Fairmount Park and Back Bay Fens: Historic City Parks as Green Infrastructure

The Conception of the Parks as Wastewater Infrastructure

Fairmount Park was created in 1867 by an act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania that authorized the city to provide: “Fairmount Park to be laid out and maintained forever as an open public place and a park for the health and enjoyment of the people of said city, and the preservation of the purity of the city’s water supply”(Bach). A little later in 1878, renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead was hired to restore a salt water marsh in the Back Bay in Boston to improve sanitary conditions. In both projects the government and the professionals viewed landscape architecture as a possible solution for water quality and management.

During the time of these parks, sewage and sanitary conditions were a large concern in populated cities such as Boston and Philadelphia. Boston and Philadelphia acquired land along their rivers to create these parks to protect their primary river from being polluted by human waste. Unfortunately, the park systems were unable to completely protect the water because of the existing combined sewer and stormwater systems that dumped waste directly into the nearby water bodies. Ultimately the parks were deemed a failure in treating water because the river and ocean were still being polluted. In 1910 the river that fed Boston’s Back Bay Fens was dammed, changing the ecology of the salt water marsh to freshwater and ending the function of the Back Bay as a sanitary treatment project (The Emerald Necklace Conservancy). In 1912 Philadelphia built sand filtration treatment plants signifying the culture shift toward reliance on man-made infrastructure for water quality and management.

Progression of the Parks and Landscape Architecture

In the 20th century both parks shifted form their original purpose of water treatment and more towards the use of landscape for pleasure. During the establishment of Fairmount Park, the Fairmount Park Commission(FPC) considered hiring Frederick law Olmstead to design a comprehensive landscape plan. However, they decided against it because they wanted to retain the “scenic contours” established by the estates that lined the river. And it was cheaper. Without a comprehensive plan the FPC continued to acquire land creating a mixture of different types of spaces. In 1876 Fairmount Park hosted the Centennial Exhibition, and in doing so acquired the cultural facilities; Horticulture Hall conservatory and Memorial Hall. In the mid-20th century Fairmount Park added formal recreational fields and entertainment venues including the Lemon Hill band shell, the Robin Hood Dell, and the Mann Music Center. The Schuylkill Expressway cut through the park in the 1950s, establishing the priorities of the time: infrastructural expansion for the vehicle. During the 80s and 90s the commissioners of the FPC improved recreational fields and in the early 2000’s they championed conversation and preservation planning projects. Due to the inability of voters to understand the workings of the FPD and the commission’s attempt to lease out a portion of the land to a private entity; the Fox Chase Cancer center, the FPC was de-established in 2010. The Fairmount Park system was retired and Wissahickon became its own entity with Fairmount Park becoming the east and west parks along the Schuylkill (Milroy).   

Much like Fairmount Park, Boston Back Bay Fens started to incorporate more formal landscapes in the 1920s. These landscapes included ball fields and the Kelleher rose garden. During World War II a victory garden was added to the site and has remained as an active community garden. In the 1980s a redesign was commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management. Historians, preservationist, and landscape architects designed the site to exactly mimic Olmstead designs but without the ecological function he had originally intended, in the end, they created a more symbolic ornamental garden with native plants.

As evidenced in these two park systems, landscape has seen many cycles in its usage throughout time. The cycles have moved from landscape as conservation, to landscape as productive, to landscape as infrastructure, to landscape as recreational and ornamental and then back to conservation. These shifts in landscape purpose show culture’s influence on the field of landscape architecture and how the field is an external example of the priorities of its time. As our economy and culture moves through the stages of decline, conflict, growth, and prosperity, landscape responds and becomes an outward display of the effects of the current stage it resides in. Where are we now in the economic cycle of boom and bust? I believe we are at a stage of conflict. With an increase in housing and land prices without a direct correlation in an increase in salary, combined with exorbitant student loan debts all during a time when important decisions need to be made concerning the health of our planet and the use of its natural resources, we asks ourselves how can we use our land that makes the most environmental and economic sense?

Current Day Stormwater Initiatives

Continuing the saga of water infrastructure and management, Philadelphia and Boston have had recent issues with their combined stormwater and sewer systems. The problem with a combined system is that stormwater is added to the sewer system, and when there is too much rain the system overflows and stormwater and sewage enter the river unfiltered and can even back up onto streets and into basements. This means during a large downpour a city can be in violation of the federal Clean Water Act (Chesler). Recently constructed cities such as Austin and San Diego have separate sewer and stormwater systems (Chesler). In cities like Chicago, they have a stormwater reservoir system that holds the stormwater until there is capacity in a reclamation plant to treat it. In the late 1990s, Boston built their current-day separate stormwater system that collects rain water and discharges it into the receiving waters around the city. However, 20% of Boston still has combined sewer-stormwater. Philadelphia’s infrastructure on the other hand, is all combined sewer-stormwater and the city has unique plans for the water’s treatment.

To solve its stormwater problem Philadelphia is creating a green infrastructure network. This solution increases green space in the city, which has added health and social benefits and is less expensive than creating a whole new stormwater system. In order to incentivize green infrastructure, the city bills landowners by their runoff instead of by their water meter. The city also teamed up with Azavea, a private geo-spatial corporation, to create an app that helps private land owners find solutions to stormwater runoff. The app connects them with grants, incentive programs, and connections to local firms in order to implement rain gardens, rain barrels, and subsurface storage (Johns).

