City To Brighten Palmer Street

Artist Jody Pinto says it’s time for the cobblestoned back alley nestled between the two Harvard Coop buildings to lighten up.

Pinto, the Cogan Visiting Artist at Harvard’s Office for the Arts, shared her plan to revamp Palmer Street with students and community members earlier this month.

Her April 7 proposal calls for reflective surfaces to be placed on the columns of the Palmer Street Coop building, lights to be embedded into the street, reflective banners to be hung from the buildings and the possible transformation of the bridge over the street into a screen.

She said that in its current state, the alley—which links Brattle Street and Church Street—is a wasted public space.

“This is one of the shames of American city planning that we allow streets like this to exist,” Pinto said yesterday. “They become service facilities for businesses that front on more important streets.”

Pinto said her goal is to bring light into the alley—which she said is always covered with shadows. By reflecting light off columns and elongated banners that would line the buildings, Pinto said that the street would seem much brighter.

“The banners would ripple with the breeze. It would be like vertical streams parallel to the street,” she said.

Palmer Street is currently lined with garbage dumps, a fire escape and service entrances. But several stores, notably Veggie Planet, The Coop and The Globe Corner Book Store, do have entrances on the alley.

Co-owner and manager of Veggie Planet Adam Penn said if the street became more pedestrian-friendly, he would consider moving more tables outside.

“It’s great if they’re going to make the street more attractive as long as we can still get our supplies to our store,” Penn said.

Katee Bates, a sales representative at Origins, which borders the alley, also worried that the ally might be closed to delivery traffic.

“As long as we can still get our trucks in it should be cool—especially with the May Fair,” she said. “It’s kind of junky right now.”

Pinto said that the upgraded street will not be closed to business traffic.

“The key is that it is a shared street,” she said. “The design would not eliminate the fact that businesses need to be served by trucks.”

Pinto’s initiative is part of the City of Cambridge’s $3.5 million Harvard Square Design Project, a streetscaping project that will improve sidewalks, lighting and roads around the Square.

Former Undergraduate Council President Rohit Chopra ’04 serves on the city’s Harvard Square Design Committee and has viewed Pinto’s presentations.

“I saw [Pinto’s] vision on how to enliven a street using artwork. It seemed like she had a really good vision...I think she brings a lot of spark,” Chopra said.

City Transportation Manager Kathy Watkins said that a city ordinance mandates that 1 percent of infrastructure projects is set aside for public art. She said the brightening of Palmer Street will fulfill public art component of the Square project.

John DiGiovanni, the president of Trinity Property Management, which owns the Palmer Street Coop building, said that he was at first indifferent to the city public art ordinance but was convinced by Pinto’s plans.

“Jody Pinto gets the concept of weaving public art into the overall improvement of the Square,” said DiGiovanni, who is also the president of the Harvard Square Business Association. “That alley will be transformed.”

Thomas Lee, the program manager of Learning From Performers at the Office for the Arts, said that eight students attended Pinto’s tour of the alley two weeks ago.

Abby E. Carruthers ’04, who attended the tour, said that she was excited by Pinto’s proposal.

“Right now the street seems under-utilized,” said Carruthers, who hopes to be an urban planner.

“If you energize the street...people are encouraged to use it...The possibilities are endless,” she said.

Watkins said that the construction of high-priority streetscaping projects, including the Palmer Street brightening, will begin next fall or spring.

—Staff writer Joseph M. Tartakoff can be reached at tartakof@fas.harvard.edu.