Let's review the four big ideas!
Four big ideas, informed by your feedback, frame the design recommendations. Short videos explaining each of the big ideas, narrated by members of the design team, are below.
Idea #1: Amplify Magnet Destinations
The Action Plan reimagines four beloved areas of Franklin Park as “magnet” destinations, each containing a different mix of program, landscape, or facility improvements to better accommodate community needs. The magnets are located at the four corners of the park and include The Playstead, Peabody Circle (near the Zoo entrance), Ellicottdale (next to the Shattuck Hospital), and the current Maintenance Yard.
Idea #2: Clarify Movement
This includes recommendations that clarify how vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians move through the park by rethinking car traffic on Circuit Drive to improve bike and pedestrian access and safety, introducing new walking and biking loops that are easily accessible from all neighborhoods, improving trail access in natural areas, reorganized and improved parking, locating it near key destinations, and expanding wayfinding and lighting.
Idea #3: Connect and Activate Edges
Access and connectivity are key to creating a strong link between the park and its neighborhoods. Improvements include new and clarified entries and crossings for equitable park access, and neighborhood-oriented program and amenities at the park edge. Recommendations also include ideas to support businesses, services, and communities that surround the park, which can inform adjacent planning efforts (like the Blue Hill Ave Transportation Action Plan and Shattuck Hospital Masterplan) as they take shape in the future.
Idea #4: Unify the Park
We must think of Franklin Park as one place that celebrates all that it has to offer - this is a concept embedded in all of the proposals, as we seek to unify the park both physically and also ecologically. Recommendations address invasive species management and woodland habitat health, durability of fields and open spaces, heritage tree care, increased habitat and biodiversity, and stormwater management opportunities throughout the park.