A CONCEPT PROPOSAL FOR THE ROSE KENNEDY GREENWAY, BOSTON

The Ephemeral Necklace By Jay Critchley

The world has shifted seismically between the 20th Century inception of the Big Dig and the present day planning for the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Our excessive and inefficient use of fossil fuels has led us to re-examine our energy policies and their ecological consequences, particularly global warming. The enviable and visible ribbon of precious surface area through the heart of Boston gives the city an opportunity to respond to this challenge and become the world's first 21st Century "smart park:" an energy-producing, energy-efficient, non-polluting urban park; a monument of hope for the future, for a conflict-free world. While 200,000 plus automobiles speed daily through the underground tunnels below, the re-created sunlit surfaces will utilize eco-friendly renewable energy strategies to create a vision for our post-petroleum dependent society. The Ephemeral Necklace will put Boston on the map as an innovative, progressive, and visionary city, enhancing its reputation as a magnate for and leader in environmental technology and research and development, with a model urban design vision.

Bowing to the legacy of the Emerald Necklace, Olmsted's celebrated 19th Century imprint on the character of the city, The Ephemeral Necklace will redefine our connection with nature in the 21st Century as pro-active and interdependent: we are temporary stewards of the earth, redefining our relationship not only with the air, water, wind and planet, but with the neighbors and neighborhoods along Greenway. The project will become, not an urban island or oasis, but an urban crossroads where its design and function will both draw people in residents and visitors alike while creating a distinctive, unified identity by connecting the park to the exciting possibilities of decentralized applications of solar, wind, and geo-thermal energy utilization and design, and its ecological implications. The Ephemeral Necklace will set a new standard for measuring the success of urban parks and other projects based on its environmental impact and its mitigation of environmental degradation; one of the tenets of the Big Dig. This concept, with its attendant design parameters and performance standards, will form the basis for all three of the selected design teams final plans, plus the proposed Massachusetts Horticultural Society's "Garden Under Glass" and others yet to be selected. These "green" standards could include:

- all structures and accessory buildings will be energy efficient and energy self-sufficient;

- all building materials will be based on environmental impact;

- active and passive solar applications will be employed including photovoltaic cells and geothermal and solar energy ground source heat pump/chillers, which could extract heat from the ground, including the tunnels;

- wind turbines will be employed when and where appropriate, whether small scale applications or demonstration models;

- a research and information center will monitor pollution levels and global warming indices,the weather, wind, and temperature, both above and below ground and in the tunnels, as well as monitor the performance of the energy systems within the park; public and commercial property owners will have access to energy retrofit information; the center could be run by a consortium of universities and environmental groups and provide hands on educational opportunities for public school students;

- all lighting, including telephones, cafes, signage, and snow removal (with solar heated surfaces) will be solar and/or wind powered; solar LED lighting could be sculptural elements that define the entire Greenway;

- create a "restored" indigenous ecosystem, with trees efficient in the photosynthetic processing of carbon and the cooling of the urban environment. Information on proven technologies, products, materials, and designs is readily available from many private and governmental organizations, including The U.S. Department of Energy, Million Solar Roofs Initiative, National Center for Photovoltaics, and others.

The Ephemeral Necklace is an elegant, cost effective, and visionary idea that calls on the Commonwealth's Yankee ingenuity, technological leadership, and diverse urban citizenry to set an environmental standard to be admired and replicated by all forward-thinking cities and states across the country and beyond.

April 14, 2003

Jay Critchley