April 2024 – Parks & Recreation - 47

Lincoln Park
Located inland and just beyond
Boston's city limits is Lincoln Park
in the City of Somerville. Parks are
scarce in Somerville; in fact, the
city's 2016-2023 Open Space and
Recreation Plan notes that just 6
percent of Somerville's 4.1 square
miles is designated as open space.
When the city first allocated funds
to upgrade Lincoln Park and an
adjoining schoolyard, the park's
neighbors, school community and
city residents offered their input
to ensure the park would serve a
cross-section of people and meet
their diverse needs. Using this feedback,
the project team developed
improvements to Lincoln Park that
addressed programmatic requirements,
as well as the dramatic increase
in climate-related stormwater
events onsite and in nearby Union
Square. With land in limited supply,
resiliency planning became a critical
component of the design mission.
Lincoln Park's softball and soccer
fields, for example, serve dual purposes.
Prior to park improvements,
small, localized collection systems
managed onsite stormwater but
were historically inadequate and
resulted in frequent flooding during
large storm events. Now, in addition
to supporting school and citywide
sports programming and other more
passive recreation needs, a system
of subsurface stormwater chambers
underneath the fields maximizes the
amount of stored stormwater the
park can support. The new system
directs onsite and offsite rainwater
into drains and gardens networked
to underground cisterns for infiltration.
The system also includes
excess storage capacity for future
connections from additional neighborhood
streets.
Low-flow outlets provide extended
stormwater detention for a
Now with new park amenities,
improved layout and circulation, and
an intricate stormwater system in
place, Lincoln Park has become a civic
hub teeming with opportunities for
recreation and hands-on learning.
25-year storm event (or 1.2 million
gallons) without surcharging the
system, while a high-flow outlet
ensures larger storms can bypass it
without surcharging. Anecdotally,
the city engineer noted that local
abutting residents are reporting less
flooding in their basements since
the project was completed. The design
process at Lincoln Park provided
opportunities to pursue an
innovative stormwater management
approach that solves issues larger
than the park, representing a clear
example of the ability of public
parks to lead urban adaptation.
Most critical to the success of this
project, however, was the project
team's ability to respond to new
environmental conditions during
construction. Before improvements
began, the project team conducted
groundwater monitoring onsite
to
determine groundwater elevations
that would shape the proposed
stormwater system. Unfortunately,
this monitoring took place in the fall
during an unusually dry season, and
groundwater levels were higher when
construction began the following
spring, requiring design adjustments
to ensure all improvements sat above
the high-groundwater elevations.
Going forward, the project
team recommends monitoring
groundwater levels earlier in the year
when possible to identify anomalies
before finalizing subsurface
stormwater elevations.
For too long, innovative system
designs have been hidden from the
public in the name of aesthetics,
obscuring the direct role that urban
planning, landscape design and
community use play in a landscape's
functionality. Considering the potential
to reach children through
thoughtful design, the team incorporated
stormwater and watershed
education into the park plans.
Now with new park amenities,
improved layout and circulation,
and an intricate stormwater system
in place, Lincoln Park has become a
civic hub teeming with opportunities
for recreation and hands-on learning.
The park's educational mission
continues to enlighten youth about
their environment with the hope
that this awareness will inform their
future endeavors - and ours.
Today, the need for multifunctional
landscapes is more urgent than ever,
and the thoughtful, groundbreaking
solutions deployed at Lincoln Park
and Langone Park and Puopolo
Playground prove that we are up to
the task.
Gracie Swansburg is a Landscape Designer II at Weston &
Sampson (swansburg.gracie@wseinc.com).
PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G | APRIL 2 0 2 4 | Parks & Recreation
47
PHOTO COURTESY OF WESTON & SAMPSON
April 2024 – Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2024 – Parks & Recreation
