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Armenian Memorial Spurs Greenway Worry

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  • Armenian Memorial Spurs Greenway Worry

    ARMENIAN MEMORIAL SPURS GREENWAY WORRY
    By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff

    Boston Globe, MA
    May 2 2006

    Allowing the proposal could open the door to a rush of competing
    political groups and causes.

    A proposal to build a park memorializing Armenian genocide victims
    on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is rattling neighbors and
    conservancy board members, who fear that it would open the door to
    an overwhelming number of groups and causes.

    The proposal is to put a large sculpture, reflecting pool, and
    fountain, and 60-foot-diameter paved labyrinth on the southern end
    of the block near Faneuil Hall. It would be the sole feature of the
    new Greenway that would honor an ethnic group.

    Edwin Schlossberg of New York, a conservancy board member and the
    husband of Caroline Kennedy Schloss-berg, granddaughter of Rose
    Kennedy, said he is concerned that placing one ethnic memorial on
    the Greenway could "pit one group against another."

    "It's so difficult when you open up the door to consideration about
    people wanting to exhibit discrete things on their mind," Schlossberg
    said. "This area was one to be developed without that."

    So far the Greenway has been designed without monuments or memorials.

    There is not even a plan for a bust or statue of Rose Kennedy,
    namesake of the new corridor of parks along the former Central Artery
    highway. She was the mother of President John F. Kennedy and Senator
    Edward M. Kennedy, the senior US senator from Massachusetts.

    "The Greenway, if possible, should stay true to how it's been,"
    Schlossberg said.

    The Greenway conservancy board is scheduled today to see for the first
    time the proposed Armenian park, which is being funded by the Armenian
    Heritage Tribute and Genocide Memorial Foundation, a group of about
    45 Armenian-American churches and cultural groups. The foundation
    would also create a $500,000 endowment for maintenance and establish
    a separate $500,000 endowment for an annual lecture series to be held
    at Faneuil Hall.

    Donald J. Tellalian of Tellalian Associates Architects & Planners LLC
    of Boston said the memorial would not be dedicated solely to the 1.5
    million Armenians who died in conflict with the Turks early in the
    last century.

    "It will be as universal in its message as possible," said Tellalian
    who led a design committee of 12 from the Armenian-American
    community. "This is meant to be celebratory," Tellalian added
    yesterday, recognizing the "immigrant experience for all -- not
    just Armenians."

    Objections to the memorial concern not only whether a single monument
    to an ethnic or national group should find a place on the Greenway,
    they also have to do with the unusual process by which the memorial
    was proposed and developed.

    In 2000, the Legislature passed a brief provision into law directing
    the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to study the feasibility of
    constructing "a monument to the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1922."

    It did not specify a location, but the Turnpike is now formally
    proposing the foundation's design for a parcel of a little less than
    one-half acre between Cross Street and Surface Road, near Christopher
    Columbus Park.

    Other groups that sought Greenway space, including the Boston Museum
    Project, went through competitive processes before being designated
    and were designed within a public process approved by the Federal
    Highway Administration. That included review by the Turnpike Authority,
    City of Boston officials, and the community.

    The Armenian group's proposal has bypassed that route and is just
    being made public. It was presented Thursday to a meeting of North
    End and Wharf District residents.

    "The memorial is a wonderful and important idea for our community,"
    said Peter Meade, chairman of the conservancy board. "But there
    are questions about whether it is consistent with the goals of the
    Greenway conservancy, and we have to have a discussion about that
    with the proponents."

    State Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, a Waltham Democrat and
    proponent of the memorial, said at the meeting that details of the
    plan had been purposely kept under wraps until all public officials
    were briefed on it.

    Fred Yalouris, director of architecture for the Big Dig, called the
    land "a public park" and said, "We have proceeded with a very public
    process that has been going on five to six years."

    But Rob Tuchmann, cochairman of the Mayor's Central Artery Completion
    Task Force, and others noted that the group, which oversees Greenway
    design, has never seen the proposal.

    "It is certainly not consistent with the spirit of the requirement
    that they include the three parties -- including the community --
    in the design process," said Anne Fanton, former executive director
    of the Central Artery Environmental Oversight Committee.

    Chris Fincham, a resident of Harbor Towers and a close observer of the
    years-long design of the Greenway parks, said, "All the other parcels,
    the community was involved in the designs from the beginning. This
    is an ethnic memorial, and it creates a problem."

    Mayor Thomas M. Menino declined comment on the Armenian group's
    proposal or questions raised about it.

    The park would almost certainly be the most distinctive feature of the
    Greenway, which is under construction and is expected to be completed
    in 2007.

    The sculpture in the proposed park would be a 15-foot-high
    steel dodecahedron, or 12-sided structure, in the form of a large
    interlocking puzzle. It would symbolize the 12 provinces of historic
    Armenia and the Armenians who died in the conflict early last century.

    Tellalian said the structure would be pulled apart as it is installed,
    recalling what happened to the Armenian homeland. Each year, with the
    assistance of a crane, it would be taken apart again, and reconfigured.

    "The immigrants came to this country and began to put themselves back
    together again," he said.

    Some in the North End who attended last week's meeting praised the
    proposed park.

    "I don't think there's anything wrong with the design," said Nancy
    Caruso, a North End community leader. "The problem is with the
    process. I think what everyone's objecting to is having it pushed
    down our throats."

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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