Learning from pioneers of visionary infrastructure reuse projects | Q&A with Nick Black, Managing Director of the One Waterfront Initiative

Community organizations, thought-leaders, and practitioners came together for a symposium hosted by the High Line Network in New York City on October 16-18 to learn from pioneers of visionary infrastructure reuse projects. Participants emphasized the importance of ensuring that such projects have value not just for the city or region’s economy, but also for the local community and surrounding neighborhoods, by making the spaces and programming equitable, and welcoming to all.

The High Line Network, a group of infrastructure reuse project teams and supporters, is led by the nonprofit organization Friends of the High Line, which founded, funds, and maintains the High Line Park in New York City. Today, the peer-to-peer network incorporates 19 projects.

Nick Black, Managing Director of the Trustees’ One Waterfront Initiative attended the recent symposium, “Beyond Economic Impact: Charting the Field of Infrastructure Reuse,” and shared his thoughts on some of the valuable insights.

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Q: What were some of the most powerful, positive impacts shared during the panels and workshops about reimagining disused infrastructure in a way that brings value to the surrounding communities?

A: A lot of the initial conversations about infrastructure use as public open space over the last 10 years have focused on the economic impacts. This symposium took a broader view and examined some of the social impacts that these places can have, specifically focusing on equity and access—thinking through best practices, learning from what has gone wrong, what can be done better, and how to better engage communities going forward in developing these types of projects. There were a number of examples present but St. Louis comes to mind. In developing a greenway through what has long been an economically disadvantaged community, the outcome and results were much better when they took the time to engage the community where they were, and talk about their needs, rather than simply proposing designs with limited, or superficial, community feedback.

Q: Can you share an example from the conference of a project that has not only benefitted the community on a social level, but also helped to bolster their resilience to the impacts of climate change?

A: The development of Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston, TX is a great example of an open space that has provided significant economic and social benefit for those that live in and around the area, with what is essentially a resilience project helping to protect those communities against flooding. We saw some of the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey two years ago, and Bayou Park, which covers over 150 miles of area through a very large city, is an example of what happens when you think about open space and resilience as complimentary solutions.

Q: What lessons from the symposium are applicable for Boston? As One Waterfront looks to build a park, what are some of the takeaways to prioritize?

A: One of the main takeaways is the importance of deep, thoughtful community engagement, some of which our team has started. As our potential projects begin to move closer to reality, this conference underscored our desire to make these projects in partnership with the neighborhoods and communities that will be impacted by them, ensuring that the uses and needs of the areas are appropriate and wanted. It also reemphasized the importance of making sure that communities across Boston are getting benefits through things like educational opportunities and workforce development, and that we’re using design and programming to make these places welcoming and engaging for people of all backgrounds.

Q: What can communities and neighborhoods expect to see from One Waterfront as the park projects move forward?

A: A continuous, ongoing focus on community outreach through some of the more traditional ways like open houses and design charettes, but also through creative engagement on the ground, with teams that are going to go to where people are, solicit feedback, invite people to engage, and make sure that people in the surrounding communities feel like they are welcomed into the process. That will include everything from multilingual materials and meeting translations, to art and design workshops that invite community members to help make this place their own.

Q: Which urban park projects have stood out to you as good examples to follow?

A: During one of the workshops, someone brought up West Riverfront Park in Detroit as an example. The project is a redesign of the Detroit waterfront that has, through community engagement, come up with thoughtful ways of engaging youth—specifically teens—and welcomes the community to really feel connected to the waterfront in a way they never had the opportunity to be before. Another is in Seattle, where they are in the process of tearing down a viaduct and burying it in a tunnel that cut off downtown from the waterfront, much like Boston was 15 years ago. They’ve also developed a strong public-private philanthropic partnership that will help create 20 acres of new public space, and open up Seattle’s waterfront in an active and resilient way.

Q: Tell me about one of the most engaging or interesting sessions.

A: One of the most interesting sessions was about what it means to grow community through culture. It was a data-driven look at what we, as a community, consider as “culture” today—parks and open space are high on that list. A positive culture is one that builds community, educates the public, fosters empathy, and most importantly gives people an opportunity to have fun. Boston’s culture is made up of many populations, from around the world, old and new, and all will be part of the planning process of creating parks for the One Waterfront Initiative. Another session that stood out was from April De Simone, co-founder of “designing the WE,” a socially focused design studio. She gave a gutting presentation about the institutionalized, racist laws of redlining that affected all of our American cities through much of the 20th century, and how we’re still feeling the impacts of those today. For me, personally, it was a fresh perspective on a topic that has inspired me to learn more not only about our country’s history of redlining, but also about how we can think about overcoming those systemic inequalities through design, investment and community engagement in our cities.

Q: Describe, in a couple of sentences, the vision of One Waterfront and how the series of parks will be developed as world-class, welcoming, and resilient spaces for all to enjoy.

A: From the beginning, the objective of the One Waterfront Initiative has been to create iconic places with equity and resilience at the forefront. To us that means engaging in community partnerships that help inform the design, guide the development, and will lead to outcomes that benefit a larger population. We also understand the threats that this city is facing from sea level rise, and the One Waterfront Initiative is going to build resilient places that will stand up to increased levels of storm surge, and do as much as possible to protect places inland while acting as a model for resilient development both for the City of Boston and communities around the world.

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