“Harvey’s Walk” Hits Its Stride

The Historic District Commission will issue a certificate of appropriateness for the installation of four planters along the edge of small Russo Park to honor a late Wooster Square civic leader — as long as they’re made out of red brick.

The planters would run parallel to rows of white pines to create a beautified, unpaved pathway connecting Chapel Street and Wooster Street in honor of longtime Wooster Square booster Harvey Koizim.

The Historic Commission voted unanimously to approve the planters at its monthly meeting, held last week.

The city’s landscape architect, David Moser (pictured), who designed this project, went into the meeting ready to address the concerns raised by the commission last month — mainly about the materials being used to build the planters.

“I guess you could say that what was what was proposed at the last meeting – precast concrete block walls — was deemed unacceptable,” Moser said during his presentation.

In the past weeks Moser has examined the area around Russo Park to come up with an alternative that was in keeping with the character of the neighborhood. He brought in three photographs of existing cut stone walls in Wooster Square: brick, fieldstone and granite.

He expressed a preference for the fieldstone, an ode to the historic foundation of buildings in the area, given its ability to mimic the darker hues of brownstones. A wall of this type with no coping, Moser said, would not only exude the natural feel the project aims to achieve but also discourage passersby from sitting on the planters for too long.

After discussing the pros and cons of allowing brick or fieldstone for the planters’ construction, commission members ultimately didn’t concur with this view. Acting Chairman George Knight (at center in photo) deemed the fieldstone too ​“agricultural” and unbefitting for the formal look of Wooster Square.

“It is interesting to recognize the tailored quality of the square,” he said. ​“To me, and I know it’s not your first choice, the brick feels like the better resolution.”

Ruth Koizim, Harvey’s widow, agreed with this assessment, though she acknowledged Moser’s point about the unreliable durability of brick walls.

To account for this concern, the commission suggested a bonded structure with coping, in which bricks are placed on top of each other in perpendicular rows to knit the walls together and create one sturdy unit for each planter.

The debate over materials evinced a larger question: the relationship of Russo Park to Wooster Square and its aesthetic role within the neighborhood.

​“It’s an awkward space,” said Commissioner Douglas Royalty. ​“When you look at other public squares, you don’t have another little park bleeding off the edge. It’s very difficult to know what to do with that space.”

Proposed improvements to the site seek to remedy such ambiguity. Moser’s plans include the removal of all existing planted berms, root systems and mounds of soil to make room for the planters. (Click here to view the detailed plan for Harvey’s Walk.)

The planters have been resized to accommodate the needs of the weekly farmers’ market. They will be 25 feet long by six to eight feet wide, each with an increasing distance from the park sidewalk — at most, 25 feet and four inches — in order to maximize lawn area.

Moser also proposed a tentative year-round maintenance schedule that would involve pruning, watering and fertilizing of the shrubs and perennials in each planter, with the help of community volunteers.

After hearing the three ayes approving the project, Moser, Koizim (at left in photo) and Wooster Square neighbor Peter Webster stepped outside the meeting room to revel in their victory.

“People have been holding their breath” for this decision, Koizim told the Independent. ​“Now they will be able to pitch in financially or through hard work.”

In other words, the road toward securing funds for Harvey’s Walk can finally begin. The project, as first envisioned with pre-cast concrete walls, had a $20,000 budget, Moser said, a figure that is bound to change given the commission’s new provisos.

Webster, after hugging Moser, alluded to the vast community support already propping up this initiative, from Historic Wooster Square Association to the Friends of Wooster Square organization. Koizim said she is determined to see the project come to fruition, ​“even if I’m the only one to make the sacrifice.”

Construction of the planters will likely take place between December and May, Moser said, while the farmers’ market is on hiatus. He said he would have preferred the informal appearance of fieldstone planters, as opposed to brick, but that’s already beside the point.

“This job goes beyond what I do for the city. Harvey definitely inspired me in a lot of ways,” he said. ​“As long as Ruth is happy, I’m fine.”