DotGreenway

Conversations are ongoing and will continue into 2018 as to what institutional partners and government agencies will be part of the project over the short and long term.

After the Initial Community Input period, the DotGreenway project team will regroup and advance the project proposal and its design in light of the reactions, suggestions, and inputs of residents and nearby business owners.

DotGreenway launches online page for community feedback and ideas on the initial project vision.

The project team has begun reaching out to civic associations to provide an initial overview of the project and present the concept ideas. More civic associations will see the presentation and have an opportunity to provide feedback in the fall and ongoing throughout the project, as well as direct smaller group meetings with abutters and other stake holders.

After RODE Architects, OJB Landscape Architecture and TLee Development, who had been independently working on potential designs for the MBTA tunnel cap pro bono, connected with Greater Ashmont Main Street and learned of the organization's long term commitment to the project, a joint effort and partnership was an obvious next step. The team then presented the initial proposal slide deck for the first time publicly at the Greater Ashmont Main Street Annual Meeting in May.

After pro bono design work by RODE Architects and OJB Landscape Architecture of a visioning proposal for what could be possible on the MBTA Tunnel cap, from Peabody Square to Fields Corner, Travis Lee of TLee Development approached the MBTA to initiate discussion of the possibility. The project was vetted through the MBTA internal distribution process. By April/May 2017, every single department at the MBTA had signed off in principle on the creation of a linear park on the redline MBTA tunnel cap along Dorchester Ave. Final approvals are of course subject to final design and construction document review.

During 2007, as the community again gathered to discuss a major change to the look and feel of the commercial corridor in their Main Street District, with the reconstruction of Ashmont MBTA Station into an architectural landmark with a welcoming public plaza and the development of the TOD mixed use Carruth building on the former bus turnaround, the topic of an MBTA tunnel cap park again came up repeatedly, and was regarded as a long term vision for neighborhood enhancement.

As part of a large scale redesign of roadways, traffic patterns, and pedestrian passive recreation spaces in Peabody Square, Greater Ashmont Main Street (then St. Mark's Area Main Street) host a series of community charrettes geared at learning and understanding the residents preferences and hopes for the public areas of their Boston Main Street district in general, and the roadway redesign in particular. At these charrettes, the idea of extending the hardscaping which had been completed outside Shawmut Station on the MBTA tunnel cap all the way south the Peabody Square as well emerged as both possible and something with enthusiastic support of the neighborhood.

Renovation for accessibility of the Shawmut T station began in 2004 by the MBTA as part of a planned renovation project. As part of this renovation, some hardscaping and lamps were installed outside the Shawmut station laying the groundwork for the Shawmut Community Gardens project, lead by dedicated community volunteers and entirely grant and donation funded.