Emerald Necklace Conservancy Groundbreaking at Stony Brook Gatehouse

September 21 at 10:30 am

Restoration of historic H. H. Richardson building in the Fens establishes a visitor center and permanent home for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy

Media Contact:
Jeanine Knox
jeanine@emeraldnecklace.org
617-522-2700

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Boston, MA – September 16, 2010 – The Emerald Necklace Conservancy announces the groundbreaking ceremony for the Emerald Necklace Visitor and Volunteer Center will be held September 21st, 2010 at 10:30 am. Special guests include Mayor Thomas M. Menino; Antonia M. Pollak, Commissioner of Boston Parks and Recreation; Rick Sullivan, Commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation; Ann Beha, project architect; and Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

"It's exciting that through this partnership we will activate this beautiful portion of the Emerald Necklace. The Emerald Necklace Conservancy and the City of Boston are working together to make this the best park system in America," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

“A once-forgotten architectural gem will sparkle again,” said Julie Crockford, Conservancy President, “when the historic Stony Brook Gatehouse in the Back Bay Fens opens its doors as the Emerald Necklace Visitor and Volunteer Center and new home of the Conservancy later this fall.”

Under the direction of project architect, Ann Beha Architects, the new Visitor and Volunteer Center is designed to be a gateway to the Emerald Necklace. As a destination it will offer walking and biking tours, maps, exhibits and information on activities throughout the parks. For volunteers, it will be a gathering place before they begin their project work to maintain this jewel of a park system as well as a training center for Emerald Necklace Docents and Interpretive Guides.

“With a clear vision of the possibilities,” said Crockford, “ Ann Beha Architects met the challenge of adapting the 19th century pump station designed by renowned architect H.H Richardson to create a 21st century center that will serve as both destination and jumping-off point for people to explore the parks. We had strong support for the vision from the Board of Directors, led by a challenge from an anonymous director to match a $200,000 challenge from the Conservancy’s Justine Mee Liff Fund, which raises funds through the annual Party in the Park held each May.” The total raised to date of $1.2 million includes gifts from three anonymous foundations, the Yawkey Foundation, Jane’s Trust, the Plimpton-Shattuck Fund, the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, the Carolyn and Peter Lynch Foundation, the 1772 Foundation and the Edwin S. Webster Foundation.

Goulston & Storrs, Krokidas & Bluestein, provided pro-bono legal services for the project and GLC Development Resources, Halvorson Design Partnership, and Shawmut Design and Construction round out the core project team.

“We are delighted that the Gatehouse will be given a new lease on life thanks to the efforts of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and the Justine Mee Liff Fund,” said Antonia M. Pollak, Commissioner of Boston Parks and Recreation. “The Emerald Necklace Conservancy is reviving this structure while creating a new amenity welcoming the public to our historic park system.”

The Liff Fund is named in honor of Justine Mee Liff, who served as the Park's commissioner from 1996 to 2002 and was dedicated to preserving and maintaining the parks in the public life of the City of Boston. Other major supporters of this historic restoration project are the Yawkey Foundation, Jane’s Trust, The Lynch Foundation, the 1772 Foundation, and several anonymous donors.

Wendy Shattuck, founder of the Party in the Park, said: “We want to renew the life of this historic building and adapt it to new park-related uses to welcome the public; to promote information about stewardship, our city and its parks, and the activities of the Conservancy; and, to create a functional working environment for the Conservancy right in the park. It’s a perfect fit with our mission and role in the community, bringing people together to renew, enliven and advocate for the Emerald Necklace parks.”

The H. H. Richardson-designed Gatehouse marks the entrance to the Back Bay Fens, the oldest of the parks that make up the Emerald Necklace, designed by the father of landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted. Under the leadership of Matthew Kiefer, a committee of the Board of Directors of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy has been working on plans to restore the Fens Gatehouse to active use for several years. Because both the Fens Gatehouse and the park in which it sits are historic landmarks, the Conservancy has taken great care to identify a design team that has expertise in historic restoration. The project team features award-winning architects Ann Beha and landscape architect Craig Halvorson. Ann Beha expressed enthusiasm for the project noting that her plans for the Gatehouse, situated across from the recently opened State Street Corporation Fenway entrance to the Museum of Fine Arts, will present a model of sustainable design in an historic structure.

Ben Taylor, Chairman of the Board of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, stressed the importance of stewardship and being a good neighbor: “The Liff Fund has raised over $1.5 million in just seven years. The Fens Gatehouse restoration is just the kind of project that would have thrilled Justine Liff. In addition to welcoming visitors, and housing our Conservancy office, we will open the Gatehouse to neighborhood community groups for evening meetings once a month. This is a wonderful tribute to our late Parks Commissioner.”

For more information about the Fens Gatehouse restoration project or to contribute to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, please contact Susan Knight, sknight@emeraldnecklace.org, 617-522-2700.

About the Emerald Necklace Conservancy

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy was incorporated in 1998 to “protect, restore, maintain and promote the landscape, waterways and parkways of the Emerald Necklace park system as special places for people to visit and enjoy.” In the face of persistent city and budget constraints, the Conservancy was founded to address issues of constituency-building, advocacy, public education, restoration, maintenance and stewardship. The Conservancy is a not-for-profit public-private partnership that brings together the park owners (the public entities), parks’ neighbors and citizen groups; and business and institutional leaders to work for the renewal of the Emerald Necklace and its long-term preservation. For more information, visit the website: www.emeraldnecklace.org

Click here to visit the Visitor and Volunteer Center homepage.