Refining the Approach: Rules of Engagement at Coppens Square and Howes Park

By definition, public art benefits communities: it instills sense of place, creates local identity and places of celebration, cultural significance and memory. Placemaking is understood as an interdisciplinary dialog on a successful public realm that engages communities and enriches lives. In this context, public art is understood as an important element in the creation of comfortable and memorable places that are beloved centers of community. The new paradigm embeds public art in the broader context of placemaking and establishes a more comprehensive vision that acknowledges and addresses the need to overcome previously defined fiefdoms. The urban planner Ronald Fleming (The Art of Placemaking, 2007) was the first author to favor the term “placemaking” over “public art,” heralding the beginning of a largescale movement that continues to grow.
 
Rooted in the community arts movement, urban planning research and theory developed by Jan Gehl (Life Between Buildings, 1971/1987 and Cities for People, 2010), Suzanne Lacy (Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art, 1994), and William “Holly” Whyte (The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, 1980), successful public places are shaped by the ideal convergence of infrastructure, architecture, public space and their meaningful activation, leading to and encouraging interaction through interaction and participation. Recognizing public art contextually as a placemaking tool can reinforce placement, typology and programming, going hand in hand with increased support and opportunities for a profound discourse on multiple levels.
 
Placemaking first and foremost is concerned with improving quality of life, outlined as the first of six principles in the Placemaking Manifesto (Lanzl, Schultz, Tullis 2017). The focus is on public places as a common good that is actively shaped and used by all. This objective also inspired the initiating Roxbury Path Forward Neighborhood Association to introduce the idea of installing a civil rights tribute in Gertrude Howes Park, anticipated as new impulse, catalyst and celebration of positive and lasting change related to racial equality and harmony (see Ill.). Civil rights have a strong history in the neighborhood, the Moreland Street Historic District of Boston.
 
A few miles southeast of the Howes Park, on Meetinghouse Hill in Dorchester, residents united in the Friends of Coppens Square initiative to demand that water flow again, in a fountain at the center of the park, that has been dormant for more than 40 years due to lack of maintenance and disinvestment (III.2). Coppens Square is also in the center of a neighborhood that has Boston’s lowest ratio of public parks per capita (see Connecting Bowdoin Geneva: A Plan for Community and Commerce, MIT 2017).
 
What do these two initiatives have in common? They are grassroots efforts by engaged local citizens seeking to make their public parks desirable places beyond ornamental greenspace. Their goal is to create gathering places that bring people together, where quiet reflection and neighborly conversation will be framed by a larger context and meaning.
 
 
Ensuring Fairness, Diversity and Inclusivity: Powerful Incentives for Active Participation
Coppens Square Park, site of a historic fountain, serves as a case study. The Dorchester Arts Collaborative initiated the project, which evolved from a concept for several artistic identifiers along Dorchester Avenue to a focus on local parks. Therefore, it made sense to pass on the reigns to the Meeting House Hill neighborhood and local organizer Ed Cook, where Coppens Square with its long inactive fountain is located. The fountain itself is sited on a triangular, 4,500-square-foot greenspace. The original Lyman fountain, a grand 25-foot bronze extravagance designed and fabricated by M.D. Jones of Boston in 1885, was dismantled in the late 1950s and replaced with a much smaller model. The original fountain was a monument and tribute to Boston Mayor Theodore Lyman who brought a public water system to the City in 1835. The large granite basin remained in place with the diminutive replacement fountain at its center, resulting in an awkward imbalance of scale. The water line that fed the smaller fountain was severed when repairs to the adjacent street were conducted by the City in the 1960s. The fountain has not functioned since nor has the city monument been restored.
 
Secondly, the innovative civil rights-themed art initiative in Gertrude Howes Park offers a new paradigm towards a humanist world view because it is conceived as a place of celebration that both engages and recognizes the broadest possible spectrum of people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, ages and abilities. The community wanted to acknowledge the movement rather than a representation dedicated to individual persons or events.
 
