725 Main Street, Barnstable MA

Formerly a gas station, 725 Main Street is approximately 1 acre and located at the edge of downtown Hyannis. KKLA was asked to develop a new community park design that will be constructed in 2007.

The design is conceptually driven by two factors: phytoremediation and water quality enchancement plantings. Phytoremediation plantings have been created in certain areas of the site to passively remediate found hydrocarbons and lead while also creating an attractive community landscape. A matrix of plants specifically suited to treat these contaminates was created and used to select appropriate vegetation. Secondly, the site will be used as a nursery for low maintenance plants adapted to the Cape’s sandy soils, which can take and help treat contaminant runoff from stormwater. A low budget forces the buying of small plant material. Yet field grown for several years, these plants can then be transplanted and/or divided to be used in other Town projects such as rain gardens enforced in local zoning. All plant material will be labeled to create an educational display garden of low maintenance plants.

The productive phytoremediation/ stormwater nursery landscape will create a visually evocative place for people to visit and use only a small amount of construction funds. KKLA tapped local resources to stretch the limited project budget. Granite recycled curbing provided by the Town Deparment of Public Works will be laid out across the site to spatially create lines and an easily understandable geometry that separates different planting beds of vegetation. A partnership with Cape Cod Americorps, was solicited to do much of the planting, and invasive vegetation clearing work. Lastly, KKLA wrote and received a $76,000 CDAG (Community Development Action Grant) from the MA state department of Community Housing and Development to pay for the construction of the park.

The design for this project has been jointly conceived by Kate Kennen Landscape Architecture, a consultant to the Town of Barnstable, and 3 Harvard University Graduate Students in the Department of Landscape Architecture, Jennifer Toy, Patrick Curran and Addie Pierce-McMannon. The students participated in the conceptual design of the parcel as a phytoremdiation independent study project with Professor Niall Kirkwood in Spring 2006; Jennifer Toy further developed the design during a summer Community Service Learning Fellowship with the Town and Kate Kennen.

Collaborating Designers: Jennifer Toy, Patrick Curran and Addie Pierce-McMannon, 2005 Landscape Architecture Students, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Research Support: Niall Kirkwood, Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Center for Technology and Environment, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Client: Town of Barnstable

Publications:
Barnstable Patriot, 5/5/2006, 'A Different Kind of Park Cleanup: Planting science will help clean park soils'