Garden at Risk: Prouty Garden
Some of our Boston-area members have drawn our attention to Prouty Garden, designed by the Olmsted Brothers for the Boston Children's Hospital. The garden opened in 1959 and has been acclaimed as a “healing space” by doctors and patients. In 2012, the hospital announced plans to remove the half-acre garden in order to expand its facilities. Doctors, patients, and members of the public have mobilized a campaign to Save the Prouty Garden.
Latest developments include instructions to the hospital by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on February 11, 2016, putting a hold on construction and asking Boston Children’s Hospital to submit a third-party cost analysis of its plans to expand the facility, effectively delaying the destruction of the garden.
The Department of Public Health also held a public hearing on February 24. A “spillover crowd” of more than 200 people was reported and comments from the public will continue to be accepted until March 7.
The Garden Conservancy will continue to monitor developments and share new developments with our members and supporters.
For more information:
Dr. Michael Rich, a physician at Boston Children's Hospital, wrote a letter to the hospital's trustees in support of saving the garden as a critical healing space.
Boston Children’s Hospital has created a website in support of their expansion plans, which also include a new rooftop garden and two other green spaces.
The Boston Globe has run an op-ed piece in support of saving the garden as well as an editorial defending the hospital's plans to build a new facility on the garden site.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation included the Prouty Garden in its 2013 “Landslide” list of landscapes at risk.
Recent news from other gardens at risk around the country:
A settlement between UCLA and Hannah Carter's family on September 30, 2015, gave a new lease on life to the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Los Angeles, CA.
In June 2015, the New York Times reported that the Russel Page garden at the Frick Collection in New York City was spared from pending demolition.