Neponset River Reservation Master Plan and Trail Design

State of Massachusetts

The Collaborative completed a Master Plan and Park Design for a four-mile long recreation corridor along the Neponset River in the Boston, MA for the former Metropolitan District Commission. The project included a market study to determine the area’s “recreational footprint,” community participation, park planning and design, and the creation of a river corridor brand. The brand identity, which celebrated the river’s history as a rich fishery Native Americans called “Neponset” or “Harvest River,” was used in communication materials and throughout the reservation. The Collaborative organized and lead more than 35 meetings and community-design events during the course of the project. Public acceptance of the plan led to the passage of a $40 million bond bill to implement the master plan recommendations. A key element was the design of a multiuse trail design that linked numerous new active and passive park areas. The plan received the Master Planning and Landscape Architecture Award from the Boston Society of Landscape Architecture.

The Neponset River is a river in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its headwaters are at the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough, near Gillette Stadium. The Neponset River forms the southern boundary of the city of Boston, passing through the neighborhoods of Readville, Hyde Park, Mattapan and Dorchester, and forming with the northern border of the city of Quincy. The Neponset River is fed by a drainage basin of approximately 130 square miles, a watershed that includes numerous aquifers, wetlands, streams and surrounding upland areas. Some 250,000 people live in the Neponset River watershed.

Online information about the Neponset River Reservation:

• This Picturesque Park is an Undiscovered Oasis Just Outside Boston, Massachusetts
• Neponset River Reservation

Onset Village Market Study & Streetscape Design

Town of Wareham, MA

As part of a comprehensive initiative to revitalize the seaside village of Onset, the Collaborative prepared a streetscape improvement design for the downtown area of this unique and historic section of Wareham, MA. The firm’s transportation planners, in collaboration with Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, simultaneously conducted a parking study for the village. The interaction between the two projects led to a strong, integrated resolution to circulation issues for the enhancement of the Village of Onset.

The sentiment of the community was summed up by – Marie Oliva, Executive Director, of the Onset Bay Association, when she stated, “Your Streetscape Design Plan is both innovative and achievable. It enhances the unique character of our village center, and greatly satisfies the needs of both residents and businesses alike.”

Pope John Paul II Park

City of Boston, MA

The Collaborative prepared conceptual designs for the 75-acre Pope John Paul II Park. Opened in 2001, this park is located on a former landfill along the Neponset River. The Collaborative’s team developed the park’s program and design based on extensive research, including demographic studies to determine local and regional recreational needs and access. The program accommodated a wide variety of active and passive recreation, and included a multi-use community and recreation center, environmental education areas around a restored marsh, playing fields, recreational spray pool, playgrounds, and historic and environmental interpretive designs.

The park is managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. The DCR has restored a salt marsh area and planted native trees and shrubs. The area now attracts an increased variety of birds to the habitat, including snowy egrets and great blue herons.

Heritage Park and Hotel

City of Gloucester, MA

The Collaborative’s plan and design for Gloucester Place celebrates the City of Gloucester’s heritage as America’s oldest fishing port. The plan is organized around a waterfront heritage park that gives residents a place in the heart of the city to gather, recreate, and continue to understand its relationship with the sea.

A nearby hotel produces the tax revenues to pay for the park, boosting the city’s economic vitality by bringing people downtown, while adding a new destination for residents and others to enjoy and learn more about Gloucester. The heritage hotel and conference center offers hotel developers a harbor view site outside the port district. The City benefits from added taxes to construct and maintain the new park. The thousands of hotel guests annually generate income for downtown businesses.

Connecticut River Walk and Bikeway

City of Springfield, MA

The Collaborative provided landscape architectural services to VHB in the development of the popular Connecticut River Walk and Bikeway for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. In addition to trail concept design, the Collaborative worked with VHB engineers to develop construction drawings. Collaborative’s designers also developed a trail logo used to mark and market the trail.

To date, several sections of the trail are open, including the 3.7 mile path along downtown Springfield and Basketball Hall of Fame and the 1.7 mile loop across the river in Agawam. This remains one of the city’s hidden treasures more than a decade after it opened with great fanfare.

Parts of the path offer majestic views of the river’s sweep, the graceful arches of the Memorial Bridge, signs of Springfield’s industrial past, and the wildlife that thrives there.

Hospital Campus Plan & Sculpture Park

Lehigh Valley Hospital

Collaborative VP of Design Kaye Lynn Johnson designed a campus plan and sculpture park for the 120-acre Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA, a regional acute care facility with over 14,000 daily visitors. Thirty-two major pieces of art were selected and sited in settings across the campus, creating outdoor spaces that interpreted the landform, the area’s cultural history and aesthetic qualities of the sculptures themselves.

This sculpture garden is listed in “Sculpture Magazine” in their directory of sculpture gardens with the following short description: “Philip and Muriel Berman Sculpture Park: The Nation’s largest display of outdoor art in a healthcare setting with 28 works by Cassidy, Garofalo, Gordon, Hide, Hock, Isherwood, Kainz, Macklin, Shaw, Sternal, and Zweygardt.”

Riverside Drive Roundabouts

Georgia Department of Transportation

In 2016, the Collaborative took on a unique challenge in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Two new roundabouts at the interchange of I-285 and Riverside Drive were in need of landscaping to capture the salient qualities of the nearby Chattahoochee River. The Collaborative created a design that successfully mirrored the best features of the 434-mile-long Chattahoochee River which rises high in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia and flows southwesterly toward the Alabama state line. The Chattahoochee River Basin is inhabited by about 24 species of freshwater aquatic turtles, about 37 species of salamanders and sirens, about 30 species of frogs and toads, and the American alligator. It is also home to 9 state threatened or endangered plant species.

Low blue metal panels and grey-blue fescue grass recall the flowing river. Brown stones, along with green shrubs and trees mark the shoreline. Street pavers and stone walls visually connect the flowing course of the river across both circles.

Halibut Point State Park Visitor Center

Massachusetts Department of Conservation

Halibut Point State Park is a conserved, oceanside land located on Cape Ann in the town of Rockport, Massachusetts. The granite that makes up Halibut Point is estimated to be 440 million years old. It was quarried here as early as 1840. The scale of operations grew when the Babson Farm quarry was acquired by the Rockport Granite Company. In 1981, the state purchased 56 acres of land, resulting in the creation of Halibut State Park.

The Collaborative led a project to expand Halibut Point State Park’s visitor center with interior and outdoor exhibits interpreting the site’s history as one of New England’s major granite quarries. The design for interior exhibits allowed park visitors to use pulleys to easily lift granite blocks many times their weight. The outdoor design consisted of a series of “rooms” that each reflected the types of quarrying techniques used until the operation closed in the 1930s.