BOSTON, Mass.—The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) recently announced that Barletta Heavy Division has been named general contractor for the Armenian Heritage Park on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway in Boston. Construction is slated to begin this spring.
Barletta Heavy Division is a division of the Barletta Companies with headquarters in Canton. Founded in 1914, Barletta is in its fourth generation of family ownership and management. Among its many projects is the South Boston Maritime Park, approximately 1.3 acres and designed to provide public green space at the waterfront site. For its work in 2004, Barletta received the Massachusetts Port Authority’s General Construction Contractor of the Year Award for “their excellent construction work [that] exemplified their high quality, on budget, on schedule, and safe work, while minimizing disruption to the traveling public and MassPort tenants.”
The agreement between MassDOT and the Armenian Heritage Foundation was signed on Dec. 31, 2010, reported James Kalustian, American Heritage Foundation president, at a recent Board meeting. The 45-member Board of Directors is comprised of representatives from Armenian American parishes and organizations within Massachusetts. During this announcement, Kalustian expressed his appreciation to Bruce Bagdassarian, Esq. for his legal work during the negotiations.
Tellalian Associates Architects & Planners (TAAP), a Boston-based firm, are designers of the Armenian Heritage Park. TAAP will oversee the park’s construction in collaboration with Stantec Consulting, sub-consultants to TAAP for landscaping and civil engineering, John Soursourian, the foundation’s representative, and MassDOT.
The Armenian Heritage Park on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is designed to commemorate the lives lost during the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23 and all genocides that have followed. It is also meant to celebrate the immigrant experience, paying tribute to those immigrants who distinguished themselves in the arts, sciences, commerce, and public service, contributing to the richness of American life and culture.
Visitors to the park may relax on benches in the shade of trees, walk the labyrinth—a circular winding path paved in granite, set in lawn—take delight as children splash in the single jet of water at its center, or marvel at the 12-sided abstract geometric sculpture, a split dodecahedron resting on a 16-foot diameter reflecting pool.
The labyrinth celebrates the journey of life, the symbol of eternity etched in its granite center. The sculpture, resting on a reflecting pool, celebrates those who left their country of origin and reconfigured their lives in this country in new and different ways. The waters of the reflecting pool wash over its sides like tears, remembering lives lost, and re-emerge as a single jet of water at the labyrinth’s center, representing hope and rebirth.
Annually, the sculpture will be reconfigured to commemorate the victims and celebrate all who came to these shores and reinvented themselves in new and creative ways.
A&A Industries, with headquarters in Peadody, is fabricating the sculpture, as their gift in kind. A&A Industries and its owner, the Aurelian family, has been a leader in custom contract manufacturing for over 30 years.
To date, $5.3 million has been raised for the construction and to establish endowed funds for the reconfiguration of the sculpture, for the park’s care and maintenance, and for public programs, including the recent lecture on human rights at historic Faneuil Hall.
Sponsorship and naming opportunities at the park remain. For more information, contact James Kalustian at (781) 777-2407 or jkalu@comcast.net; Charles Guleserian at (617) 484-6100 or mgmcos@msn.com; Haig Deranian at (617) 484-2215 or dhkd@comcast.net; or Walter Nahabedian at (781) 891-7249 or wnaha@verizon.net
To contribute online, visit www.ArmenianHeritagePark.net or mail your tax-deductible contribution, made payable to Armenian Heritage Foundation, to Charles Guleserian, Armenian Heritage Foundation, 25 Flanders Rd., Belmont, MA 02478.
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