Numerous memorials have been dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King (1929–1968) and his great leadership of the Civil Rights Movement, with major monuments and museums in the cities of Atlanta, Memphis, San Francisco and Washington D.C., to name a few. Unlike previous monuments, the many individuals who have contributed to improving living conditions and social equity during the civil rights era and beyond are to be recognized in Howes Park, intended as an affirmation of the struggle and as a celebration of citizen activism and leadership. The joint efforts of over a dozen community organizations, along with the project team comprised of the relevant city departments, artists and the public at large, were coordinated by the Urban Culture Institute.
 
Both Coppens Square Park and Gertrude Howes Park are located in highly diverse neighborhoods, where residents are working towards ways to get to know each other and appreciate cultural distinctions. The local leaders focused on one premise: How can we make our neighborhood more inclusive for all, a more just, fair and a better place for all living beings? To implement these plans, we wanted to “walk our talk”, to ourselves live the content of our aspirations as part of the planning process. Inclusivity and participatory planning ensured full participation of the highly diverse neighborhood, an approach also advised by the funding partner, the Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund of the City of Boston.
 
A twenty-member community art selection committee chaired by Lorraine Wheeler stewarded the Civil Rights Tribute process. Initially conceptualized as an iconic individual sculpture, this vision evolved to the concept of a newly created gathering place that would be the location for activities related to the commemoration of the countrywide efforts to overcome racism in America.
 
As we worked together, we jointly developed the process to ensure fairness, diversity and inclusion of the community in a participatory, interactive process. Our goal was the outcome of a thoughtful design that would offer inclusive storytelling for all. The objective also guided our planning process during all phases of assessment, design development and review
 
Interactive Community Meetings
Depending on the size of a community project, different tools are suitable for accommodating varying group sizes, ranging from a handful of people to several hundred or more. Depending on the context, a general predication of an estimated, expected number of people can usually be made. Determining a central, well-known and neutral location for a meeting is key to good attendance, as well. Requesting an RSVP is helpful but not always conclusive if those who signed up end up not attending. Free online resources, among them Doodle, Evite and Eventbrite, can be helpful to channel and monitor attendance. Certainly, the closer the local ties of committee members to their neighbors and friends, the more successful and reliable are the projections.
 
An innovative strategy to reach people who usually do not attend meetings has been developed by social activist artist Matthew Mazzotta who developed the Outdoor Living Room concept. As part of all project planning processes he sets up a living room furniture and accessories borrowed from the locals in a spot highly trafficked by pedestrians, such as central plazas, parking lots at popular shopping malls or similar destinations. He then invites all residents to join him in conversation without preconceived goals at previously announced hours, offering refreshments to passers-by. This organic approach gently uncovers challenges and dreams which is then channeled into a design that fulfills a specific need uncovered during the assessment period. See also my essay "Social Art Practice Delivers: Matthew Mazzotta’s Outdoor Living Rooms"  (Place.Labour.Capital, 2018).
 
A question often asked is how to ensure a fair and consensual decision-making process at open meetings. In order to ensure continuity and flow, voting on major items should be reserved for committee members. In this case, the roles of participants need to be explained and clarified at the beginning of the gathering, simultaneously ensuring that participants are genuinely heard and considered when it comes to making final decisions. For initiatives sited on public land, respective municipal, state or federal agencies, departments or commissions will review any proposal and give final approval, while property owners give the final nod on what happens at private sites. Everyone involved needs to be aware who is making final decisions.
 
A commitment to participatory design in the community starts with laying down the ground rules of participation and with answering a number of questions when the project is kicked off: How are meetings being conducted? Generally, an agenda and objectives are set prior to a meeting, so that progress and success are palpable and obvious for all those present. Under the guidance of a capable facilitator a meeting should ideally last not more than two hours. Refreshments signal to volunteers a good, welcoming host. Acknowledging attendees’ time and saying thank you belong to the basic repertoire of mutually respectful, considerate interaction. Linowes (2010) wrote an easy, concise guide to conducting good meetings. Robert’s Rules offers basic meeting protocol, a free online resource that can bring any novice up to speed. Just as important is to clarify decision-making processes. At times, public meetings may include voting and non-voting members, particularly if an established, deeply informed committee works to actively, continuously recruit new circles who then join an effort already underway.
 
