ECOTRAILThis proposal for a re-visioned public eco-trail captures the same bold spirit of the Big Dig and applies it to the pedestrian zone above the city’s great underground achievement. Aiming to breathe life into the central artery’s unfamiliar above-ground counterpart, this vision seeks the transformation of what is currently a series of underutilized “green” spaces into the sustaining veins of Boston’s changing industries, neighborhoods and environmental conditions. HISTORIC SHORELINE AND LANDFILLBoston’s history of bold, seemingly impossible, physical manipulation of the land suggests that anything is possible in such a plastic landscape. However, the eco-trail’s gradual development is based on a strategic and flexible infrastructure within which the landscape can be molded over time. The eco-trail rejects short-sighted landfill projects of convenience and instead reveals the significance of our shifting landscape as it changes. The trail crosses a series of boundaries where landfill was used in the past to create and expand Boston’s urban center, but of which few Bostonian’s are even aware. This proposal aims to expose these landfills through the sectional buildup (or mounding) of land along this trail to allow Boston’s historic ‘edges’ to become a part of a system for it’s sustainable future.UNIVERSITIES + OPEN SPACEBoston is uniquely positioned to propel itself into the forefront of environmental and ecological design and living. The city’s wealth of universities, research facilities, and technology-based industries will support this endeavor and encourage new experiments, designs and installations to further showcase future “green” living. Throughout the pathway there are areas in which different institutions have the opportunity to use the space to experiment with ecological and environmental practices and technologies on a larger scale and with public exposure and publicity. This not only promotes public knowledge of sustainable research, but would result in the development of biotechnical manufacturing industry, creating more employment opportunities for Bostonians in a new centrally-focused zone. WAYFINDINGThe trail acts as a central green artery, which crosses several prominent neighborhoods with very distinct cultural identities. Those neighborhoods will be marked along the pathway and that system of wayfinding which will begin along the trail and, over time, can branch out into the rest of the city reinforcing the neighborhood identities while also demonstrating their relevance in the larger urban framework. This signage approach builds on the simplicity of Boston’s successful Freedom Trail.
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