The Watertown Riverfront Park and Braille Trail near Boston shows how to design for the entire community
Fall can be an idyllic time to explore the outdoors in New England. A newly opened park in Watertown, Massachusetts, wants to make sure everyone, from the elderly to the visually impaired, can experience nature on their own terms.
The Watertown Riverfront Park and Braille Trail, which opened in July on a site next to the Charles River in the western Boston suburb, features a quarter-mile braille trail and sensory garden, which helps visitors appreciate non-visual aspects of the outdoors. Travis Mazerall, a landscape architect from Sasaki who led the design team for the park project, says the landscape architects and designers worked to satisfy the needs of the entire public. ?Universal design is just part of the design for us, we don?t separate the two,? he says. ?It?s important to, say, have benches for elderly people so they can take breaks. There are always strategies that allow you to go above and beyond the requirements of accessible design.?

The trail system and the marimba benches in the Sensory Garden

The park?s sensory garden

A nature area in need of an update, the park now consists of a new trail system, with a new set of braille signage and cable system to guide the visually impaired, as well as a sensory garden featuring woodworking by local artist Mitch Ryerson, including marimba benches and handcrafted wood...