The Boston Globe
May 9, 2007 Wednesday
FIRST EDITION

Panel member: Move Armenian memorial

by Thomas C. Palmer Jr. Globe Staff

Trying to defuse a long-simmering dispute, a member of a group that
oversees the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is suggesting that a
memorial to the Armenian genocide, planned for the new downtown
Boston parks corridor, be built somewhere else.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which effectively controls the
Greenway, meets tonight in the North End to hear public comment on
the plan for an Armenian park.

Last summer, the authority tapped the Armenian Heritage Foundation to
construct the park on nearly a half-acre close to the Christopher
Columbus waterfront park.

Tonight’s meeting could become heated: Community groups and civic
leaders have said that the new parks were not intended to host
memorials, and that Turnpike Authority officials did not follow the
standard public process in choosing the Armenian plan for the
Greenway.

Robert B. O’Brien, who is executive director of the Downtown North
Association, a neighborhood group, and a member of the Mayor’s
Central Artery Completion Task Force, wrote to the Turnpike Authority
this week, proposing other locations for the memorial.

His suggestions: a spot outside the Edward Brooke Suffolk County
Courthouse, a few blocks away, or an unspecified location on the new
parks corridor along the lower Charles River, in East Cambridge or
Boston.

The plan for an Armenian heritage park, to commemorate the deaths of
Armenians by Turks in 1915, has won praise from many, including
opponents of the Greenway location. It would include a 12-sided
sculpture recalling the 12 former provinces of Armenia, a water jet
and pool, and a labyrinth of paved stone and grass 60 feet in
diameter.

O’Brien said the park is generally acknowledged to be a
"well-designed and thoroughly fitting testament to an important
historical event."

James Kalustian, president of the Armenian Heritage Foundation, said
the group is complying with a Turnpike Authority request to hold
another public meeting for comment on the design.

Kalustian said the group would go along with "whatever process the
MTA suggests" if the space were opened up to other bidders.

The $4 million park would be paid for and maintained by the Armenian
group, saving the Turnpike Authority and the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
Greenway Conservancy money.

But Peter Meade, chairman of the conservancy, a private group, said
that’s not enough reason to accept the proposal. "It is clear to me
some people in the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority a while ago
decided this would be a way to get off on the cheap," he said.

A spokesman, Jon Carlisle, said the authority scheduled the meeting
because "We want to ensure that this is an open and inclusive public
process. The turnpike as an agency remains open to all options and
suggestions."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.