Project Greenway

FOR MORE THAN a decade, the prospect of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway has inspired both excitement and uncertainty. At one end, ambitious plans are blossoming into reality: Twin parks straddle Hanover Street, promising a thriving urban gathering place next spring. At the other end, near South Station, bold visions have turned to dust: The Massachusetts Horticultural Society has failed to raise even a fraction of the money needed to develop three prime parcels, which may end up as little more than lawns for their first years. Equally troubling to Greenway advocates is that no one can say who could or should take charge of the problem.

From the beginning, planners have sought to make the Greenway a ``common ground" that would attract not just neighbors and office workers on lunch break, but people from all over Greater Boston, exhibiting the ever-growing diversity that will clearly be central to Boston's future.

One encouraging development is the growing role of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, which is now conducting a stem-to-stern review of the mile-long project-a comprehensive approach that has been lacking for years. Its report is due Oct. 15.

Until his forced resignation last month, Turnpike Authority chairman Matt Amorello directed the Greenway development with a strategy that undermined his stated intention of making the street level parks the crown jewel of the Big Dig. Amorello's team hired some of the best landscape designers in the country, and some of their plans-especially those for the North End parks-have drawn high praise. But by chopping up the design process into seven separate segments, the Turnpike has given the project too little continuity. Responding to criticism on this point, Amorello named a high-level advisory group chaired by Dean Gary Hack of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the nation's leading planners, but the group's recommendations were largely ignored.

The result now is a pastiche. Work on the parks in the North End and a narrow park in Chinatown, southwest of South Station, is proceeding to general approval from neighbors, the City of Boston, and Greenway officials. Work on the five ``Wharf District" parcels, between Christopher Columbus Park and Rowes Wharf, is farther behind. But after several false starts, the designs, including fanciful fountains and a hard-surface space where medium-sized crowds could congregate for celebrations or entertainment, have generated eager anticipation. Then there are the three MassHort parcels, prime territory that still has only interim plans, and those are up in the air.

The other key features of the Greenway are the three ramp parcels, where traffic enters and exits the underground I-93. Rather than just cover these unsightly parcels, bold engineers intend to build significant amenities. Planned are a YMCA and community center for the parcel just north of the North End parks, a Boston museum for a parcel near Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and a New Center for Arts and Culture south of Rowes Wharf. None of these ambitious projects is certain to reach fruition, but a $31 million appropriation this year from the Legislature to prepare the sites for construction has given them all a significant boost.

The agreement to set up the Greenway Conservancy two years ago was a major step toward coordinating these disparate initiatives. Even so, the conservancy's mandate from the Turnpike, the state, and the city did not include any authority over the ramp parcels or the MassHort parcels. Since Governor Mitt Romney succeeded in wresting control of the Turnpike from Amorello, however, the new Pike board's request for the conservancy to survey the status of all Greenway elements could be a first step toward a more unified, better coordinated administration of the project.

This Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Faneuil Hall, the first of two forums organized by the Boston Society of Architects will provide an update on the planning and construction, and will allow the public to weigh in on the possibilities for the remaining elements of the Greenway. A second Faneuil Hall meeting is scheduled by the BSA for Oct. 17, just after the conservancy report is due, and will provide recommendations on design and programming from San Francisco, Chicago, and Montreal, as well as further public discussion. Jane Weinzapfel, the society's president, says helping to create common ground is a main reason her group has organized the public meetings. They come at a good time.

Robert L. Turner is deputy editor of the Globe's editorial page.