Active participation of all present can be ensured by employing a number of methods. Public site visits where the locals meet with (finalist) artists, architects, landscape architects, planners and designers of many backgrounds casually bring about cross-fertilizing connections and offer first-hand insights to all involved. Outreach efforts need to be complemented by a continually updated, project-specific webpage to share background information––a must in today’s digital age.
 
Complementing a site reconnaissance should be a transparent, open community-wide ideation event. Important is that all participants can see each other during the exchange. Organizers should make a point to arrange the available furniture to accommodate those assembled accordingly. To ensure continuity and an ongoing exchange, even if someone was unable to attend, all gatherings should be documented in form of summary notes that are then made available publicly and distributed to the committee, relevant city departments, councilors and state representatives. Meetings should be recorded in form of sign-in sheets and meeting minutes. A best practice for public process is to conduct gatherings with an open invitation to participate, while simultaneously making documents available online.
 
Ideations and similar participatory workshops are important consensus builders and connectors, and they really should be fun. With a bit of planning and preparation they can really galvanize public opinion and convergence. Basic helpers of participatory planning are often used during the planning phase, such as post-its and stickers, easel pads, tracing paper, etc.
 
Basic helpers of participatory planning were used during the public planning meeting for Coppens Square Park whose purpose was to bring together a diverse neighborhood to choose between design options for the Park as a new gathering plaza with a splendid fountain for the community. At that public meeting, the landscape architecture firm selected by the Friends of Coppens Square (CBA Landscape Architects) offered two main ideas for the type of fountain the residents of that neighborhood in Dorchester wanted to see. The proposal to install an abstract contemporary design had to be weighed against the concept to maintain the historic character of the park.
 
CBA Landscape Architects assembled precedents of two fountain types on a series of three posters and invited participants of a community meeting to indicate their preferences by placing a red or a green sticker below favored designs with an either historic or present-day look (see Ill.). The stickers placed below historic precedents clearly outweighed contemporary models, thus the collective decision was made to replace the lost, majestic historic fountain.
 
The Friends of Coppens Square continues to solicit ideas for the uses of the redesigned park for the abutters (including the residents of a senior housing building across Bowdoin Street), nearby merchants, teachers and congregation members, along with neighborhood organizations that have been supportive of the project. Concepts and issues that arise from these inputs will be incorporated into the final redesign of the park.
 
Conclusion
Following the completion of thorough, community-driven planning and design processes for both the civil rights tribute in Howes Park and the fountain in Coppens Square Park, both projects entered fundraising campaigns for fabrication and construction. Throughout the process, the Urban Culture Institute and its project partners followed the new paradigm of placemaking by (a) designing an integrative work of art, (b) eliminating professional boundaries, and (c) by making joint decisions carried by design teams and engaged local citizens of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. While decision-making is more challenging and takes longer, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Buy-in of the community leads to better, more active and safer places that tend to be less prone to degradation and vandalism. This approach is proven as a successful, inclusive process where everyone can contribute to the satisfaction of being a maker while simultaneously building community.
 
A significant insight resulting from the Coppens Square Park redesign and the civil rights initiatives is the increasing recognition of previously excluded histories in the culture of the United States. Evidence of such efforts, ranges from the removal of confederate monuments (in Memphis, for example) to a major MLK Memorial in Boston, which built momentum and matured while the Howes Park initiative was underway. Thus, new concepts in public art and placemaking reflect changing cultural positions.
 
In conclusion, I would like to reassert that diversity and civil rights concern all of us. Although great strides were made during modernity and the twentieth century towards inclusivity, civil rights and a more equitable society, the beginning of the new millennium has commenced with immense challenges. Economic disparity and the income gap are ever widening. Contemporary society––in the United States and worldwide––continues to struggle with being inclusive and welcoming towards “the other.” When done right, placemaking offers an open door to practice and realize fairness, diversity and inclusivity, bringing people together across ethnic, economic, social and racial divides.

Christina Lanzl

Acknowledgements: A big thank-you to consulting editors, Edward M. Cook, President of the Friends of Coppens Square Park, and Lorraine Paine Wheeler, President of the Roxbury Path Forward Neighborhood Association, for their review.

