An inviting front door for waterfront

Boston turned its back on its own history when it erected the Central Artery between the city and what had been its front door -- the harbor and the islands. We further severed our connection to the water by polluting the harbor and abandoning the islands.

But now, as the Artery is finally coming down, we are again seeing our beautiful and historic front doorstep. The views to the sea are alluring; the water is increasingly clear, swimmable, and filled with fish; and its 34 islands have become a national park with the respect their rich history and rough beauty deserve. From as far off as the State House, corridors are opening to the harbor. The "Walk to the Sea" is emerging from City Hall down through Quincy Market, over Christopher Columbus Park to the harbor -- and continuing via ferry to Spectacle Island and Georges Island and many others.

Together, the Big Dig and harbor cleanup represent an investment of nearly $20 billion and two decades of effort. Now that Boston is ready to look and feel like a maritime city again, we need to do everything we can to make the waterfront inviting.

Planning for the Wharf District must be centered on the reconnection to the harbor and the islands and, in the form of a revitalized New England Aquarium, to the ocean ecology that should again be part of our daily lives. Even now, 1.7 million visitors brave the construction and spend $34 million every year to see the Aquarium or head to the islands. Those numbers will soar when the Aquarium and the islands are more accessible.

Wharf District planners have made a good start. With guidance from a noted historian, they plan to highlight the historic waterlines of the wharves, giving them back their names and identities and capturing Boston's evolving needs and coastline. They have incorporated maritime themes into their work, and are using water features on the greenway to highlight the waterfront connection.

Wharf District planners also need to incorporate:

A circulation system that works for both pedestrians and vehicles.

Signage that connects the visitor to the harbor and highlights the easy access to the Aquarium and the islands.

A harbor park pavilion on Parcel 14 at Long Wharf that fits the design of the park is large enough to work and orients the visitor to his place on and the history of the waterfront.

Food and retail facilities to fulfill the needs of visitors and residents, provide revenues for operations and maintenance of the pavilion, and give the area a living, active ambience year round.

A park without basic amenities -- bathrooms, visitor orientation, simple cafe food, shade and shelter -- won't work. The nonprofit Island Alliance works to support the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area. We and the National Park Service see the redesigned Wharf District not simply as an attractive end in itself, but as a means to draw residents and visitors back to the harbor and Islands. The largest single piece of open space created by the Big Dig, after all, is the new 120-acre park on Spectacle Island. In conjunction with the planned national park gateway at Fan Pier, the Rose Kennedy Greenway harbor park pavilion will serve this purpose.

The Park Service is proposing to provide staffing for the harbor park pavilion through the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership and associated staff and volunteers, and has already received a grant for an electronic Traveler Information System. The Island Alliance already operates a high-quality retail program associated with the national park and proposes to operate a small, tasteful facility comparable to a similar operation in Post Office Square -- the city's most vibrant small park.

Former US Representative Gerry Studds and Dick Cross are cochairmen of the Island Alliance Board of Trustees.