Olmsted Bicentennial Committee of Neighborhoods

Location: Boston, MA
Status: 2020-2022
Client: Emerald Necklace Conservancy
Collaborators: Friends of Fairsted Olmsted National Historic Site, DS4SI
Impact Areas: Nontraditional Collaborations, Equitable Decision-Making Strategies, Spaces and Places of Belonging

Leading up to the Boston-area celebration of the Olmsted Bicentennial (O200), Grayscale Collaborative recontextualized Olmsted’s legacy values by developing an equity agenda that gave his 19th century vision for public space (Urban Ecology, Public Health, and Democratic Exchange) relevance in the 21st century.

Grayscale led the planning efforts to develop an equity agenda of “shared use, health, and power” and worked with the client team to build out a clear and inclusive equity vision, theory of impact, and implementation model for future action. As a first step, Grayscale established a baseline assessment of power dynamics and access to park space in Boston. This included a review of partnerships, internal governance processes, and a demographic analysis of adjacent organizations and communities along the Emerald Necklace park system.

Grayscale also convened a series of facilitated discussions with the ENC board to identify gaps and potential opportunities in ENC programming and partnership-building practices. Building on baseline analyses, Grayscale (1) identified an expanded list of ENC partners to realize the goals of democratic park governance and programming, (2) convened a “Committee of Neighborhoods” - underrepresented organizations to get involved with O200 and future ENC decision-making, and (3) created the infrastructure for a community grantmaking initiative (Parks Equity & Spatial Justice Grant). The ENC and expanded partner network ultimately funded 16 projects which activated 14 Boston neighborhoods from July-Nov 2022.

The Olmsted Now project team was awarded the 2022 Trustees Charles Eliot Conservationist of the Year award.