Save the Harbor / Save the Bay bestowed its annual Boston Harbor Heroes awards at a gala evening held in the grand ballroom of the Seaport Hotel on March 29, 2018. Among others, the South Bay Harbor Trail Coalition was honored for its "vision, tenacity and commitment to connecting Boston's neighborhoods to Boston Harbor and each other." Under the leadership of coalition founder, Michael Tyrrell, the team of David Giangrande, Christina Lanzl, Ann McQueen, Tom Parks, the late Bill Pressley and his wife Marion, Candelaria Silva and Bob Wells envisioned the South Bay Harbor Trail (SBHT) ​as part of a larger trail network that connects the Southwest Corridor Park from Jamaica Plain to the Boston Harborwalk downtown and in South Boston. Buoys salvaged and reconditioned by the US Coast Guard serve as markers and a playful reminder of Boston's rich maritime history. Main goal is to reconnect communities divided by major traffic arteries via an easily accessible, multi-use bicycle and pedestrian path. The first of a series of SBHT Buoys was dedicated along the Harborwalk in Fort Point Channel in November 2008. Funding for public art planning along the trail was provided by the Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund of the City of Boston. Other funders include the ISTEA program, MassDOT, the New England Foundation for the Arts as well as private donors. Overall construction of the SBHT is underway as of spring 2018.

About the South Bay Harbor Trail
The South Bay Harbor Trail Coalition, in partnership with Save the Harbor / Save the Bay, municipal and state agencies, partnered to plan and build the 3.5 mile-long, multi-use South Bay Harbor Trail which, when completed, will connect Roxbury, the South End, Chinatown, Fort Point Channel and South Boston to each other and to Boston Harbor.

The South Bay Harbor Trail is one of the most important and exciting initiatives in the city connecting our inland neighborhoods to Boston Harbor. The Trail will link people to the recreational resources of a revitalized Boston Harbor and to the economic opportunities of a prospering waterfront. Residents from Boston’s diverse neighborhoods will have the opportunity to share in a cultural exchange.
 
The South Bay Harbor Trail will provide an important link in the larger transportation network by connecting with existing streets and trails such as the Southwest Corridor and Melnea Cass Boulevard. It will also serve as a critical link in a citywide greenway, connecting trails from Fenway, the Southwest Corridor, Charles River Park, Broadway Bridge, Fort Point Channel and the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
 
The South Bay Harbor Trail Coalition includes community groups, environmental organizations, the City of Boston, property owners, developers, and residents. It is governed by a steering committee which is comprised of coalition members representing every neighborhood through which the Trail will pass. The Coalition receives organizational, fundraising, and technical assistance from Save the Harbor/Save the Bay. 
 
The Coalition worked together with Pressley Associates, a Cambridge-based landscape architecture firm, and Design Consultants Inc., a Somerville-based engineering firm, to develop the engineering and design master plans that will link various completed segments of the trail into a contiguous, single trail system/experience.

Wentworth Institute of Technology | Spring 2018 Faculty Showcase
Watson Hall | March 15, 2018

Wentworth Institute of Technology organizes the annual Faculty Showcase to celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of  faculty. Fifty faculty showcased 34 examples of excellence and creativity with teaching, scholarship, EPIC, grants, sabbaticals, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Organized by the Provost Office and Learning Innovation & Technology, participants hosted information tables to illuminate services and resources.

Dr. Christina Lanzl, Adjunct Professor of the Department of Architecture and Director of the Urban Culture Institute presented Placemaking in Action: EPIC Making in the Classroom. The exhibit offers documentation, outcomes and insights in the power of interdisciplinary, collaborative learning. Surveyed are three seminars from the past two years that focus on placemaking and art-in-architecture, an investigation of urban placemaking within a hands-on learning platform that combines theory with the making of successful places on and off campus. Focus and outcomes are cultural mapping, idea competition and exhibition projects developed by Wentworth senior and graduate students (two funded by EPIC Mini Grants).

