere Canal Park was conceived as a focal demonstration of revitalization opportunities in the East Cambridge Triangle. Though lying closer to Boston than other parts of the City -- within sight of Boston's Museum of Science in fact, the project site was inaccessible in 1978. Populated by empty buildings and cast-off equipment -- vestiges of bygone industries, the formerly prosperous port area had been reduced to a dumping ground between busy urban highways. Nevertheless, proximity to Boston across the river encouraged Cambridge Community Redevelopment Department planners to initiate its development potential. Their informed optimism has been rewarded: From its beginnings in 1979 until completion in 1991, the Lechmere Canal Park project has stimulated over $700,000,000 in private investments in the area with only $10 million in public investment -- and justified similar treatment of nearby Bulfinch Square and Centanni Way. In the current context of neighboring private development -- which the 7.5 acre Lechmere Canal Park catalyzed, new public open space entirely surrounds the new canal and river shore. More than 200 new residential units overlook the canal establishing a lived-in presence and enhancing the personal security of park users at night, while commercial areas on the ground level and new offices overlook the park on the south and west, integrating the park into all facets of urban life. Housing sales and office leasing have outperformed Boston's average, an economic record that recommends the public participation process through its success. Design on the Water's Edge: Lechmere Canal Park Unification of the various development parcels and diverse uses of the East Cambridge Triangle relies on a close interplay between water, buildings, and landscape in the Lechmere Canal and Park. At once efficient and animated, the design is cognizant of the neighborhood's cogent, common desire for an accessible and "touchable" waterfront. Built on the outlines of the original industrial canal, the canal itself is precisely 100 feet wide by 500 feet long. Though the canal is accessible by boat from the Charles River and Boston Harbor, vertical clearance at the bridge limits the size of vessels entering the canal, preserving the human scale not only for boaters, but for amblers on the promenade, and restaurant goers in secluded alcoves around the water's edge. At 240 feet in diameter, the basin of the towering central fountain is proportional to the canal, yet limited to the distance a person on one side can maintain a sense of visual intimacy with familiar people on the opposite side. The central water feature, reportedly New England's tallest public fountain, provides an animated focus to the park that is visible from most streets and high buildings in the area. Designed by C.M.S. Collaborative, it aerates up to 350 gallons of river water per minute at normal flow (increasing dissolved oxygen in the water) to accelerate biological cleaning of the Charles River. Normal operation also virtually eradicates surrounding traffic noise, though prevailing wind sensors regulate its 160-foot plume to keep spray off of adjacent buildings and park users. (Fountain pump and controls are housed in a large vault below the deck of the water pavilion.) Given the desired accessibility of the water's edge, the design accommodates expected intensive use with large hardscape areas. The main walk follows the curve of the central basin and a jogging path of stone dust (a comfortable and easy-to-maintain surface) surrounds the seawall. With completion of an underpass at the new bridge, bicyclists, joggers and pedestrians who would normally go around the river shoreline can now walk directly under the bridge and into the canal using parkways to the river. The designers lowered the seawall to provide a shallow and safely accessible water's edge, rather than follow the widely-observed standard of four-foot-high safety railing around the river (which has a controlled depth). A "stepped" granite seawall designed by Childs Engineering Corporation allows canoers and paddle boaters to participate in the annual Cambridge River Festival (the canoer who wins has generally risked being swamped by passing through the fountain), boats with shallow freeboard to moor in summer, skaters to mount the ice in winter, and the water pavilion to extend out over the water for an advantageous setting in any season. The pavilion structure, designed by architect Larry Rubin, features a curved glass canopy that extends from the familiar bandstand roof. Intended as a warming shelter for winter skaters as well as a summer concert location, the water pavilion is also a stage with lighting and electrical outlets hidden in the roof structure for special performances. Positioned along the edge of the canal, the pavilion provides shelter and an ideal vantage for sitting and watching . . . and for history lessons. Once under the canopy of the water pavilion, visitors who chance to look up will be captivated by an encyclopedic history of East Cambridge's industrial era. Vintage photographs incorporated into the overhanging glass panels convey the activity of the waterfront in its industrial heyday. Etched by PM Designs, some illustratives even depict views of the canal as originally photographed from where the visitor now stands. Visitors who chance to look down will envision another dimension in time: Embedded in paving beneath the water pavilion, bronze medallions by artist David Phillips entitled "Stepping Stones" allude to a tidal marsh, a shell fishing site of native Americans, a part of the ocean floor, dramatizing the distance between the site's archaeo-paleo past and the present-day park. While the design optimizes views and accessibility of the water's edge, it also maximizes green views. In addition to expansive lawns for running and play, a densely planted "embankment" encircling the fountain basin with a plant palette typical of the neighborhood's 19th-century prosperity provides a luxuriant and varied green border to the canal through the year. Against this continuous line of low evergreens and groupings of large picea redonte, deciduous plantings highlight and reinforce the three dimensionality of the terraced park. Animation in landscape materials is expressed in playful combinations and treatments. Although Siberian elms, Amur cork trees, willows and London Plane Trees acknowledge this as a waterfront site, even water lilies were planted in the canal on a trial basis. Sculptural cork trees, topiary cypress near the play bridge, and the rich shrub borders emphasize interplay of shape and texture for amblers along the promenade. Higher up in the park, familiar shade and ornamental trees grow. Even panels of lawn are given life by articulation of the surface, uplift of edges, and closure of the slopes toward the water focus. After many studies of pedestrians' sightlines, panels of lawn along the sequence of walks on the lower canal pathway have been shaped and graded, intentionally "shortened" to reveal successive vistas as walkers proceed along the way; "uplifted" in the manner