Project Overview:
The Project

 

In the tradition of landscape architecture, the members of the New England Greenway Vision Plan and the American Society of Landscape Architects believe that the time has arrrived to "make the connections" among the thousands of parks and open spaces in New England. We can build on our amazing parks and open spaces to create the first multi-state, regional greenway network to serve as a model for America and the globe. We are poised to create a cohesive network for the 43 million acres of New England - making greenways as accessible to everyone as our roads are today.

Our Plan
The plan builds upon existing and proposed greenways in all six states and identifies the critical linkages that will make a New England system. The plan calls for:
  1. An additional 19,300 miles of greenways and trails to make all connections among green public open spaces, so that we have a cohessive green network for all New England.
  2. An additional 8 million acres of protected land to maintain a high quality environment for New England in perpetuity. This will be done by protecting the most fragile and environmentally sensitive areas, where land meets water. This approach was first enacted into law by Massachusetts Legislators with the 1996 River Protection Act. Enacting similar laws in the other New England states will contribute greatly to this total.
  3. Action Plans for creating greenway legislation in all New England States to emulate Rhode Island's successful legislation. (they now distribute over 100,000 greenway maps per year)

The fact that this conference is the centennial conference held at the birthplace of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), gives the impetus for a study that goes beyond a single site or a simple project. A brief review of the evolution of landscape architecture in Massachusetts shows how the profession here expanded the boundaries of landscape architecture from park design in the 19th Century to open space planning in the 20th Century.

It was Frederick Law Olmsted, Senior, the founder of Landscape Architecture in America who expanded his park planning for Massachusetts by planning the first significant park system for Boston and Brookline in 1867, commonly known as "The Emerald Necklace (Fabos, Milde & Weinmayr 1968, pp. 57-74)". This park system is known in the greenway literature as the first major greenway in America (Fabos 1996, pp. 1-13).

It was here in Massachusetts that Charles Eliot; a pupil of Olmsted expanded Olmsted's Park System by planning a Metropolitan wide park system. This was an open space/greenway network for the 250 square mile Boston Metropolitan Region at the turn of the twentieth century (Fabos 1985, p. 132).

It was here in Massachusetts, where Charles Eliot II, the nephew of Charles Eliot coordinated the plan for the first statewide open space plan in America, for Massachusetts in 1928 (Fabos, 1985, p. 117). This impressive history provides us with a challenge to expand further the boundaries of landscape architecture. Hence, it was decided to create a greenway vision plan for the entire New England region. The intent of this vision plan has been to "be the first step on the road to a national (greenway) system" (Welsh, May 1994, p. 4).

This project proposes for New England a bold vision, to make greenways and green spaces as accessible to everyone as our roads are today. This plan provides New England with a network of greenways that will serve the region as our state and interstate roads serve our cars and trucks today.