March 2017

FINAL REPORT

Please see link below for the final report of the Healey+Mystic Master Plan.

Comments or questions? Please email: gregnadeau7@gmail.com

- Greg Nadeau, Friends of Healey

August 2016

THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT!

Results from the Community Survey circulated last April and May shows TRANSFORMATIVE as the overall preferred design scenario.

We received lots of good comments to help refine the design and steer the Master Plan. The plan includes recommendations for both Large and Small Projects. Large Projects are multi-stakeholder projects that take time to organize and implement. The graphic below shows how the Master Plan could be phased into eight projects that can be implemented over several years.

Small Projects can happen as early as this school year and contribute to the holistic plan. Small Projects are divided into two categories: ‘Quick Win’ projects may be implemented through efforts of individual entities, including volunteer groups. ‘Coordinated Projects’ require collaboration, professional services, or outside contractors; these projects may be CPA grant program candidates.

Thanks to community response received through the Small Project Priority Survey, the above preliminary list of ‘Quick Win’ and ‘Coordinated Projects’ has been refined and updated in the master plan report.

- Eden Dutcher, Design Team

April 2016

NEW DESIGNS FOR COMMUNITY INPUT

On Wednesday March 30th, the design team presented two design scenarios for a future Healey+Mystic neighborhood. Both scenarios identify a variety of program opportunities, improve pedestrian connections within the project study area, and connect to regional networks & amenities.

A dominant feature of the study area is the nearly three-acre, three-story high bluff that physically separates the Mystic neighborhood from the Healey School. Since the 1950s, when the natural hillside was steepened to accommodate housing, residents have sought ways to transcend this barrier. In the 1980s, the Mystic community was successful in advocating for the construction of two stairways that are now in various states of disrepair. This bluff is the nexus of the two design proposals, INCREMENTAL and TRANSFORMATIVE.  A summary of each is described below.

INCREMENTAL Design Scenario

INCREMENTAL conceives the bluff as a zone of linkage and amenity that is useful to both communities. By bringing vegetation into the schoolyard and increasing options for pedestrian circulation, the bluff becomes more connective, less foreboding, and more fun. A slide and ramble serve as adventurous ways to traverse the slope together with a network of discovery paths. A fully accessible path connects directly with River Road and is identified as a primary pedestrian route, connecting to the Mystic Activity Center and Mystic River. A sunken outdoor classroom, situated near the river’s edge, can flex as a place for seasonal programming while capturing rainwater. The schoolyard additions include a small field and tree canopy while retaining space for hardcourt sports and improving the existing tot lot surfacing.

TRANSFORMATIVE Design Scenario

TRANSFORMATIVE opens the bluff by terracing it and placing major shared amenities at intermediate levels. Redistributing the grade allows the wall-like barrier of the bluff to shrink substantially. Sloped walks and stairs lead to an inviting green space between the school and the neighborhood. This new space, gained by regrading the bluff and reorganizing the Healey School parking lot, allows for a large field that can be used for a variety athletic programs, particularly soccer. On the second slope, we propose an amphitheater to serve a variety of School curricular and extra-curricular functions as well as community gatherings. A proposed pedestrian street, in line with Memorial Road, serves as a new ‘front entry’ to the Mystic neighborhood from the west. Swapping the Healey community garden location with the tot lot gives plants more sun and keeps younger kids in eyesight of older siblings that may be playing basketball or climbing on new play equipment included for older kids. In the Mystic neighborhood park, the community gardens and lawn field are swapped to take advantage of the sun and the stone cliff face. Improvements at the river include a floating dock that leads to a series of aquatic living labs and an immersive experience of the Mystic River.

COMMENTS, PLEASE!

The next step in the master plan process is to circulate the proposed designs and collect community input during the month of April. Please take the community survey posted above to share comments. Email any questions: edendutcher@groundviewdesign.com.

- Eden Dutcher, Design Team

March 2016

REVIEW THE DESIGNS

Based on community input, the design team has developed scenarios that create a new Healey+Mystic neighborhood identity. Please help refine the designs by attending next week’s community workshop and sharing your opinion!

January 2016

VISION Community Workshop

On January 20th, over 50 Healey+Mystic community members gathered at the Mystic Learning Center.  The design team presented analysis of the project site.  After the presentation, people broke into small groups to discuss site improvements and then shared their inspiring ideas with the larger group.  Below is a slideshow of the full presentation and pictures taken at the workshop.

