RULA --- Boston - Beantown -- Fall 2005 Field Trip

Get Ready For Boston...Fall 2005

UPDATE: You missed it! We had a great trip. As you can see here.

In late September (22-25) we'll be traveling to Boston for the Rutgers Landscape Architecture Fall Field Trip. For at least a few days you'll be able to escape the nightmare that is the Route 18 widening project. The tentative itinerary is already posted online, but a few of the highlights include:

World's End, an Olmsted project that was never built to completion;
The emotional New England Holocaust Memorial;
A morning at the Providence waterfront;
Multiple college campuses (MIT's starchitecture, Harvard's yard, and the Harvard B-School's Landscape Architecture);
The Boston Death March, a seemingly endless walk from the Fens, to Prudential Plaza, to Christian Science Plaza, to Copley Plaza, to Commonwealth Ave, to the Esplande; and
Free time to explore on your own.

You can see some images from our last field trip online.

Trinity Church in front of I.M. Pei's John Hancock Building

Arbor in Christopher Columbus Park formerly known as Waterfront Park. By Sasaki.

Looking towards Christopher Columbus Park formerly known as Waterfront Park. By Sasaki.

A notable landscape architecture project -- Tanner Fountain at Harvard by Peter Walker.

Tanner Fountain at Harvard in Cambridge, MA.

Headquarters of the Christian Science Monitor. If you visit, make sure you look at the lip on the VERY LONG pool. It is designed so that water cascades evenly across it the entire length of the VERY LONG pool (see lefthand picture). I once heard that the pool is so long that it had to be built curved (vertically) to account for the curvature of the earth.

And there's historic stuff everywhere you look.

The bridge in Concord, MA where they fired the shot heard round the world.

Wanna go? This is an excellent opportunity to view Boston and surrounding sites through the eyes of a designer even if you have already been to Boston . It is also a great opportunity to get together with old friends and meet new ones.

The trip is being subsidized by a generous donation to the department from Professor Emeritus Roy DeBoer. The cost for the trip is $175, saving you more than $50 compared to our usual costs. This includes room, transportation and entrance fees, but not food. In order to secure your place for this year’s trip, be one of the first 40 students to send a check for $175 payable to the Landscape Architecture Service Fund.

What else is there to see?

Copley Square - A case study of this (in)famous urban plaza designed by Sasaski and others.

Boston City Hall Plaza -- Another case study of a prominent Boston public space.

Quincy Market -- Historic retail?

We will also go walking along the bike/hike/greenway path along the Charles River, and visit the Arnold Arboretum.

You should also consider visiting the Mt. Auburn Cemetery, if you get a chance.