Magazine Beach

On Thursday night (Nov. 5), Kevin Allen of DCR’s Historic Curatorship Program will talk about DCR’s seeking a tenant for the Magazine at the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Assn. meeting at LBJ apartments (150 Erie St.) at 7pm.  DCR’s Request for Expressions of Interest is out; proposals are due December 9th by 3pm. The tenant will reactivate the park so this is a BIG deal.

DCR will host an Open House of the Magazine this Saturday, Nov. 7th from 12noon-2pm. If you’re interested in attending, please contact HCP.Requests@state.ma.us.

Also this Saturday, Nov. 7, from 9am-12noon, we’ve got a Magazine Beach Cleanup with the Charles River Conservancy and Riverside Boat Club. Register with Sasha Vallieres at svallieres@thecharles.org, or just come on down. The CRC will provide work gloves and tools. We’ll bring hot brownies.

Also, mark your calendars! Wednesday, Nov. 18, 6:30-8pm @ the Morse School (40 Granite St.), 2nd Public Meeting about the design for the western part of the park. Please attend to show support and to share your ideas. Our goal is to have a final plan by the end of the year with the goal of implementing at least parts of it in 2016!

Today DCR released a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) in the Powder Magazine at the park. This is the first of a two-step process to identify a long-term lessee for this structure who will convert the interior to its next use.

“The Powder Magazine Building is an important part of the history of the Commonwealth, the City of Cambridge, and the Charles River Basin, said DCR Commissioner Carol Sanchez. “By partnering with an outside party, DCR will ensure that the building is preserved and reconnected to the community, for years to come.”

Expressions of Interest are due December 9^th. DCR will hold an Open House of the Magazine on Saturday, November 7, 12pm-2pm. If you are interested in attending, please contact: mailto:HCP@Requests@state.ma.us.

For more about DCR’s Request, see: DCR Announces Opportunity to Rehabilitate and Reuse the Historic Powder Magazine Building in Cambridge. Click here, for the Magazine Beach Committee’s Curatorship Principles & Recommended Uses for the Powder Magazine. Click here for Cambridge Day‘s story about this.

Men’s Grand Masters 4+, perennial winners at HOCR. Photographs courtesy of RBC’s Igor Belakovskiy.

NEWS FLASH from Riverside Boat Club rower Amanda Milad!

Riverside won ALL of these medals this weekend:

1st – Men’s Grand Master 4+

1st – Lightweight Women’s 4+

1st – Men’s Masters 2x

Men’s Masters 2x, rowed by Pete Morelli (a Cambridgeport neighbor) and Sean Wolf.

1st – Men’s Masters 1x 

2nd – Men’s Masters 1x

2nd – Women’s Veteran I 1x

2nd – Men’s Senior Master 1x

3rd – Women’s Club 8+ (plus winners of the special club medal)

3rd – Women’s Champ 2x

Men’s Club 8+ also awarded the gold special club medal

The special medals are awarded to the first finishing non-collegiate team in the club event. (The name is a bit misleading since there are college crews who compete in the event.)

With all the wins, the HOC named OUR Riverside the winner of the D’Arcy MacMahon Cup–named for the regatta’s founder–for the most team points. 

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It was a brisk fall day, but a gorgeous one along the river. Above are photos of Magazine Beach on Sunday, alas, after many of the singles and doubles sculls and their chilled rowers had returned home.

NEWS FLASH! Our own Riverside Boat Club won the D‘Arcy MacMahon Regatta Points Trophy for scoring the most points of any club on the river, including multiple gold medals. Way to go, Riverside! More on this Wednesday…

But the cold wind didn’t keep hardy Cambridgeport resident Hannah Lyons-Gallante from sketching at the park. See her charcoal drawing of the terrace below. Hannah, thanks for sharing this!

Many thanks to DCR and to North East Soda Blast for removing the graffiti from the Powder Magazine yesterday and preparing the park for the Head of the Charles–THIS coming weekend! The place looks so much better.

The dock is out and folks lingered there Monday–a perfect fall day. Try it out. Having such a dock connecting people to the water is part of the proposed park plan. Remember, public comments are due for the preliminary design by October 16th! Submit them here or write to the DCR Office of Public Outreach, 251 Causeway Street, 6^th Floor, Boston, MA 02114. If you missed the presentation Sept. 30th, you can view it on DCR’s website. 

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Thanks to all of you who joined us last night for an evening of community and celebration at the historic Riverside Boat Club. It was a lovely party and we raised almost $4,500 for Magazine Beach Park—money for programs and park revitalization.

Jay Shetterly, President of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, welcomed the crowd as did Richard Garver, historian of the Riverside Boat Club. Lauren Ayer, just back with her RBC teammates from the World Rowing Championships in France, shared her experience of rowing in the U.S. Lightweight Women’s Quad. And Landscape Architect Deneen Crosby, of Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge, spoke of the firm’s overarching ideas for the Phase II park design. See Videosphere’s coverage of the event here.

Thank you, Riverside, for hosting the Benefit, and to Best Ever Chicken for serenading us once again!

Special thanks to Decia Goodwin and Brian Conway, party organizers, and to the rest of the Magazine Beach Committee: Olivia Fiske, Richard Garver, Max Moore, Peter Klinefelter and Marge Amster. Julie O’Neil and Werner Gurndl, thank you for the photos and video and we’re grateful to all of those who donated food and drink.

Harpoon Brewery contributed the beer; Whole Foods, the cheese platters; Trader Joe’s, food and drink; and Club Havana, MetaMovements, Micro Center, Massage Envy, Starbucks and Harpoon, door prizes—a great hit. Thank you!

Working together, great things are starting to happen!

