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Will Copley Square Park be open in time for the Boston Marathon?
Short answer: Some of it.
After nearly two years of construction, the renovation of Copley Square Park is behind schedule. So, will it be open for the Boston Marathon, one of the city’s largest annual events?
The short answer is that most of the park, which is just a few feet from the marathon’s busy finish line, will reopen in time for the April 21 event.
The main plaza of the park, along with a “raised grove,” will be open April 14, a week before the Marathon, the city said.
The $16.9 million project, which broke ground in July 2023, was supposed to be completed by the end of 2024. The northeast triangle of the park next to Trinity Church has been open since Jan. 1 with new benches and pathways, but the rest of the park was further delayed.
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The reopening of the park’s plaza was at first delayed until February, but winter weather “inconsistent” with previous years put constructions off track, according to a spokesperson for the Boston Parks and Recreation Department. Now, the plaza and the raised grove will be open starting next week.
The fountain against Boylston Street and the lawn directly in front of the church won’t be open until June. According to a handout from the city, the entrance at the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston Street will also open in June.
Pedestrians will be able to enter Copley Square Park from Dartmouth Street and Boylston Street, which are closer to the finish line, while the perimeter sidewalk along St. James Avenue will still be under construction.
What will the finished park look like?
The “raised grove,” which will be open for the Marathon, is a new feature at the park. It’s a raised platform designed to keep people from sitting around and under a grove of new trees, the project manager previously told Boston.com.
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“It’s essentially a deck structure around those trees so they can sit among them, be beneath them but not step on those roots,” project manager B Chatfield said after the construction began.
While the project is six months behind schedule, pedestrians should be able to enjoy the renovated fountain by summer. A big part of the project includes updates to the fountain, including bringing it up to code and adding more seating around it.
There will be less grass at the new Copley Square Park, with more trees. Chatfield also said the space has more seating and was designed to better accommodate the farmer’s market and other similarly sized events.
The city is working with five artists to commission public art for the new Copley Square Park with a budget for poetry, pavers and walkways, light projections, and a small sculpture series, according to the city. The central themes of the art will be community solidarity, empathy, and acknowledgement of loss from violence.
So far, there is no timeline on the public art installations.
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