DID YOU KNOW?

There are 3,500 square feet of flower beds in Edward Everett Square.

QUOTES

“… the next step would be to submit an appropriation for the plan to the City Council for approval in the next Capital Plan for FY03-07. … Thank you and the committee for your efforts in bringing about a stronger neighborhood.”

Thomas M. Menino, Mayor of Boston, to Martin J. Walsh, Representative 13 Suffolk District, 22 June 2001.

“This is the place I grew up. … The people here deserve to have something to take pride in. We need that. There is tremendous value in connecting with one’s neighbors and one’s neighborhood. There is so much alienation and isolation in the world.  If you can bring community fabric and community connection to the neighbors, it’s a gift to yourself.”

Laura Baring-Gould interview with Edward Everett Square community activist John McColgan, Fall 2003

RENOVATION:

In 2003, with support from community organizations and public officials, the Edward Everett Square Project Committee successfully enjoined the City of Boston to provide public works capital funding to redesign and renovate Edward Everett Square. Developed by the Boston firm Edwards & Kelcy with significant design work by public artist Laura Baring-Gould, the 3.1 million dollar public works project was engineered to create modified traffic calming with improved traffic and pedestrian safety. Streetscape construction, performed by City of Boston contractors Mario Suzi & Sons of Dorchester, was completed in June 2007.

Design of green space and the physical context for public art was the concept of the community’s public artist, Laura Baring-Gould. As a result the Square is adorned with planting beds, with their unique topography shifts and impromptu seating areas, numerous trees, opportunity for flowers, the elevated Pear platform and the receiving steps in front of the Pear.

The Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen Union Local 3 Training Center, which is located within the community, donated labor to provide all brickwork in the intersection. This brick detailing adds critical texture, value and appeal to the streetscape. The Bricklayers also installed the inscribed bricks and have continued to freely give of their labor as more inscribed bricks are ready for installation. (All the bricks in Edward Everett Square were funded by proceeds from the brick inscription project).