Allston’s new sustainable Library Park opens July 7

Library Park, Boston’s newest public space, situated behind the Honan-Allston Branch of the Boston Public Library, will open on Thursday (July 7). Harvard University will host a grand opening celebration from 4 to 5 p.m.

The tree-filled, 1.74-acre park replaces a vacant lot that was once home to the McNamara Concrete Co. The site was designed by award-winning landscape architectural firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. to be a model sustainable park. It helps to slow down and clean the rainwater runoff from the park before it enters the Charles River watershed, helps to clean the air and soil, and provides residents and library patrons with a green oasis in the library’s backyard.

Designed in collaboration with Allston residents, the city of Boston, and Harvard, the park reflects residents’ ideas and aspirations for a quiet, multi-use landscape. The park contains a tiered area for reading and small classes, a circular event lawn, and a quarter-mile of paths around mostly native deciduous trees, a rain garden, and lawns.

Harvard built the park on land that the University donated to Boston.

Contact: Lauren Marshall, lauren_marshall@harvard.edu, 617.495.1585