Client: Fairmount Greenway Task Force, Fairmount/Indigo CDC Collaborative

Year: 2013-Present

Project Team

• Civic Space Collaborative, Project Manager

• Fairmount Greenway Task Force Members, community leads

• Boston Transportation Department 

• Boston Parks Department

• Department of Conservation + Recreation

• Livable Streets Alliance

• The Trust for Public Land 

• MAPC

• Fairmount Collaborative 

• Fairmount Indigo Network

• Boston Transportation Department 

• Department of Neighborhood Development

• Boston Parks and Recreation Department

• MassDOT

• Livable Streets Alliance

• WalkBoston

Project Management

Civic Space Collaborative has provided project management services for the Fairmount Greenway since 2013. Michelle supports the 10-member Task Force with implementing the Fairmount Greenway, including an on-street bike route (a neighborway) and six parks along the Fairmount Corridor in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park. She has worked to move the project from a vision to reality by developing and advancing a list of concrete steps to implement the Fairmount Greenway as part of the “Route Implementation Plan.” This plan includes quick improvements, such as painting sharrows, to long-term intersection reconstruction. The first sharrows were painted in 2014 to mark the route and $5,000 of funding was secured for wayfinding signs that she designed to be installed from Newmarket to Mattapan.

For parks and open space, Civic Space has organized design charrettes with community groups to develop visions for four new open space parcels where she works closely with landscape architects to translate community input into schematic designs that will enable successful function, circulation, and maintenance.

Project Management Services

• Supporting community groups through planning, visioning, and design processes

• Identifying and engaging designers, site owners, and funding sources

• Planning and identification for new sites

• Navigating City of Boston processes for open space

• Grant writing, including Community Preservation Act

• Supporting open space implementation

• Event planning

• Public art implementation

Strategic Planning + Organization Plan

In 2016, Civic Space Collaborative organized and led a strategic planning process, engaging over 40 professionals and residents to identify solutions to land ownership challenges and converting vacant lots to open spaces along the Fairmount Greenway. A consensus was formed among the Fairmount Greenway Task Force and the eight-member Fairmount Greenway Executive Committee that a new a non-profit and land trust were needed. The Civic Space Collaborative team developed this concept and was the lead author of the “Fairmount Greenway Organization Plan.” The Organization Plan included recommendations around funding, staffing, partnership, and strategies for the new non-profit.

Fairmount Greenway Related Projects