The Boston Children’s Museum is beginning work this month on a $15 million plan to protect itself from the floods and sea level rise associated with climate change. The museum is situated on the banks of Fort Point Channel, one of the most flood-vulnerable locations in Boston. According to a report by Nik DeCosta-Klipa in WBUR’s Cognoscenti newsletter (August 6th), the massive construction project will have two phases:
- “Phase 1, which expected to take up to two years, includes putting a ‘waterproof membrane’ around the brick of the old 19th century wool warehouse that still serves as the museum’s home. They’ll also raise some utilities within the building and install underground drainage, tanks and pumps to send floodwater back into the channel. The museum also has acquired deployable flood barriers from the city that they can put up during storms…The museum held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the project yesterday—with an actual groundbreaking scheduled for Aug. 17.
- Phase 2 of the plan will be more noticeable to the public. It calls for transforming the Harborwalk in front of the museum into a waterfront park to ‘beautify’ the area and provide additional flood protection. The exact timeline is still up in the air, since it involves collaboration with the city of Boston and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”
The ultimate goal, according to museum CEO Carole Charnow, is to ensure protection against rising sea levels—and provide a beautiful green space for the public. “We don’t want to just put walls all over the place.”
Image: WBUR/The Children’s Museum/Sasaki