Bushnell Plaza Reinvention Needed

Stephen Persing, who is about to leave the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art at the end of the week after years of service as both a curatorial aide and assistant in the director’s office, wrote an op-ed piece, A Space Just Waiting to Be Shared, in the Hartford Courant questioning the future plans for Bushnell Plaza.

Bushnell Plaza (on Main Street at the Bushnell Towers apartments) has long laid dormant, encased in an unfriendly track of concrete. The area was recently dug up to repair structural leaks that effected the parking lot underneath.

Persing, rightly, asks developers to think about future usage of the space and its impact on city life before putting it back together:

Let’s imagine the tower ringed in green, from Bushnell Park to the west to the sliver of land with Carl Andre’s Stone Field Sculpture to the north, with the plaza to match. A formal garden of potted shrubs and plants, drawing inspiration from Pei’s tower, could bring sophistication to emptiness.

As Stone Field Sculpture draws on the geologic history of the area, planters could showcase native plants. Perhaps there could be a maze, with a modern gazebo in the middle. A sculpture garden was suggested years ago, in collaboration with the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, which is right across the street. Other ideas include a farmers market, an outdoor cafe or a place for street theater, like Harvard Square in Cambridge. Small tables and chairs for sitting out and reading the newspaper on a summer evening would help bring the tower dwellers down to earth.

It’s the kind of simple, positive future one would hope the owners had envisioned, but thanks to Persing for pointing it out. And for coining my new favorite sentiment: “There is no excuse for urban nothingness.”

Photo courtesy Urban Compass