| The Boston Transportation Department on Tuesday opened a newly built public plaza in Downtown Crossing.
Traffic barriers were erected in early August along a swath of Franklin Street, beginning at Arch Street and culminating at the Millennium Tower plaza, reducing traffic to one lane. The barriers were part of a temporary trial to study new traffic patterns that would arise from the lane reduction.
Now the barriers are bordered by a new bright green bike lane that surrounds public art, seating space and potted plants. A less developed version of the new plaza appeared on the road last summer for one day as a pop-up concept, where locals could come sit and enjoy the space while engineers observed the plausibility of such an installation.
One year later, the city has teamed up with the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District (BID) Corporation and Millennium Partners for the construction of the plaza. Despite this being the second iteration of the public space, it is not final. City officials are calling this a temporary plaza with the potential to become permanent in two years.
Joe Larkin, Millennium Partners’ local principal, said that it will serve as “an interim plan to see if all the logistics work out. If it passes the test, we would love to go permanent.”
To her, BID’s involvement in the development of the plaza represents a much larger goal.
“Whenever you add activity to any block in the city, where people can sit and enjoy, you activate the space,” said Rosemarie Sansone, formerly a member of the Boston City Council and now president and CEO of the Downtown Boston BID. “This is not only a trial for Tontine Crescent, it’s a trial for the city. It’s the first step of many.”
Also of importance to the city and its collaborators is the impact the plaza will have on local business.
“Hopefully this is only the beginning of how we work together with the community to grow,” said Transportation Department Commissioner Gina Fiandaca. “This plaza reimagines our streetscape, and the work done to harness the support of the community was an important part of the process.”
