Sasaki to Design the Future of Boston’s Copley Square
City of Boston’s Parks & Recreation Department and Sasaki hold first public meeting and invite responses to survey, now open
At the heart of Boston, Copley Square has long been a space for the community to gather, celebrate, or enjoy a beautiful day surrounded by iconic architecture. Over the last year, Sasaki and the City of Boston Parks & Recreation Department have been working alongside the community to revitalize the square.
Sasaki and the Parks Department have made updates to the design that were shared at the final community meeting in April 2021. The design works on many scales, accommodating events like the Boston Marathon and weekly farmer’s market, and also has accessible seating that people can use on a daily basis when they visit the park. Other details include creating clear pathways on established routes through the plaza, connecting Dartmouth Street and the Boston Public Library, creating seating and shade for the bus stop on St. James Avenue, creating a shaded grove with sitting around the fountain, and creating a lawn that buffers Trinity plaza from events.
Two key priorities that the community emphasized are maintaining and enhancing existing trees and preserving the square’s existing fountain. The Fountain will be renovated to improve safety and create new motion for the water. The key architectural features consisting of the obelisks, upper pools, and spouts will remain in place, while the lower pool on the Park and Boylston Street sides will be renovated with cascading water slopes and curbs. The new raised tree grove will protect healthy, mature trees and create new shaded spaces for people to sit. Elevated pavers make a space for tree roots and allow people to walk under the canopy without stressing the tree roots.
“Copley will continue to be a space that unites us, that invigorates us, and that brings us joy.”
-Chief of Environment, Energy & Open Space, Mariama White-Hammond
To learn more about the design from the Chief of Environment, Energy & Open Space, Mariama White-Hammond, Commissioner Ryan Woods, and Project Manager B. Chatfield, watch this video.
To read through the updated design plans, click here.