South Street Mall

Client
City of Boston

SOUTH STREET MALL is an award winning pocket park project that features a passive space with four season planting, decorative paving and seating. A serpentine fence, designed by artist Beth Galston, separates passive use from active recreational uses.

THE project

This pocket park centrally located in Jamaica Plain includes granite seat walls, plant beds, benches, courts and lighting. The design features a purple curvilinear chain link fence that creates dramatic visual interest while separating the passive and active components of the park.

This project has been included as we feel it has the history of active community involvement and collaboration. The artistic fencing was the result of a creative collaboration between RDLA and environmental artist Beth Galston. This team effort merged our design talents to bring color and excitement to this vest pocket park and recreation facility in downtown Jamaica Plain. This was the first project for Boston Parks and Recreation Department in which artist and landscape architect worked collaboratively on a site design, making for very exciting results. The site design features a public seating and gathering space along South Street that includes shade trees, curvilinear granite seat walls, drought-tolerant plantings and benches. The purple chain link fence designed by Ms. Galston curves both horizontally and vertically, dramatically sweeping through the park like fabric blowing in the wind. This project received the 2011 Merit Award from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects and the 2011 Les Grube Memorial Design Award from the Chain Link Fence Manufacturer’s Institute.