An exhibition in downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts explores the city’s relationship with the river it sits on.
A design team working on a new park that’s been in development for a decade sees it as a unique opportunity for Pittsfield.
“There are very few public spaces in Pittsfield that really open up onto the river," says Tessa Kelly. "Most of the other sites that are adjacent to the Housatonic River turn their backs to the river or have a chain link fence.”
Kelly is the co-founder of Arcade, an architecture firm based on North Street in Pittsfield. She sees the visibility of the Housatonic as a way for the West Side Riverway Park project to open eyes in more ways than one. The design team working on the park is using funds from the National Endowment For The Arts to explore the intersecting stories – past and present – that exist between Pittsfield, the river, and the community that lives there.
“We’ve been talking to so many kinds of people since August – neighbors, as well as local historians, members of the Mohican tribe, as many people as we can think of that in some way are connected to this part of Pittsfield or this part of the Housatonic River, and our goal with this project is to bring everyone’s ideas together,” said Kelly.
At the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts downtown, the team behind the park’s planning has put on an exhibition showing the work they’ve done and the feedback they’ve gathered to date. Kelly, addressing attendees of the gallery’s opening on January 11th, says she sees it as a “open workshop.”
“Any other thoughts or ideas that you want to add to the walls, our goal is to have new information at the end of this exhibition, at the end of January,” she told the audience.
Along one of the gallery’s walls is a timeline of stories from the river’s history – and that of the land and community around it.
“Including the Mohicans, who named the Housatonic River," said Kelly. "Housatonic means ‘over the mountain place,’ and refers to when they came over the Taconic Mountain range from the Hudson River Valley.”
Then there’s the story of the Berkshire Brewing Association, located on Johns Street.
“And was very successful, run by two German immigrant brothers-in-law," said Kelly. "During prohibition in 1922, federal officers came to Pittsfield and dumped 15,000 gallons of their beer into the sewer, and they then went out of business.”
Another story concerned a runaway slave from Louisiana named Festus Campbell who came to Pittsfield in 1848.
“And went on to be the most successful black businessman in the whole county. He ran a greenhouse at the site where the Christian Center now is, and he was famous for growing pears there, and tomatoes and potted plants. He ran a café at the train station and he owned 10 plots of land on the West Side,” said Kelly.
The exhibition also highlights contemporary West Side residents’ ideas for the new park.
“Here, we have some ideas from neighborhood kids about different kinds of pavilions they would like to see in the park," said Kelly. "You’ll notice they’re all food related. The first one is a fruit stand, the second is brownie stand, a pizza stand and a popcorn stand.”
Kelly says the park will have three major components: a pavilion for gatherings and performances, a pedestrian bridge over the Housatonic River, and a river overlook.
The free exhibition also features models of the proposed park design for city residents to examine. It’s open through Monday, January 28th.
