triangle park URBAN FOREST
URBAN FOREST CREATES A COOL OASIS IN THE HEART OF THE CITY.
Triangle Park is a model urban forestry project designed to introduce open space and shade into a part of Cambridge that lacks both; in doing so, it dramatically reduces localized urban heat and increases plant biodiversity--all the while creating a new space for sitting, gathering, and socializing.
Almost 400 individual new canopy trees and almost two dozen new tree species are introduced on this 1-acre site, a former petroleum site, storage facility and traffic island. The trees establish both a high canopy as well as groves of lower-story trees to create a natural, multi-layered effect. Ground cover species are carefully considered to complement the canopy layer and to encourage people to recline on select lawn slopes and enjoy a respire from the bustle around. The dense groves and topography is punctuated with a custom concrete bench system with varying profiles that encourage both socialization and the ability to sit quietly and enjoy the lush surroundings.
Triangle Park is one of three small urban parks designed as part of a new open space initiative by the City of Cambridge. As small ‘leftover’ spaces within a quickly developing area of Cambridge, MA, these parks were created for both active and passive recreation, accommodating both small programmed events as well as providing quiet spaces for the community to sit, eat lunch and enjoy a verdant retreat. The team worked closely with Kleinfelder, Nitsch Engineering and the City to develop coordinated remediation strategies and sustainable stormwater systems that collect stormwater generated from the park and allow it to sustain lowland vegetation. This latter system provides infiltration levels that exceed regulatory standards.
Timeline
2017—2024
Status
Built
Size
1 acres
client
City of Cambridge
location
Cambridge, MA
TEAM
Stoss
HLB Lighting
Nitsch Engineering
Pine & Swallow Associates
SGH
Irrigation Consulting LLC
View how the park matures over time and how the park is designed to handle stormwater.
The design seeks to create a new space for trees and people to intermingle in a dense urban neighborhood. A berm along the eastern edge of the park marks the eastern edge of the site and screens the traffic noise from Edwin Land Boulevard, allowing for elevational differences that enhance both social and environmental opportunities. On the back and top, it is planted with a variety of native upland trees and plant species (shagbark hickory, black oak, hackberry) in dense thickets that are designed to grow rapidly and to allow for natural competition and succession - an innovation in urban parks like this, one that requires an intense level of ongoing care and maintenance for which the City has committed resources and expertise. The inner side of the berm is inscribed with terraced lawns and linear seating walls, creating a welcoming and active social edge at the heart of the space- perfect for socializing, sunning, or reading.
On the north, a lawn slope and stage are backed by woodland varieties and border forest floor (including American hornbeam, American smoketree, arborvitae, Eastern hayscented fern); these, too, screen out some of the noise and visuals of the nearby traffic but also create distance from the street to allow for more casual sunning, play, and performance activities.
The very south end of the site- where triangle comes to a vary sharp and dramatic point, the earth is excavated to collect the site’s stormwater (a kind of green infrastructure stormwater “sponge”) and is overplanted as a lowland forest of Dawn Redwoods and a variety of birch species with an understory of ferns and witch-hazel. This feature even twenty years ago would have been non-existent, as conventional engineering techniques would have relied on pipes and infrastructure to flush the water away; here, instead, we deliberately retain the water on site into order to create ecological diversity and an environmentally healthy space.
Finally, the central plaza- designed with a dramatic but abstracted parquet floor motif and rendered in white and black gravel- is populated with a combination of multi-stem River Birch and Kentucky Coffeetrees, which will provide a unique and richly shaded and flexible setting for people on scattered cafe table and chairs.
