2022
Monuments are ubiquitous throughout the Boston Commons, Public Gardens and along Commonwealth Avenue. They are both highly visible—highlighted by the manicured lawns—as well as largely ignored. By developing a system of mixed meadow grasslands and stormwater infrastructure surrounding these monuments, I aim to simultaneously diminish their stature as well as bring them to the forefront of public discourse. Similarly, the vast majority of monuments in these spaces are dedicated to individuals who symbolize larger movements. Even the more recent and progressive monuments such as the Boston Women’s Memorial and The Embrace further push this narrative of individual exceptionalism. By putting biodiverse systems in conversation with these monuments, I aim to counter these historical narratives, reframing the commons’ history, and making power dynamics visible. These new systems of maintenance ones that are cyclical rather than relying on inputs, irrigation, and mowing, can be used to create spaces that, rather than uphold existing power relations, call them into question.
The planting strategy is based on the type of monument, growing conditions, adjacent monuments and maintenance needs. For example, a ground plane monument, like the Great Elm plaque is surrounded by short plants that spread rhizomatically, like creeping thyme, in which the edges becoming less fixed as the plant spreads. A monument that stands upright, in contrast, is surrounded by tall grasses such as big bluestem or giant silvergrass, diminishing the memorial’s appearance while creating an intimate space from which to confront the memorial and its associated history.
Companion plants are used in areas of overlap, as a means of visually connecting and merging histories that are represented through the memorials as disparate and distinct. For example, the plant grouping surrounding the Parkman Bandstand might consist of yarrow, purple coneflower, goldenrod, and little bluestem, while the plants surrounding the Boston Massacre Memorial might consist of big bluestem, common milkweed, beebalm, and yellow prairie grass. In the areas of overlap, biodiversity increases.
Both the public gardens and commonwealth avenue, will experience periodic flooding as sea level rise increases storm surge. Neither space will be completely flooded, but rather will experience periods of inundation. In these spaces floodable retention ponds will surround the monuments, including swales planted with woody shrubs to direct stormwater, and retention ponds surrounding the monuments. Currently, monuments are scrubbed and cleaned annually, but allowing lichen to colonize the surface again both diminishes their presence as well as draws attention to them. Being a composite organism resulting from a symbiotic relationship between fungi and alga, lichen, when overtaking the monument, challenges the narrative of individualism.
The retention ponds along commonwealth avenue are formed by hugelkultur beds. These beds consist of layers of logs, then branches and smaller pieces of wood, mulch and trimmings, and organic material. Overall, this maintenance system replaces the need for weekly mowing, fertilizing and irrigation, which allows for the bulk of the maintenance budget to go towards building these beds, though these can be built over a period of years and with material found throughout the commons, including fallen trees, branches, and plant trimmings. Hugelkultur beds have high water retention capabilities, and the beds and retention ponds that they create by surrounding the monuments in a U shape will both hold storm water as well as act as seating during dry periods. In doing so, the vegetated spaces next to the main pathway on the commonwealth avenue will be activated, rather than the avenue being treated solely as a thoroughfare.