Note: Donations are still welcome! Send checks made out to “Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc.” For: Magazine Beach Revitalization” to CNA Clerk Olivia Fiske, 131 Magazine St., Cambridge, MA 02139.

See the plan up close and meet the landscape architects at our Benefit Party THIS Sunday, October 4 at the Riverside Boat Club (at Magazine Beach).

Bluegrass by Best Ever Chicken! Fabulous food & drink. And amazing door prizes. (Thank you Micro Center, Starbucks, Massage Envy, Havanna Club, Meta Movements and Harpoon Brewery!) And why not celebrate our progress!

Tickets are $40 per person and a tax deductible donation. Drop off your check TODAY with Olivia Fiske (131 Magazine St., Cambridge 02139), pay at Eventbrite, OR pay at the door. Checks and cash only! Note: Pre-pays will have express entrance to the party.

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Comments, please, about the preliminary landscape design by October 16th! Submit them here or write to the DCR Office of Public Outreach, 251 Causeway Street, 6^th Floor, Boston, MA 02114. If you missed the presentation on Wednesday, you can view it on DCR’s website. 

See you Sunday, 5-7pm at Riverside!

(Note: The Riverside Boat Club is at 769 Memorial Drive, across from Starbucks and Trader Joe’s.)

CSS Will Present Preliminary Plan for Magazine Beach THIS Wednesday Night, September 30^th, 6:30-8pm, at the Cambridge Citywide Senior Center (806 Massachusetts Avenue)

Note: This is a PRELIMINARY PLAN that incorporates YOUR initial feedback (from surveys, interviews and exhibition tags) and discussion with the Magazine Beach Committee and the City of Cambridge. The plan will develop and mature over the next months. The focus now is on the “bones” for the park, its overall design, rather than the location of the picnic tables and benches, grills, water feature and climbing elements. That will follow. There will be public bathrooms in the powder magazine and at the swimming pool bathhouse.

A few explanations:

*We believe that less is more and this plan reflects that. The goal is to leave Magazine Beach Park open and NOT add a lot of infrastructure.

*In red are the paths, parking areas and entrances to the park. The proposed path from the pedestrian footbridge to the “beach” will not be a boardwalk, though it sort of looks like one on the plan.

*One of the big changes will be to broaden and alter the magazine terrace, so that it becomes a stepped terrace, opening up access to the “beach” (changing its current appearance as a fortress.)

*Another big change will be changing the grade of the land from the swimming pool to the river, so that the pool is no longer estranged from the landscape. The stars denote (removable) “beach” umbrellas.

Please come to the meeting on Wednesday night with an open mind. After the presentation—which will provide greater clarity—we will welcome your constructive criticism. The goal is to create a park that works and that we will all enjoy!

See you Wednesday at the Senior Center, 6:30-8pm!

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Also, before you forget, BUY YOUR TICKETS for our BENEFIT PARTY THIS Sunday, Oct. 4, 5-7pm, at the Riverside Boat Club (on Memorial Drive, just across from Starbucks, at Magazine Beach).

Great bluegrass, delicious food and drink, historic charm, river views and amazing door prizes (from Micro Center, Massage Envy, Harpoon Brewery, Starbucks, Havanna Club and MetaMovements)! Meet landscape architect Deneen Crosby, DCR’s Director of Partnerships Tom Reece and a world champion RBC rower! Also, support a great cause by making a tax-deductible contribution. Tickets: $40pp. Click on Events for ticket info.

Public Meeting for Phase II Landscape Design

When: Wednesday, Sept. 30, 6:30-8pm

Where: Cambridge Citywide Senior Center (806 Massachusetts Ave.)

Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge landscape architects will present their proposed plan for updating the design for the western part of the park—from the playing fields to the Riverside Boat Club. We’re eager for YOUR thoughts. The goal is to have shovel-ready plans by the end of December or January, in time for the spring construction season. Presented by DCR, the City of Cambridge and the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Assn., Inc.

For DCR’s Update re Magazine Beach 2015_08_21 Edited, click here!

Magazine Beach Benefit Party

When: Sunday, Oct. 4, 5-7pm

Where: Riverside Boat Club (769 Memorial Drive)

Bluegrass by Best Ever Chicken and great food and drink at the historic Riverside Boat Club. Join us as we celebrate our 2015 accomplishments at the park. Meet special guests: Deneen Crosby of Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge (CSS), the landscape architects hard at work on Phase II plans; DCR’s Director of Partnerships Tom Reece; and a Riverside Boat Club rower just back from the World Championships. Door prizes! Tickets: $40 pp. For ticket information, click on Events.

Beer provided by Harpoon Brewery, cheese plates by Whole Foods, and other food & drink by Trader Joe’s. Door prizes from Massage Envy, Micro Center, Harpoon Brewery, Starbucks and MetaMovements!

It was wonderful while it lasted: Tai Chi, Story Hour, Nature Walks, Salsa Party, Sports Day, Walk/Ride Day, Dvorak, the Yellow Bird Chase (theater!) and Bread & Puppet, all at Magazine Beach. Over 1,300 attended our 2015 Summer events.

But the fall promises its own delights. The pool is closed, but Magazine Beach is a fine place to fish, read a book, take a nap, play soccer, workout, paddle board and walk your dog–activities I just observed during a cycle through the park.

Two important events are coming up! Save these dates!

Public Meeting about Phase II Park Improvements (for the area from the playing fields to the Riverside Boat Club), Wed., Sept. 30th, 6:30-8pm, at the Cambridge Citywide Senior Center Ballroom (at 806 Mass. Ave, across from City Hall)

Our Benefit Party at the Riverside Boat Club, Sunday, Oct. 4, 5-7pm. Toast the sunset from the balcony of the Riverside Boat Club and help to move Magazine Beach forward! $40 pp. For more information, click on Events.