Rose Kennedy Greenway

The Rose Kennedy Greenway is a 17-acre linear park located in the heart of Downtown Boston, stretching approximately 1.5 miles through the Chinatown, Financial District, Waterfront, and North End neighborhoods. Officially opened in October 2008, the Greenway sits on land created from demolition of the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway as part of the Big Dig project. It consists of landscaped gardens, promenades, plazas, fountains, art, and specialty lighting systems that stretch over one mile through several of Boston's most historic districts. Today, the Greenway serves as one of Boston's most prominent public spaces, welcoming millions of residents and visitors each year.

Naming and Historical Context

The Rose Kennedy Greenway is named after Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the matriarch of the Kennedy family, who was born in the neighboring North End neighborhood and was the daughter of the former Boston mayor for whom the demolished expressway was named. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (1890–1998) was born in the North End and lived there as a child, and she is especially remembered as the mother of President John F. Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and Senator Edward Kennedy. Her son, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, played an important role in establishing the Greenway. The name thus carries a dual resonance: honoring a woman whose roots were literally in the neighborhoods the park rejoins, and acknowledging the political legacy that helped bring it into being.

The expressway the Greenway replaced had itself been named after Rose Kennedy's father, John F. Fitzgerald, a former mayor of Boston. Known as the Central Artery — later the John F. Fitzgerald Highway after the former mayor — the project was spelled out in the Massachusetts Master Highway Plan for the Boston Metropolitan Area, published in 1948. Its green-painted steel superstructure would stand 30–50 feet above ground, consist of six lanes and over 20 on/off ramps, designed for a planned daily volume of 75,000 cars. The expressway was thus physically and historically intertwined with the same family whose name now graces the park that replaced it.

The Big Dig: Origins of the Greenway

The story of the Greenway is inseparable from the story of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, commonly known as the Big Dig. When Boston opened the Central Artery highway in 1959, it was estimated to service approximately 75,000 vehicles daily, but the construction of the highway displaced 20,000 residents and cut off Boston's North End and Waterfront neighborhoods from its downtown. The highway and its supporting structure effectively cut off Boston's North End and waterfront from the rest of the city, and it came to be regarded as an eyesore.

By the 1990s, the Artery became congested for more than 10 hours a day as nearly 200,000 vehicles tried to move to and from central Boston, and the highway's accident rate rose to four times the national average. The elevated highway had displaced 20,000 residents, cut off the North End and Waterfront neighborhoods from downtown, and limited these areas' ability to take part in the city's economic life.

In 1991, after almost a decade of planning, construction began in Boston on the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. The project, recognized as one of the largest, most complex, and technologically challenging in the history of the United States, would remove the elevated highway and create a tunnel system below the city. Planning had formally begun in 1982, and construction was carried out between 1991 and 2006, with the project concluding in December 2007. Design and construction lasted sixteen years, during which a 3.5-mile stretch of I-93 running through the heart of downtown Boston was dismantled and reconstructed within a series of tunnels running beneath the city.

With the elevated highway relocated underground, community and political leaders seized the opportunity to enhance the city by creating the Greenway, a public park that re-connected some of Boston's oldest and most vibrant neighborhoods, and the city itself with the waterfront. The megaproject also constructed the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge over the Charles River and funded more than a dozen projects to improve the region's public transportation system. In total, the project created more than 300 acres of open land while reconnecting downtown Boston to the waterfront.

The Big Dig was projected to cost $2.6 billion at the initiation phase in 1982, with estimates increasing to approximately $8 billion in the 1990s; the real cost reached $14.8 billion, nearly double that later estimate. Despite the expense, the project fundamentally transformed Boston's urban landscape and made the Greenway possible.

Parks, Design, and Features

The Greenway is composed of a series of individually designed spaces — including Chinatown Park, Dewey Square, the Fort Point Channel Parks and Urban Arboretum, the Wharf District Parks, Armenian Heritage Park, and the North End Parks — each with its own unique spatial vocabulary and feel. Together they form a continuous green corridor linking distinct Boston neighborhoods.

Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park (formerly Chinatown Park) anchors the southern end of the Greenway. Designed by Carol R. Johnson and Associates and May Sun, the park has a large plaza, as well as a serpentine walkway edged by bamboo within bright red sculptural elements and a fountain that suggests a waterfall and shallow riverbed. In 2019, the park was renamed from Chinatown Park to Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park.

Dewey Square Park, located between Congress and Summer Streets along Atlantic Avenue, joins the major transportation hub of South Station to the Financial District. Situated between South Station and the Financial District, it serves as a hub with food trucks, farmers' markets, and community seating; during warmer months, the pollinator gardens and edible plants add a burst of color.

