A Beacon
The park originally opened in 1976 as a part of the United States Bicentennial Celebration. In the following decade, North End residents renamed the park Christopher Columbus Park. Today, the park’s namesake serves as a beacon, drawing visitors in past a series of linear, colorful planting beds.
Image: Susannah Ross
One of the Earliest Waterfront Parks
Sasaki’s original design for the park won numerous awards, including the esteemed ASLA Centennial Medallion Award in 1999. Of the design’s significance, The Cultural Landscape Foundation notes: “What could have been a formulaic urban renewal project became instead one of America's earliest waterfront parks of the modern era - and one that established a national design standard.” Plaques throughout trace the history of the park. Little remains of that original design.
Image: Susannah Ross
Christopher Columbus
The gleaming Italian marble statue of Christopher Columbus provides a focal point, centered at the intersection of the Richmond Street entrance to the park and the linear planted trellis. Names of many friends who have supported and loved the park over the years are inscribed in the granite base.
Image: Susannah Ross
Interplay of Light and Dark
Wisteria winds its way up the trellis columns and flourishes on the arched lattice overhead, providing welcome cool respite from the hot summer sun. The plants’ more prosperous growth on the southeast face of the trellis creates a dynamic interplay of light and dark, sun and shadow, both in the intricate framework of the structure above and on the ground below.
Image: Susannah Ross
Intimate Spaces
Benches are located in each bay of the trellis, establishing a rhythm along its length. Within the grandly scaled structure, there are intimate spaces for enjoyment of the views of the perennial beds and harbor beyond. The length of the benches allows them to be comfortably occupied by a single person or a couple. Their backless nature accommodates facing out to the harbor or into the activity of the park itself.
Image: Susannah Ross
Cleats and Chains
Massive wrought-iron cleats and chains at the water’s edge are built to the scale of ships that have come in and out of the harbor over hundreds of years. These nautical elements recall the site’s mercantile past, but still serve a functional role, protecting pedestrians from the edge of what is now a waterfront promenade.
Image: Susannah Ross
A Subtle Story
An allée of White Oaks lines the inland side of the trellis. The trees’ planter curbs show traces of the splitting method used to carve the granite curbs from the quarry, providing not only a beautiful pattern, but a subtle story about the history and properties of the natural material.
Image: Susannah Ross
An Outdoor Living Space
For those of us who dwell in the tightly-packed North End, the park’s spacious lawns provide the outdoor living space our apartments do not. Just steps from where they live, residents flock to the green space to walk dogs, take in sun, or enjoy a picnic. For regulars and tourists alike, it provides a dynamic stage on which to watch the life of the neighborhood unfold.
Image: Susannah Ross
All Manner of Seating
As in any great public space, people find here all manner of options for sitting. Views to the activity of the harbor can be enjoyed from bench or curb or lawn or even the generous granite base of a light pole.
Image: Susannah Ross
Interactive Fountain
Views to the water are supplemented by the experience of actually touching and playing in water in the park’s interactive fountain. Manual controls at the perimeter of the water feature let children activate the jets, delighting themselves, parents, and others who gather to watch the children play.
Image: Susannah Ross
New Connections
The burying of the central artery almost 10 years ago opened up a direct visual and physical connection from the waterfront park back to Faneuil Hall Marketplace. A series of light poles adorned with banners and flowering plants evoke the masts of sailboats and draw visitors along the axis connecting the two iconic Boston landscapes.
Image: Susannah Ross