A redesigned Bellingham Square Plaza outside of City Hall could better serve as a meeting place and event space for the city’s residents.
The city is hosting a community meeting on the proposed redesign of Bellingham Square Plaza on Tuesday, August 29 at 6 p.m. in Room 305 of Chelsea City Hall.
“The redesign of the Bellingham Square Plaza is in connection with the city’s downtown revitalization efforts centered on the Broadway corridor,” said Alex Train, the director of Housing and Community Development. “The city is overseeing a project to modernize utilities and roadway infrastructure, improve public transit, and promote walkability in the downtown, increase business activity, and beautify the downtown area.”
The plaza redesign seeks to comprehensively re-envision the plaza that is outside of City Hall, the City Hall courtyard, as well as some of the streetscape areas around the building, said Train.
“One of our major goals is to improve the aesthetics and function of the space to make it a comfortable, hospitable environment for residents to gather,” said Train. “Additionally, we are looking to create a space that is more conducive for events as well as better suited for families. A lot of the community meetings we held over the course of the last year on the plaza really focused on the fact that residents surrounding the downtown don’t necessarily have outdoor spaces that they can gather in so they see this as a downtown outdoor living room where they can cool off in the summertime and participate in different events and resources.”
The civic engagement of the past year has culminated in the creation of a design concept that will be presented at the August 29 meeting.
“The concept is going to be focused on greening the space significantly, adding a number of new trees, shrubs, and flowers, as well as reconfiguring the plaza with a new accessible seating area, as well as areas for events,” said Train. “That can include protests, concerts, and other events that usually take place in the plaza or the courtyard, but right now, the courtyard isn’t necessarily configured in the best way, so we are looking to really open it up to the public to make it better.”
Train said the city will integrate community input following the August meeting, along with its partners on the project, GreenRoots and The Chelsea Collaborative.
“After that, we will oversee the final engineering of this space, which will take place over the fall and winter of 2024,” said Train. “Our goal is to have this fully designed by the middle of 2024, and we will aim to break ground on the plaza at the same time as the downtown Broadway project.”
Early next year, Train said the city will also intensify its focus on finding grant funding to help pay for the project.