by Charlie McCabe
Just over 12 years ago, I moved from Austin to Boston. A big part of the reason was to be closer to my mom, who was having some challenges managing a chronic disease. The other reason was to try something new. My wife, Sara, and I had lived in Austin for 18 years and had spent the last half dozen working at different nonprofit organizations. We made the decision in early fall of 2011 and by February 2012, I had left my position as executive director of the Austin Parks Foundation and started working as Director of Public Programs for the relatively new Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy in Boston. The Greenway had opened in 2008, as the icing on the cake of Boston's famous Big Dig project, one of the largest, most complicated public works projects ever undertaken in the United States.
Aerial view of the completed Greenway, 2012
The project replaced a several-mile portion of an elevated freeway, Interstate 93, that cuts north to south through downtown Boston. This elevated freeway, painted a dull green, was called the Central Artery (or ahtery as Bostonians would say.) There were many other pieces to the project, nicknamed the Big Dig, including several tunnels, a dozen or so highway interchanges, and a large bridge spanning the Charles River. This massively complex construction, in one of the oldest cities in the U.S., took over a decade. The fact that it largely accomplished its aims is pretty incredible. During the years I worked at the Greenway Conservancy, I retold this story to many visitors and volunteers and talked about the challenges of operating (and improving) a park sitting atop a 1.5-mile-long underground highway, which is what replaced the Central Artery.
A view of the old Central Artery, downtown Boston, early 1980s
A couple of my Greenway Conservancy coworkers had been directly involved in different aspects of the Big Dig, and I felt lucky to learn about many of the challenges and successes directly from them. One had been a resident engineer who supervised construction of a number of the tunnel projects and park parcels, and the other a landscape architect overseeing the development of the park on top of the tunnels. I also did my own research, digging through Boston Globe archives and watching documentaries on PBS. Good information, but no single resource told the whole story about how the project came about.
Temporary art project along the Freedom Trail crossing the North End parks of the Greenway, 2013
So it was a thrill to discover that WGBH Radio had debuted a nine part series chronicling the Big Dig last year, hosted by Ian Coss. It starts back in the 1960s and continues to the present day. I resisted listening to it until I had some time to really pay attention, and when I did, I found it incredibly compelling. I really enjoyed the podcast's chronicling of the project, which gives excellent insight into Massachusetts politics and profiles some legendary players in the drama, including Mike Dukakis, Fred Salvucci, Tip O'Neill, and Jim Kerasiotes. It also poses the important question of whether we are capable of tackling such massive projects in the present day.
Flowers among the office towers, Fort Point Channel Parks, the Greenway, 2013
I recently recommended it to several parks colleagues from Atlanta, where there are three pending "parks atop highway projects" taking shape (all in the formative planning-and-funding phase): The Stitch, Connector Park, and Hub404. One colleague let me know that he listened to the entire podcast and is part of a set of ongoing discussions on the implications of the Big Dig (and similiar) projects on the Atlanta efforts.
I will admit that the podcast doesn't really cover the park aspect of the Big Dig: The actual construction of the Greenway is only mentioned a few times in passing. In follow-up posts, I'll cover the creation of the park, its evolution, and its current state, from my perspective as both a former employee of the Conservancy and a current horticulture volunteer. In the meantime, give the Big Dig podcast a listen!
And if you're really interested, here are a few additional resources about the Central Artery and its effect on Boston:
Segregation by Design published a great overview of the building of the Central Artery in the 1950s, with lots of great (and terrifying pictures showing the destruction of neighborhoods.
For a more complete version of the story told in the first episode of the Big Dig about the highway plans for Boston in the 1950s and 1960s, check out People Before Highways by Karilyn Crockett.
Probably the single best chapter of the Power Broker, the story of Robert Moses, is One Mile, about the destruction of a portion of a neighborhood in the Bronx for a freeway. (Yes, I've read the entire book; it only took me five months!)
© Copyright 2024, Charlie McCabe Consulting LLC
Comments