BSLA Fieldbook BSLA 2015 Spring Fieldbook | Page 10

BSLA

/ MEMBER

CLARA BATCHELOR, ASLA
OPEN LISTENING OPEN MINDS OPEN SPACES

S

ince the founding of my firm in 1985,
CBA Landscape Architects LLC has
designed over sixty parks, playgrounds, and
schoolyards, more than fifty of them for
municipal governments. The vast majority of
these projects are in urban neighborhoods,
many in areas that are considered economically
disadvantaged. Designing a new park or
renovating an old and worn one has a huge
impact on the quality of life for neighborhoods
such as these. The importance of such public
expenditures was driven home one day in 1990
when I went from a site visit for a large private
residence to a meeting at a public housing
development where the average annual per
capita income was $12,000.
Our designs for municipalities contain a strong
public participation component that has been
fine-tuned over the years. Public meetings are
a really fun part of our work. They allow us to

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meet people from all walks of life and we’ve had
the opportunity to learn about neighborhoods
throughout the City and beyond. The people we
meet, and the group dynamics we observe, keep
us on our toes.
At Phillips Street Playground on Beacon Hill
there was a great deal of contention between
people with dogs and people who wanted a
playground (the City of Boston does not allow
dogs in playgrounds). CBA was able to develop
a design that solved for both and brought
harmony to the neighborhood. We recently had
a wonderful experience at our final meeting for
the Franklin Park/American Legion Playground.
It had been a series of three very productive
meetings, made especially memorable by the fact
that several children attended and voiced their
opinions. A closing remark from a neighbor
who had attended all three meeting with his
fifth grader included a thank you to the team