Architecture student Shuxin Huang, Dr. Lanzl's spring 2018 co-op student, assisted. Thank you to Don Tracia, Tes Zakrzewski and the entire Provost Office and Learning Innovation & Technology team for incredible support.

Christina Lanzl and Anne-Catrin Schultz presented a faculty lecture on placemaking, which introduced the Placemaking Manifesto, which they co-authored and issued together with Robert Tullis and members of the Boston Society of Architects/AIA Placemaking Network in fall 2017. Lanzl and Schultz highlighted placemaking principles outlined in the Manifesto by discussing a series of case studies from their professional practice.​

The Lunchtime Conversation faculty lecture series is coordinated by Associate Professor Antonio Furgiuele, Department of Architecture within the College of Architecture, Design & Construction Management at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Placemaking is about sense of place. Everybody – people of all backgrounds, ages and abilities – can participate in creating successful public places. Everyone can serve the agenda of excellence in design, healthy communities and thriving neighborhoods. Our built environment is a common good that comes alive through an understanding of how humans instinctively relate to space, design leadership that leverages it, and activity programming that capitalizes on it. The BSA Placemaking Network celebrates its 10-year anniversary with the release of the Placemaking Manifesto. To solicit community input the Manifesto was launched at a public writers' workshop with the co-authors, Christina Lanzl, Robert Tullis and Anne-Catrin Schultz at BSA Space in Boston on October 23, 2017. 

The Placemaking Network explores what it takes to further the creation of high-quality, distinctive public places. Participants of the public Placemaking Manifesto review at BSA Space on October 23, 2017 were Placemaking Manifesto co-authors Christina Lanzl, Robert Tullis and Anne-Catrin Schultz as well as Polly Carpenter/BSA Foundation, A. Vernon Woodworth/AIAMA Board of Directors, Anthony Clayton, Deborah Fennick, Kathryn Firth, Júlia Hilário, Marek Jacisin, Victoria LaGuette, Doris Martinez, Neil McCann, Stephanie Osser, Sergio Arturo Perez, Coco Raynes, Eric Reinhard, Renata von Tscharner, Sara Wermiel, Douglas Wohn and Claudia Zarazua
 
​The Placemaking Manifesto
Placemaking transforms space into place. Our public realm is a common good that comes alive through an understanding of how humans instinctively relate to place, design leadership that leverages it, and active programs for and by communities as a civic benefit for everyone. Placemaking activates our built and lived environment. We acknowledge and actively work towards improving hard as well as soft quality of life factors. 
Placemaking = Quality of Life
 
Placemaking engages the five senses. It is about developing and continuing identity, distinctive, specific and memorable character in our public spaces. It’s about fostering a sense of place: our body-mind’s positive kinesthetic, emotional and cognitive experience in, and in relationship to our public surroundings.  It’s achieved by putting the importance of our shared, exterior spaces between buildings above that of our private, interior spaces within them. We recognize that storytelling gives meaning to our lives and is therefore an important narrative device of human civilization.
Placemaking = A Sense of Place
 
Placemaking is about the benefits that accrue to us, our neighbors, our community, and even our culture when we engage with each other in a high-quality and healthy public realm.  Including public participation in its design and use helps create community identification. Active programming, public events, and public art are powerful tools that help foster community pride.
Placemaking = Caring About the Community
 
Placemaking integrates the individualized focus of disciplines such as architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, public art, and community cultural programming; and supersedes their boundaries by focusing on collaboration, communication and place instead of isolated projects, bringing together individuals of all backgrounds, interests and talents.
Placemaking = Collaboration and Communication
 
Placemaking embraces inclusivity by offering a universal platform for discourse. Everyone is a maker of place. Everyone can serve the agenda of excellence in design, supportive environments, healthy communities, and thriving neighborhoods. In a high-quality public realm, we shed our individual bubbles and participate in a life of greater civic engagement.
Placemaking = Active Participation
 
Placemaking combines an awareness of tradition with an embracing of new and emerging technologies. It respects time-tested rules of form and space, but also employs the research, development and innovation along with contemporary digital and social media tools to further community building.
Placemaking = Tradition and Innovation