Boston differs from Philadelphia because of its location on the Atlantic Coast. Because it’s a coastal city it’s more vulnerable to sea level rise and the effects of climate change than Philadelphia. Because of this, environmental policy in Boston has recently been shifting toward the protection and enhancement of existing wetlands. Boston is one of the few cities along Massachusetts coastline that does not have a local wetland protection policy. This year a movement has started to create a wetland protection ordinance that would give Boston Conservation Commission the power to protect existing wetlands from the impacts of development.  The policy would also designate sites as “Areas of Critical Environmental Concern.” This proposed ordinance was filed in January 2019 and has support from city council members and the mayor. The report stresses the importance of protecting wetlands as a climate resilient strategy (Valencia)

The Future of Landscape Architecture and Stormwater Design

In 2005, a 3.5 acre stormwater wetland was constructed in Fairmount Park, called Saylor Grove. This wetland’s function is to treat 70 million annual gallons of stormwater. An underground stream was daylighted so the wetland could intercept it and filter the water before it reaches the Monoshone Creek. Like most stormwater infrastructure in Philadelphia, Saylor Grove is small and surrounded by roadways. It creates a secluded pocket of wet native plants that is not easy or inviting to access. Its construction also cost $1,000,000 to $5,000,000, which is about $1 million an acre (Philadelphia Water Department). Small-scale urban stormwater infrastructure is costly to construct and maintain. As I biked along Fairmount park along the Schuylkill, I noticed a fair amount of green space occupied by turf grass for recreational access to the river. This existing open space could retain more water if it changed from turf to native grasses. Native grasses improve the soils infiltration rate and can absorb and store more water than turf grass because of their deep root system. Also, depending on the climate, turf grass requires more maintenance and higher use of water.

Would green infrastructures projects be better placed closer to water bodies and at a larger scale so it could retain and filter increased amounts of water? This concept would mean reverting some of our typical lawn park systems to native grass wetlands. Having worked with ecologist and having built stormwater infrastructure, ecologist would often tell me my green infrastructure projects do very little for water filtration and retention compared to remediating an existing wetland or converting large areas of turf or agricultural fields to a native grass wetland. What I also learned from my work experience, was that the smaller the space and more urban its surroundings a native plant environment is more susceptible to invasive plant seed dispersal, which means more maintenance to retain its function. I now wonder if it might be better, if the goal is to filter and retain stormwater, to fund, design, and implement larger scale ecological restoration on current green spaces or agricultural fields near rivers than to do small scale urban infrastructure. The larger the scale the more likely a designer can create an ecology that functions without continual maintenance.  It is common for these stormwater infrastructure projects to be funded as educational and/or societal improvement projects. In Philadelphia stormwater infrastructure is incentivized because of the social equity and green jobs that these projects claim to make. However, due to the rising cost of living, these projects are seen as gentrifiers of low-income neighborhoods and end up having a negative connotation instead of a positive one both socially and ecologically.

Currently the decisions on how we use our land are critical, how do we learn from Olmstead and refocus the field of Landscape Architecture back to the design of social and ecological infrastructure? We do what Olmstead did and expand the scope by involving ecology and policy in the design. Green infrastructure today either leans toward too social or too ecological. Landscape Architecture is the field that can navigate both realms and come up with a solution that suits both parties, but only if we can speak both languages. Currently we are not viewed as knowing enough about ecology or enough about policy to sit at the table and in the end we get stuck with the site that results from the battle, when instead we should be working with ecologists and policy makers to select the sites.  

The field of Landscape Architecture can think holistically and creatively to find solutions to our future land use dilemma. This larger vision is what Philadelphia’s green infrastructure program needs in order to truly utilize the city’s land to move and filter stormwater while also creating socially enriching spaces. Large swaths of existing open space, such as Fairmount Park, should be converted to retain more water. The program should work outward from there by prioritizing sites by their ability to retain the most water instead of by the area with the most vacant land, typically found in economically vulnerable neighborhoods.  If the stormwater sites are placed in larger, more natural spaces it will be easier to maintain and filter water and it if the site is selected by the highest potential to function then it wouldn’t be gentrification. This more ecological site selection should also be paired with policy that requires new development to retain and filter their own runoff. 

In a time of conflict; recovering from a large economic decline and preparing to fight a war on climate change, our use of public land has begun to shift. As park departments rise out of the recessional planning phases, they have been implementing multi-functional green site designs. These site design projects will lay the groundwork for future large-scale green infrastructure expansion and growth. It is imperative that Landscape Architecture be a part of this future change. We need to be like Olmstead and proclaim our expertise in social and ecological design and make room at that table.

Sources

Bach, Balkin Penny. “The Growth of Fairmount Park and Its Sculpture.” Association for Public Art, 8 Feb. 2018, www.associationforpublicart.org/apa-now/story/the-growth-of-fairmount-park/.

Chesler, Caren. “How Philadelphia Will Solve the Sewage Nightmare Under its Feet.” Popular Mechanics, 3 December 2015, https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a18370/sewers-of-philadelphia/.

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy.“Back Bay Fens.” The Emerald Necklace Conservancy, www.emeraldnecklace.org/park-overview/back-bay-fens/.

Johns, Alaina. “An Unexpected Philly Partnership is Leading the Way for Stormwater Management Across the Country.” City Wide, 16 July 2018, http://citywidestories.com/2018/07/16/an-unexpected-philly-partnership-is-leading-the-way-for-stormwater-management-across-the-country/.

Milroy, Elizabeth. “Fairmount Park Commission.” Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/fairmount-park-commission/.

Philadelphia Water Department. “Saylor Grove.” Saylor Grove | Philadelphia Water Department, www.phillywatersheds.org/what_were_doing/green_infrastructure/projects/saylor_grove.

Valencia, Milton J. “Officials Seek More Protections for City Wetlands to Counter Effects of Climate Change.” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 11 Feb. 2019, www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/02/10/officials-seek-more-protections-for-city-wetlands-counter-effects-climate-change/2Re1T3h9Xie3Ndrttl07pJ/story.html.