- Eden Dutcher, Design Team

January 2016

WE NEED YOUR VISION

Please join in the process and share your ideas to help create the Healey-Mystic Master Plan. The design team will use the ideas discussed at the January workshop to generate design options that will be presented at the second community workshop in March.

- Eden Dutcher, Design Team

January 2016

MAP YOUR SITE

The design team wants you to tell us what should be preserved and changed about the study area. Please help us by building an online interactive map!

Access the map here, sign in to a Google account, and edit the map.

We have already added a blue line that shows the approximate study area and yellow tabs (clickable for photos, text and links) that show sites or landmarks in the study area. We’ve also put “?” marks in areas we want to better understand.

The legend on the left side is organized in layers. Click on a layer to highlight it and then click on one of the icons just below the search bar to add more content to the map. Visit Google My Maps Help page for more complete directions.

Unlike a paper map, this one never fills up -- the more stories, pictures, and opinions, the better. Happy cartography!

- Eden Dutcher, Design Team

January 2016

THE STAIRCASE: DOCUMENT OF THE BLUFF’S FRIGHTFUL PAST

The defining physical feature of our 32-acre study site, is a steep embankment that divides the Healey Schoolyard from the River’s estuarine flood plain and the Mystic neighborhood below. Early etchings and topographic contours of maps, like the 1893 one shown here, depict a relatively continual and gradual slope.

Today, this slope is as steep as 2-to-1 and is about 35 feet high, effectively creating an urban-scale barrier. Forty years ago, following a excavation and dumping for a Metropolitan District Commission (now Massachusetts Water Resource Authority) pump facility, the situation was far worse – a gravelly cliff, free of vegetation, and with no stepped connection. Many children were seriously injured traversing the ridge. Clair Beach and Susan Richard’s 1986 documentary film, “The Staircase” tells the story of the neighborhood activism that led to the eventual construction of steps. It is a case study in community organizing and the power of media (amateur video and cable access television) to achieve action. You can view the documentary in its entirety below. It is an extraordinary document.

-Eden Dutcher, Design Team

December 2015

A TOUR, DINNER AND A MOVIE

On December 8th, community members joined in a site tour and pasta dinner to discuss plans for the coming months.

Four groups of about ten people (including a group from the Boys & Girls Club!) were asked to make an estimate of how long would it take to walk between the Healey School and Blessing of the Bay Boathouse. Estimates ranged from 8 to 30 minutes. The groups then walked and mapped a variety of chosen routes between the school and the boathouse. Actual recorded times were between 9 and 12 minutes.

If you would like to take the challenge, you can find a copy of the map here: The Boathouse Challenge  

After the tour, the group gathered in the Healey Cafeteria and informally discussed how to improve the route between the school and boathouse. If you have ideas you’d like to share, email: edendutcher@groundviewdesign.com or contribute to the online interactive map here.  

During dinner, there was a screening of “The Staircase,” a historical documentary about the construction of the staircase between the Mystic Housing Project and the Healey School.

What’s Next?

The design team and community stakeholders were introduced and a myriad of groups that comprise the Healey-Mystic Community were recognized. As the planning process proceeds, there will be an emphasis on strengthening connections between the various communities and places. Check out the schedule and planning process diagram below.

-Eden Dutcher, Design Team

December 2015

PROJECT INTRODUCTION

In Spring 2015, the Friends of the Healey, a non‐profit parents group, supporting the Arthur D. Healey Elementary School, together with the City of Somerville, were awarded a grant through the Massachusetts Community Preservation Act. The grant will fund research, planning and design of a multi‐phased master plan to improve the open and recreation space and historic character of the land near the School. The site encompasses the Healey School schoolyard and several adjacent and nearby areas, including the Mystic Housing Authority and the Blessing of the Bay Boat House. This letter announces the kick‐off of the Healey‐Mystic Master Plan and invites you to be a part of this exciting process.

Our design, planning and community outreach consultants are GroundView (landscape architects and urban designers) Groundwork Somerville/Lawrence (community outreach) and Utile (architects and urban planners). Eden Dutcher, Principal of GroundView, is the lead project manager. Please contact Eden to answer any questions you may have about the process or to be added to the project mailing list.

The first Community Workshop will be held in January 2016. This workshop will focus on sharing ideas and dreams to create a new identity for the Healey‐Mystic neighborhood. We will send out more information once a time and place is scheduled. We, the Friends of Healey and its consulting design team, are excited to begin this master plan and we hope you will join us in the planning and design process. Your ideas and input are important in creating a visionary and feasible plan that will best serve the Healey‐Mystic community. Please help spread the word to other interested neighbors!

- Greg Nadeau, Friends of Healey