Blue Cities® work in North Allston
Comprising over 300 acres of land, and bounded on
three sides by the Charles River and its public parkland, Harvard’s
Allston campus will significantly alter the upper portion of the Charles
River basin, and the entire Allston neighborhood. Harvard has
acknowledged the importance of long-term, large-scale planning, and of
community participation, in the development of the new campus. Harvard
officials have also acknowledged the importance of the river to the
campus, and the role it will play in linking the two campuses.
There has been little discussion, however, about
designing the campus to benefit the river and improve the environment in
the area, and opportunities to enhance the public realm in the
surrounding neighborhood have not been directly tied into the project.
A project of this scope has enormous potential to bring lasting
benefits: more accessible, better-designed parks and open space;
improved water quality; more sensible pedestrian and vehicular
circulation; energy efficient building design. There are risks, as
well, and we must ensure that the river’s unique and historically
significant landscapes are protected as the campus development moves
forward.
CRWA is working with
Harvard University, the residents of the North Allston neighborhood, and
the relevant regulatory agencies to support a campus and neighborhood
that are “water friendly”. Our plan is to determine the specific
watershed impairments in the area, identify ways the new development
could begin restoring water and open space resources in the area, and
finally to develop a “template,” or set of standard procedures and
benchmarks for urban restoration projects.
There have been three
main elements of this work: determining the physical problems on the
ground, defining solutions to those problems, and identifying the
political and legal structures that can be used to ensure that change
happens. CRWA has worked to understand the way water works in the North
Allston neighborhood today, and has developed conceptual plans for
integrated solutions. We are coordinating with Harvard as it develops a
new Institutional Master Plan (IMP), and with the Boston Redevelopment
Authority (BRA), which will review and approve the plan. Our goal is to have the
BRA adopt a set of urban restoration guidelines that will integrate
sustainable water management and design as a part of its determination
of adequacy for the IMP. Given that the BRA review processes will guide
Harvard’s expansion, there is significant potential to leverage “blue
development” as a means to achieve water-friendly buildings and
neighborhoods.
Click to read CRWA’s
comment letters to the BRA on Harvard’s
Institutional Master Plan
Notification Form submitted in June 2006, and our comments on
Harvard's Institutional Master Plan
Amendment submitted in February 2007.
CRWA has been working
directly with Harvard University, other environmental groups,
neighborhood groups, the City of Boston, and various State agencies as
Harvard’s campus planning process unfolds. We strive to see the new
campus develop in ways that will bring significant environmental
improvements to the area, as well as to support a broad and inclusive
process for evaluating environmental improvements.
This project involves a great deal of outreach to
various stakeholders, through meetings, letters, and one-on-one
discussions. CRWA staff have developed working relationships with people
in several departments and programs within Harvard University. We have
also had discussions with staff and senior officials in the City of
Boston, and have begun to integrate planning for water resources with
the City’s Green Building campaign working primarily with the BRA and
the Boston Environment Department. Additional coordination has taken
place with various state agencies and departments; since a large
part of the park system on the Charles is owned and managed by the MA
Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), CRWA continues to work
with the DCR to ensure that all potential issues and opportunities for
open space restoration and public realm improvements are addressed.
Through participation in ongoing Harvard Allston Task Force and other
neighborhood meetings, CRWA has begun to draw attention to the North
Allston neighborhood’s environmental needs, with an emphasis on the
connections between water resources and open space.
With the unveiling of Harvard’s Allston campus
Institutional Master Plan (IMP) on January 12, 2007, there has been even
more attention directed towards the North Allston area by concerned
neighbors and the press. From CRWA’s perspective, the IMP while
addressing some water management issues, did not include many feasible
and innovative suggestions that would enhance green spaces and protect
the Charles from increased water pollution; for our press release about
Harvard’s Allston IMP,
click here. CRWA is continuing our work as a
concerned player in this development process, and our work over the next
few months will focus on making sure that the comments and concerns
expressed by CRWA are addressed by Harvard before the IMPA is approved
by the BRA.
|
YOUR WATERSHED 
