Franklin Park, Boston’s largest open space and one of the nation’s landmark urban parks, will undergo a multi-million-dollar revamp aimed at restoring its rich landscape and improving visitors’ experience, Mayor Michelle Wu announced Tuesday.
The park, designed by renowned American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, sits within the geographic heart of the city and serves as a cross-cultural gathering site for everyone from sports enthusiasts and nature lovers, performance art audiences and reveling picnic goers, to dirt-bike riders and protesters.
The Franklin Park Action Plan, which took three years to develop, is the first comprehensive proposal for the 527-acre space in nearly three decades, according to plan consultants.
Environment, Energy and Open Space Chief Rev. Mariama White-Hammond said initial work on the park will begin with an investment of $28 million and will be followed by additional funding.
“We are already starting on our capital budget plan, and this will definitely be in there,” White-Hammond said at the chilly press conference in the park.
She added that the $28 million will not be sufficient to cover the entire cost of the master plan, but it’s enough to launch the effort and tackle essentials.
Augmenting safety, Wu said, would be key to the park’s revitalization. Most recently, Franklin Park was in the headlines as the site of the stabbing of local education activist Jean McGuire, who was hospitalized.
“The best way for any space in the city to feel safe is for it to be active and used and for people to be there together,” Wu said, noting that park patrons were able to quickly come to McGuire’s aid after she was wounded.
“Part of what we want to do is really open up every single part of this park to be a place that people have something exciting to go do or see or be part of,” the mayor added.
The new action plan calls for lights and clearer pathways. White-Hammond said the city is also exploring installing emergency call box phones within the park, a concern she said is balanced against preserving the look and historic nature of the park.
"We've been a part of this since its inception, and we plan to be also part of the implementation ... making Franklin Park a destination for all to enjoy."Rickie Thompson, president of the Franklin Park Coalition
Wu said the public is now invited to review the plan and give additional feedback until Feb. 10. The feedback, officials said, will help craft a timeline for the plan’s rollout, with special attention being given to restoring the Elma Lewis Playhouse, the Black community’s legacy, open-air performance venue, to its original spot in the park’s Overlook section.
Lewis, who founded a fine arts school in Roxbury in the 1950s, is credited with clearing a space near the park’s burned down Overlook shelter. The site eventually became the Elma Lewis Playhouse’s stage in the 1960s.
Rickie Thompson, president of the Franklin Park Coalition, said the group was “particularly interested” in the restoration of the area as a space to host more prominent events in the park.
“We’ve been a part of this since its inception, and we plan to be also part of the implementation ... making Franklin Park a destination for all to enjoy,” Thompson said.
Other major improvements include ensuring entrances are clearly visible and welcoming, protecting and restoring the park’s historic features, enhancing ADA compliance throughout the park and encouraging movement throughout the park with signs, lighting and amenities like bathrooms.
Although the Franklin Park Zoo is a widely known attraction and takes up 72 acres of the park, the plan lacks specifics about the future of that facility.
Zoo New England CEO John Linehan indicated the nonprofit operator will continue to work Boston officials as the plan moves forward.
“We have participated in the planning process for the future of Franklin Park and are excited to see the focus on this incredible resource within the city,” Linehan said in a statement Tuesday.
The Franklin Park Action Plan was developed by consultants with New England landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand along with Agency Landscape and Planning and MASS Design Group.
Organizers reported engaging with more than 26,000 park users and hundreds of organizations through methods like canvassing, community workshops and online polls and surveys.
Seventy-seven percent of the action plan’s survey respondents reported living in a neighborhood that touches the vast park and slightly more than half identified as Black or African American, according to the plan report released Tuesday.
“The action plan does not aim to alter the park’s purpose, character, or design,” Wu wrote in the 450-page plan’s opening letter. “Instead it offers suggestions for the renewed care and ongoing development of this priceless resource using an analysis of the park’s history, communities, and ecologies.”
