Rose Kennedy Greenway is a "Placeless Desert"

3 May 2010 - 8:00am

Boston's Rose Kennedy Greenway is an urban park built over the "Big Dig" highway tunnel, and as Robert Campbell of the Boston Globe puts it, "a design disaster."

Campbell says that the lessons of Jane Jacobs were clearly ignored by the planners and designers behind the Rose Kennedy Greenway. On a recent walk, he found it almost entirely deserted.

Campbell writes, "It's a series of oversize shapeless spaces, none of which seems to have a purpose. Some are paved with stone, some with concrete, some have trees, some have flowers. It all feels random. It doesn’t look as if it’s been shaped by a creative mind. There are things to look at but nothing to do.

Only twice did I feel I was in anything I’d define as a memorable place."

Source: Project for Public Spaces blog, April 30, 2010
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The interdisciplinary nature of these challenges justifies a more decisive federal policy that helps metropolitan areas promote energy and location-efficient development.