of Adolfe Alphande, a slight roll of the lawn at the edges "mask out" expanses of wall, curb or paving. The sloping lawns and broad steps west of the pavilion extend the Tsoi Kobus Architects-designed amphitheater from which special performances on the lower terrace or a barge in the canal can be viewed. Flowering shrubs, bulbs and ornamental trees above the walkway present constantly changing displays of color throughout the year. These heavily planted berms are protected from foot traffic by rails which support the reluctant progress of passersby. Site detailing and material choices like brick, large dimension granite, copper, glass, and cast iron are borrowed into the waterfront design to evoke the heavy scale and informality of the 19th-century port and, to the degree possible, reflect late 19th-century technology. For instance, park bench designs mimic the East Cambridge to Boston Railway trolley seats of the era, while elements of park furniture were modeled after the simple cast iron patterns of ornaments remaining on historic buildings. Even the children's play area -- a make-believe castle, bridge, island, and tower overlooking the fountain basin -- is completely integrated into the total design with site detailing and material choices borrowed from elsewhere on the project. All lighting, architecture, and furnishings have been custom-designed -- not to imitate, but to celebrate -- the craftmanship of the area's early industry in custom stonework, glass, and cast iron. Such custom stone and metal detailing for masonry and site furniture ensure that, once developed, the new East Cambridge will have its own special character very much in keeping with the old East Cambridge. Notably, the period streetlight and rail details have become the new standard for other new parks and streets in East Cambridge. Straightforward, playful, or abstract, art works and historic imagery distributed throughout the park collectively preserve the lore and suggest the spirit of the formerly productive industrial neighborhood. Some art works are at the termination of vistas, while others are focal points. William Wainwright's wind-generated kinetic sculpture "Nevergreen Tree," for instance, provides a lively counterpoint to the fountain in all seasons from an elevated plaza above the canal. Yet, others -- such as the bronze splash blocks at the water pavilion -- are as essential to the total fabric of the physical and cultural landscape as the public participants. Interestingly, a vertical bronze sculpture by James Tyler informs the finished project with a contemporary "totem" composed of the faces of East Cambridge residents, identifying and connecting the participants of the old neighborhood with the new one they informed. As a link to the Charles River Reservation for the residents of East Cambridge and as an attractive setting for new housing and new shops along an historic waterway, Lechmere Canal Park has fulfilled its design intent as a catalyst for revitalizing of a neglected neighborhood -- and adjacent neighborhoods, an opportunity to interpret for the public forgotten history, and also a step in controlling pollution of an old canal. Yet, as a link between the public and the profession, the three related projects show the responsiveness of the Landscape Architects to suggestions of the public had a positive effect on the perception of the profession in these projects. Even more telling is the reaction of the urban designer who conceptualized the development strategy for Lechmere Canal Park. His inclusive statement -- "You Landscape Architects never stop designing" -- reflects the Landscape Architect's continuing task to adjust and manipulate a design to accommodate changes as each phase evolves, constantly improving the final overall design of an historic district project -- and every project -- in terms of the public's health, safety, and welfare and cultural enrichment. A Stitch in Time: Bulfinch Square Award-winning restoration architect-developer Graham Gund -- widely known for believing "a city should be a mix of old and new and that the new should be used to stitch together the old, to create spaces that bring people together"-- has described Bulfinch Square as an "opportunity to create a focus for a community in need of revitalization -- an open space that could accommodate neighborhood gatherings and that would visually link the courthouse to the county records building on the other side of the site." The result is a new Bulfinch Square consisting of the Bulfinch Building (designed by Charles Bulfinch and Alexander Parris) and the Old Superior Courthouse which, once surrounded by an asphalt parking lot, now houses offices and the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. The landscaped courtyard between the two, designed by Carol R. Johnson and Associates, not only links the adjacent county records building to a newer courthouse, but to a pavilion and an amphitheater which terminate the two ends of the courtyard (the amphitheater uses the county records building steps as seating for performing arts). The interplay of new forms and old dramatize the distinction between the original buildings and their new functions to arrive at a final solution that is sensitive to the historic significance of the individual county government buildings, to the new uses of the site, and to the surrounding neighborhood. Not surprisingly, in 1986, integration of special requirements such as fire, service, and handicapped access was a central challenge to the landscape design. Formality Meets Improvisation: Centanni Way: Turning a one-block city street into a pedestrian way, public plaza, and performing arts space (per the 1980 master plan for East Cambridge) required support from the neighborhood and the adjacent architect-developer. But Otis Street is now Centanni Way: an open and paved central plaza graced by lofty 18th- and 19th-century civic buildings. Design formality meets user improvisation in Centanni Way Park. Bordering viburnum, reminiscent of 19th-century urban gardens, and formal display plantings provide order in the central areas, yet are intended to be maintained for informality at the edge. Raised flower beds and park benches articulate the walkway, though a wisteria-covered trellis creates private seating directly adjacent to the public space. With the Roman-inspired trellis as a backdrop and the grand staircase of the Registry of Deeds as seating for 400 people, Centanni Way can be readily transformed into an amphitheater for Cambridge Arts Council and Multicultural Arts Center events. "Between performances," horticultural spoofs in bronze by the artist Dimitri Gerikaris celebrate the horticultural diversity of this small public "theater of life." In time, a semicircle of scholar trees will join canopies and serve as another outdoor theater accessible from Lechmere Canal. Meanwhile, lawyers meet clients -- "on the courthouse steps," if you will -- and newlyweds and adoptive parents snap their first family pictures after leaving the nearby Courthouse and flowers are "volunteering" near the custodian's doorway.