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Maple syrup made from Seaport trees? Developer shows off plans for 1.5-acre park
By adamg on Mon, 06/04/2018 - 3:12pm
WS Development goes before the Boston Civic Design Commission tomorrow to show off the plans for the 1.5-acre park it's planning for the heart of its large Seaport Square development, in a new neighborhood that currently has little in the way of public amenities.
The proposed park, designed by James Corner Field Operations of New York, would radiate outward from a central square between Boston Wharf Road and East Service Road toward other parts of the South Boston Waterfront, and would include everything from performance areas to a playground unlike any now available in Boston to large, climbable boulders and plantings that would include sugar maples from which the company says sap could be collected in the spring to be made into maple syrup.
The design-commission meeting, which will also include looks at several other development proposals in the city - including WS's latest iteration of its Seaport Square project, which now includes a building for Amazon, begins at 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday in Room 900 in City Hall.
Harbor Square Park presentation (15.6M PDF).
Seaport Square presentation (12.3 M PDF).
More images of the proposed park:
Part of the playground:
Aerial view:
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
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Comments
Boston Maple Sugar
Boston would never have a long enough season to produce any syrup of quality. How much syrup are they planning to make? Do they know how many acres of sugarbush they require?
Probably not much syrup
I realize Boston is a heat island, but the Natick Community Organic Farm has been tapping local maple trees (many at Wellesley College) for a few decades now.
Somerville Community Growing Center collects maple sap
from trees on the Tufts University campus, and makes a small batch of syrup every year.
I tapped a few trees a couple of years ago.
One older one was putting out quite a bit. I wound up with about five gallons before I pulled the taps. Couldn't boil them inside (really don't do that, just don't, it's too sticky) and by the time I got a good outside rig set up, it started looking a little cloudy.
Oh, the ratio is about 40 to one for sap to syrup.
It's Possible
I live in Peabody and tap the maple trees in my yard every year. The sap from three sugar maples get us about a dozen 8oz. bottles to last us through the year. The growing season in Boston is fine for sap, but the only problem I see with this park is you can't tap maple trees until they are mature. So, they'll have to wait a long time (decades) until they're actually able to tap any of the trees.
Salt tolerant landscaping?
Salt tolerant landscaping?
First flood after 2030 will wipe out the lot.
Looks really nice!
This is a lot better than what is there now.
Green Space!
agreed! the
seaportSouth Boston Waterfront is in desperate need of green space.No, you had it right the
No, you had it right the first time. It's the
south boston waterfrontSeaport if going by what most people know it as and what people call the area.Utterly unrealistic
Not a single person in any of the rendering is ignoring the park and looking at their phones.
1.5 acres open space total, not a 1.5 acre park
Nowhere does it say they are creating a 1.5 acre park. They say they are creating a total of ~66.5k sq. ft of open space, which likely includes everything that is not building or permanent vehicular access or parking (you can count temp. vehicular access areas as open space.)
Third Drawing
That treehouse thing looks nice. If I was homeless, I'd sleep in it.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
inundation district
It's actually an emergency flood shelter.
Finally! Some green space!
Finally! Some green space! What trains will go there? Or bus?
The 7 and the 4
The 7 and the 4 go by there; there's no direct stop in front of these parcels but certainly one could be added. It's a 3-5 minute walk from the Silver Line station at the BCEC / World Trade Center.
Oh, and of course the sky bus is proposed to stop across the street.
Mmm, leaded sap
from trees grown in leaded soil.
(Well. I don't actually know if it's leaded soil over there, but stands to reason. Or if there's even soil?)
Reason?
Your theory is that the maple will leach lead out of the soil into the roots and transport it up through the sap?
Not so much. You will pick up more lead from standing in front of the tree.
It's a little hard to find
It's a little hard to find good information on lead transport for different species, so I tend to assume any plant grown in the soil around here is not great to eat.
I know that the lead concentrations tend to follow roots > stems > leaves > fruits (except for low-lying leaves, which might get splashup), but it varies per species. (Some plants are accumulators, or even hyperaccumulators which draw the lead up as a defense against herbivores. The brassicas do this -- kale, mustard, collards, etc.) And since the sap is concentrated to make maple syrup, the lead would be concentrated as well.
New soil
They typically bring in new soil when these huge projects are set up. That's what they did with the Post Office Square park.
Ah, OK
Any idea where they source it from?
Oh, they'll be plenty
of sap for the saps.
I'll need to look closely later
on my lunch, but:
James Corner is a Big Fuckin' Deal™, so this is exciting on the face of it.
Looked later
This looks good! Seems mostly pretty standard Contemporary High-Quality Public Space, except for the treehouse. Which I want to know more about, it looks amazing.
Corner has always been particularly good and interesting with play spaces.
Seurat would be honored
Nice homage to .
**queues up some Mandy Patinkin**