By Dan Murphy
A small nonprofit organization, Friends of David Mugar Way, is now soliciting donations from abutters, local businesses, and other nonprofit groups with the goal of raising $350,000 to landscape and maintain the roadway located between Arlington and Beacon streets.
Joyce Tallent, a longtime Back Bay resident and president of Friends of David Mugar Way, recalled in an email to this reporter how some time ago, she was “disturbed by the rundown condition” of the David Mugar Way and thought it would be an easy fix.
Instead, Tallent spent the next two years spent coordinating logistics with the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), which has jurisdiction over the property, before engaging the services of landscape architect Kate Kennen of Offshoots, Inc., to develop what she describes as “a climate-resilient and environmentally friendly plan.”
The proposed project intends to create new landscaping to the median separating the on/off ramps to Storrow Drive, as well as to improve the aesthetics of the roadway. New plantings comprising “native, drought-tolerant species – will also provide a natural habitat for pollinators and help capture carbon emissions,” according to Tallent.
With the project now entering its fundraising stage, Tallent extended her group’s gratitude to, among others, the Garden Club of the Back Bay, “particularly to Margaret Pokorny and Maura Harty, whose advice and support helped push this project towards the finish line,” along with Diana Coldren of the Beacon Hill Garden Club, Jen Mergel of the Esplanade Association, and Leslie Singleton Adam of the Friends of the Public Garden for their continuing advice and assistance.
“I hope everyone who drives or walks by this historic area will appreciate the impact of beautifying the gateway into the Back Bay and Beacon Hill and contribute to making this project a reality,” wrote Tallent, who added if her group’s fundraising goal is met in time, they hope to break ground next spring.
To learn more about and contribute to this project, visit friendsofdavidmugarway.org.