"A continuation of what currently exists, with abundant green space and built to last to stand up to climate change and erosion."
That line comes from one participant in the city's first community engagement round on the Christopher Columbus Park and Long Wharf redesign. It also comes close to summing up the whole round, in which neighbors told a landscape team, in a fair amount of detail, what to leave alone. The design brief taking shape for the park at 110 Atlantic Avenue reads like a preservation brief with storm protection added to it.
A Park Built in 1975, Now Back in Design
The City of Boston's project page lists the park's established date as 1975 and puts the project in its Design phase. The expected completion year is "To be determined," and the contractor line says TBD. Boston Parks and Recreation and the Planning Department are running it together. The consultants are Reed Hilderbrand, Weston Sampson and Agency, and the Friends of Christopher Columbus Park are listed among the groups the city is working with.
The city describes the two sites as "waterfront neighbors." It says this phase looks closely at the park and at the connection between park and wharf, "to find opportunities for resilience and creativity."
The Architect's Newspaper reported on October 13, 2026 that Reed Hilderbrand, a Cambridge firm, is leading the work alongside Agency Landscape and Planning and Weston & Sampson. The outlet describes the 4.5-acre park as a festival site, memorial, playground and promenade dating to the 1970s.
How Neighbors Ranked the Park's Uses
The city held two in-person workshops on September 29, 2026. One was an afternoon session in the park and the other an evening session at City Hall. The Phase 1 engagement report counts 39 sign-ins and estimates about 90 attendees across the two.
When participants were asked which park uses mattered most, the responses ranked like this:
- Events and festivals, 18
- Strolling, 17
- Gathering with loved ones, 12
- Taking in the view, 10
- Commuting through, 5
- Games and active play, 4
- Fitness and running, 3
The top four answers are all ways of spending time in the park slowly. Taken together they drew 57 responses. The three answers about moving through it quickly or using it for exercise drew 12. In this group's view, the park's job is to be a place you stay. That explains why the requests that followed were about protecting the setting more than adding new features.
The Takeaways the Design Team Is Carrying Forward
The report closes with a page titled "Engagement Takeaways." It is the clearest statement so far of what the designers heard.
| What neighbors asked to protect | What neighbors asked to add |
|---|---|
| The experience of the waterfront | Flood infrastructure that protects without blocking the existing relationship to the water |
| The trellises | Nature-based solutions and green infrastructure |
| Neighborhood character | Storytelling about resilience built into the design |
| A clean, well-kept park | A park that works in every season |
Even the "add" column mostly points back to the "protect" column. Participants asked for new flood infrastructure on the condition that it not change how the park meets the water. In the general feedback, they asked that resilience work leave the waterfront experience intact. They also asked for plenty of trees and shade, places to sit and look at the harbor, and cleaner grounds. Among the top themes, the report lists "preserving the park's iconic charm while adding improvements for resilience" and "creating comfortable places with furniture to relax, sit, and observe the harbor."
The green infrastructure requests were practical. Participants described nature-based features that would provide shade, filter air, ease flooding and support pollinators at the same time.
Where People Did Ask for Change
Once the core of the park is set aside, the change requests are specific and mostly sit at its edges.
The Rose Garden. On the place-mapping board, participants marked the Rose Garden as special, and one note pointed to its solitude. Its quiet is one of the qualities neighbors named as worth keeping.
The playground. One survey response asked for a larger playground. The same board also marks the lawn, the splash pad and the Harborwalk as existing places in the park.
The water's edge. One comment called the waterfront beautiful but said families with young children may not feel safe with the current barriers. Another asked for clear signs showing that the Harborwalk is public along its full length.
The boats. Participants asked for stronger connections to the water. Some imagined a ferry hub that could make boat access and transfers easier while also giving people a place to rest in the park and adding flood protection.
Every one of these requests is about how people reach the water and use the edges of the park. None of them asks for the lawn, the trellises or the overall layout to be rethought.
Why Long Wharf Is Part of the Same Project
The park is being designed alongside the wharf because the city has already studied the wharf. The Planning Department's Long Wharf coastal flood resilience planning work covered the area from the northern edge of Christopher Columbus Park and Waterfront Park to the southern edge of Old Atlantic Avenue. Its stated aim was to protect Long Wharf, its public uses and infrastructure, and nearby neighborhoods from coastal flooding and sea-level rise. The page says high tides routinely affect Long Wharf and that recent nor'easters caused storm-surge damage there.
That study is done. The planning page says a final report is posted and thanks stakeholders for more than two years of input across more than ten public engagements. The compiled final report is listed as updated June 9, 2026. According to the planning page, its outputs include near-term flood solutions and design alternatives that feed into a broader Downtown and North End coastal protection system. The study is also meant to support later grant applications for design, engineering and construction.
According to The Architect's Newspaper, the site sits just 10 feet above sea level, and the park design will include storm protection infrastructure. The same article quotes Eric Kramer, Reed Hilderbrand's principal-in-charge: "We embrace the challenge to innovate on climate infrastructure and pair storm protection, environmental cooling and biodiversity enhancements with improvements to the overall comfort and enjoyment of an important public park."
Kramer's description lines up closely with the takeaways page. The design team is describing protection, cooling and comfort as one package, and the neighbors who came on September 29 asked for the protection to be hard to see.
This Year's Trellis Lighting
That background gives this year's holiday lighting more weight than usual. The Friends of Christopher Columbus Park will hold the annual Holiday Trellis Lighting on November 23, 2026, at 5 p.m. The evening includes a countdown to switching on 50,000 trellis lights, holiday sing-alongs, Santa, cookies, hot chocolate and clam chowder. The City's event listing lists it as free, from 5 to 6 p.m., with music, Santa and Rudolph, and refreshments.
The Friends say the trellis stays lit in blue from late November through mid-April. That covers close to five months of the coldest stretch of the year. It also lines up with one of the takeaways, since neighbors asked for a park that works in every season. The trellises are the only physical structure named on the takeaways page.
What Happens Next
The project's online survey closed on October 19. Anyone who missed both September 29 sessions can watch the recorded presentation, which the city posted so that more people could see the material. The project page names B. Chatfield of Boston Parks and Recreation and Ben Matusow of the Planning Department as project managers. It has a sign-up for updates on future meetings and currently lists no upcoming events.
The Architect's Newspaper reported that the project is expected to go through a 14-month planning process with community and stakeholder engagement. The city has not set a completion year. The next community meeting will show whether the design concepts hold to the takeaways page. The questions to watch are whether the trellises are kept, whether the Rose Garden stays quiet, and whether the storm protection stays out of the way of the harbor view.
Changes to a park like Columbus Park affect daily life around it, and the market notices them too. If you'd like to know how the North End market is valuing homes near the park and wharf right now, Joe DeAngelo can walk you through it. Find what your home is worth.
