Project Description

The graphics “delineate where activities can occur,” says Human Scale’s executive director, Walmer Saavedra. The need for programmatic differentiation is vital because this version of the garden is meant to do more things for more people. With the previous garden, “there was very little space for people to gather. You ended up standing on someone’s plot,” says Justin Weidl. The new design features an open plaza and event space, as well as shipping containers for storage and food service. The project was completed in October, but additional murals and interpretive elements are still to come.

Ben Helphand, the executive director of NeighborSpace, the community land trust that owns the land, says the garden has “become almost like a pilgrimage site” for Winthrop Avenue Family members. Gardening is cyclical in nature, bringing people who are scattered across the country together at certain times of the year. But it also brings a wider circle of people into this bit of neighborhood history. “Gardeners,” Helphand says, “end up being the stewards of a history that isn’t necessarily theirs.”