The Wharf District Parks form the largest segment of the Greenway. These parks connect Faneuil Hall and the Financial District with Boston Harbor, contain areas of paved surfaces for active public use and a gathering space known as the Great Room, feature three open lawn areas for informal gatherings, and during warmer months host the Greenway Open Market, food vendors, concerts, and fitness classes. The Wharf District Parks are also home to the Mothers' Walk, a curving pathway consisting of pavers engraved with names and personal messages.

Armenian Heritage Park holds a distinctive place along the Greenway. The park is dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide and acknowledges the history of Boston as a port of entry for immigrants worldwide, celebrating those who have migrated to Massachusetts shores and contributed to American life and culture. Its Abstract Sculpture — a split dodecahedron mounted on a Reflecting Pool — represents the immigrant experience, while the Labyrinth, a circular winding path paved in granite and set in lawn, celebrates life's journey. The park opened in May 2012.

The North End Parks, designed by two teams of landscape architects — Boston's Crosby, Schlessinger, Smallridge LLC and Seattle's Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd. — feature lawns surrounded by densely planted perimeter beds designed to evoke a formal feel of past European style gardens with boxwood hedges enclosing an array of perennials.

A signature attraction of the Greenway is its carousel. Featuring animals native to New England designed by artist Jeffrey Briggs, the Greenway Carousel is a popular draw for family trips and visits to the city. The Greenway Carousel is a one-of-a-kind 36-seat carousel with 14 original characters representing the land, sea, and air around Boston. The hand-carved characters are inspired by the air, sea, and land animals of Boston Harbor, and by the imaginations of children.

The park is also distinguished by its environmental commitment. The Greenway is Boston's only fully organic public park, meaning no synthetic chemicals are used, and this dedication to sustainability creates a safe haven for pollinators and ensures clean water runoff for Boston Harbor. The Big Dig reduced the urban heat island effect, with an estimated 900 trees added along the downtown corridor following the completion of construction, and a total of 4,800 trees and 31,000 shrubs planted in all of the resulting green space.

Governance and Funding

The creation of the Greenway was a joint effort of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (since incorporated into the Massachusetts Department of Transportation), the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the City of Boston, and various civic and community organizations.

The Greenway Conservancy was established as an independently incorporated non-profit organization in 2004 to guide the emerging park's development and raise funds for an endowment and park operations. In 2008, the State Legislature confirmed the Conservancy as the designated steward of the Greenway, which opened to the public in October 2008 with tens of thousands of visitors attending the park's inaugural celebration. Shortly after, in February 2009, the Greenway Conservancy assumed full operational responsibility for the park.

The 2008 legislation established a 50%–50% public/private funding model; through a multi-party funding agreement announced in June 2017, public funds from the State and City represent approximately 20% of the operating budget, a new Greenway Business Improvement District funds approximately 20%, and the Greenway Conservancy itself generates approximately 60%. In 2018, the Greenway Conservancy, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the City of Boston, and property owners abutting the Greenway negotiated a Business Improvement District (BID) to support the Conservancy's care of the park.

The Conservancy has sole responsibility for managing all aspects of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, including horticulture, programming, public art, maintenance, and capital improvements. The Greenway is the contemporary public park in the heart of Boston, welcoming millions of visitors annually to gather, play, unwind, and explore, with the majority of the public park's annual budget generously provided by private sources.

Public Art and Programming

Public art is a cornerstone of the Greenway's identity. The Conservancy's Public Art Program has made the Greenway a premier destination to see contemporary works of art in downtown Boston, with a vision of bringing innovative and contemporary art to the city through free, temporary exhibitions, engaging people in meaningful experiences and dialogue with art and each other; the Conservancy gives artists unique opportunities to exhibit bold, new work that considers the possibilities of 21st-century Boston.

The park is home to six water features and a rotating selection of temporary exhibitions featuring contemporary public art, including murals, sculptures, and other installations. Notable past installations have included large-scale aerial works and community-driven murals, while programming rotates year-round to reflect Boston's diverse cultural communities.

The Greenway Conservancy sponsors over 400 free events per year, including fitness classes, festivals, markets, and family-friendly programming. The Rose Kennedy Greenway is home to community events nearly every night of the week, from beer gardens, artisan markets, food festivals, and exercise classes, making the park a place for people to come together. The Greenway is free and open to the public every day from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm, inviting visitors to stroll through its five distinct parks.

In the path of the old elevated Central Artery now stands the Rose Kennedy Greenway, a tree-lined boulevard with several miles of new and refurbished sidewalks, 600 streetlights, roughly 900 trees, and a number of plazas. The park's combination of green space, rotating art, and active civic programming has made it a central gathering place in the life of modern Boston.

See Also

• Big Dig
• North End, Boston
• Boston Harbor
• Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
• Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge
• Faneuil Hall