Photo Credit: Perennial Wood
In the densely populated Boston suburb of Somerville, Mass., open space is at a premium. Residents gravitate to natural areas, even if those spaces are undeveloped city lots on side streets, blocks from the city’s busy thoroughfares.
The city seized the opportunity to make more of one empty property, creating the Quincy Street Open Space, dedicated a little over a year ago. Neighboring residents saw it as their own private garden and gathering area, so the city developed the space with the residents’ input.. The design team also worked within the parameters stipulated by the lot’s donor: The property is to be used for conservation and as a bird habitat. An urban habitat design—for human passive recreation and sensitively built infrastructure—was a natural fit.
Spurr and WANTED Landscape Architecture began transforming the site in the fall of 2012, incorporating three levels of planted terraces and a stepping-stone path—all using recycled granite curb from a nearby reconstruction project: a seating area with Adirondack chairs made of recycled milk jugs, 16 new trees of a variety of species, and native plantings that are erosion-resistant, require minimal maintenance, and offer birds nesting material, berries for food, and shelter. Because of its sensitivity to urban wildlife in the vegetation strategy, Quincy Street Open Space has a minimal lawn—a feature the public-works department appreciates—and full-season trees and shrubs for year-round habitat.