Download the Placemaking Manifesto
Download the Oct. 23, 2017 Writers' Workshop Notes
Download the Authors' Biographies
See the Jan. 2, 2018 article on ArchDaily
Download the Letter to the Editor of ArchDaily

The World Metrorail Congress Americas took place at The Inn at Penn Station in Philadelphia on June 28 and 28, 2017. The conference surveyed strategic discussions related to light rail planning and management in metropolitan areas. Sandra Bloodworth, Director, MTA Arts & Design, Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City chaired the roundtable, Ridership Engagement: The essential role of art and design in engaging your ridership and communities. Presenters included Katherine Dirga, Program Manager Arts Administration of MARTA in Atlanta GA, Elizabeth Mintz, SEPTA Director of Communications, Philadelphia artist Ray King as well as Caitlin Martin, Media Communications Manager of the Association for Public Art in the conference city. Christina Lanzl of the Urban Culture Institute’s contribution to the conversation focused on questions related to placemaking in transportation planning:

• How can public transportation agencies work towards better services and policies in the U.S. that support placemaking and a high quality public transportation environment?
• What is the future of digital applications in public transportation art and placemaking projects? Can an overload of visual and sound/noise stimulation deteriorate the ridership experience?

Lanzl laid out the benefits of an integral, holistic perspective and multi-disciplinary approach that leverages placemaking, the arts and culture to enhance abutting communities through collaboration. The goal is to improve quality of life and to create opportunities for neighborhoods, businesses, organizations and individuals/residents.

Common Boston is accepting volunteers through May 15, 2017.

The Urban Culture Institute is Community Partner and proud co-sponsor of Common Boston, the annual architecture and design festival of the Boston Society of Architects/AIA, a program of the BSA Foundation. Common Boston will provide free, open access to buildings throughout Boston's diverse neighborhoods during the weekend of June 3 and 4. By doing so, the public will be inspired to discover why design matters, and learn the stories of Greater Boston's many dynamic communities. Since 2006, Common Boston has hosted over 250+ events for thousands of attendees in 35 greater Boston neighborhoods. 
​
Please help make Common Boston possible, and volunteer your time during the festival weekend! Meet interesting people,
​go behind the scenes of some of the city’s greatest places, and become more involved in your community.
The 2017 Common Boston Festival already includes over 50 sites! View the current Common Boston sites at commonboston.org.

Common Boston is accepting volunteers through May 15, 2017.
For sponsorship opportunities please contact msalvatierra@architects.org.

Among the 2017 site partners are Arnold Arboretum | Ayer Mansion | BNN Charles J. Beard ll Media Center | Bolling Building | Boston Architectural College | Boston Harbor Distillery | Boston Nature and Wildlife Center | Boston Public Market | BPL: Central Library in Copley Square | BPL: East Boston | BPL: Honan Allston | BPL: Hyde Park | BPL: Jamaica Plain | BPL: Mattapan Branch | Cambridge City Hall | Carpenter Center for Visual Arts | Church of the Covenant | Community Boat Building | The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art | Cooper Frost Austin House | DHS: Capt. Lemuel Clap House | DHS: James Blake House | DHS: William Clapp House | District Hall | Eliot Burying Ground | Eliot School of Fine Arts | Emerald Necklace Conservancy | Ether Dome and the Bulfinch Building | Eustis Street Firehouse | Fenway Victory Gardens | First Baptist Church of Boston | First Church of Roxbury Meetinghouse | Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site | Grain Wood Shop | Hibernian Hall |  Kendall Square Roof Garden | L Street Power Station | Loring-Greenough House | Lunder Arts Center, Lesley University | Metropolitan Waterworks Museum | MIT List Art Center | The Museum of African American History | Northeastern University’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex | Old North Church | Otis House, Historic New England | Shrine of Our Lady of Good Voyage | Paul S. Russell, MD Russell Museum of Medical History & Innovation | Saint Peter's Episcopal Church | South Street Farm (Groundwork Somerville) | Vilna Shul, Boston's Center for Jewish Culture | Trinity Church | Union Press | YMCA of Greater Boston | Y2Y | ZUMIX