Location: East Boston, MA
Client: Massachusetts Highway Department
Team: Gilham, Gander & Chin, FST (now Stantec), Rizzo, A Joint Venture
Photography: Alex MacLean and Christopher Barnes

Once a Park n’ Fly lot for Logan Airport, Bremen Street Park is now an 18.5-acre lively public green space for East Boston residents that acts as an important buffer between the neighborhood and the highway. This urban park was created as mitigation for the MassPike extension to Logan Airport during the Big Dig and is now owned and maintained by Massport. Brown, Richardson + Rowe prepared the final design, collaborating with an artist to incorporate expressions of local maritime history into the design.

The park provides residents with community gardens, a granite spray pool, restrooms, an amphitheater, two playgrounds, a bocce court, open lawns and planting areas, walkways, benches, and park lighting. It is also connected to the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway multi-use trail and the walkway over Route 1A to Airport Station. With its elements laid out like “charms on a charm bracelet”, the park provides previously unavailable recreational opportunities to neighborhood residents and a beautifully maintained green space. The space also neighbors the Engine House YMCA, which provides local individuals and families with a host of vital social and health services and recreational opportunities. The state-of-the-art facility is complete with landscaped common areas, a fenced-in playground, and parking.