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Growing a rain forest in the heart of the city: Douglas Zook discusses the Darwin Project
By Brian Fitzgerald
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The Darwin Project will include an indoor tropical rain forest, gardens, and an 80-seat theater. Illustration by Bruce Stahnke, courtesy of Boston Planning Institute |
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A cascading waterfall feeds a stream that meanders through a lush rain forest. Dazzled by the colors and odors of rare plants, a family emerges from this oasis, steps over a snowbank, crosses Congress Street, and hails a cab. Yes, this scene will be taking place in downtown Boston, albeit some years away.
A giant glass-enclosed jungle is being planned on reclaimed space above Boston’s Big Dig. The facility and accompanying outdoor gardens will showcase nature’s beauty, brighten our cold winters, and help educate the public about the environment, according to Douglas Zook, an SED associate professor, who is a member of a scientific and advisory team determined to make this ambitious undertaking succeed.
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The Darwin Project will be built on four acres in the footprint of the old elevated Central Artery, between Summer Street and the Moakley Bridge. Photo courtesy of Boston Planning Institute |
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Dubbed the Darwin Project, the botanical garden and conservation learning center will be built on four acres between Summer Street and the Moakley Bridge on the future Rose Kennedy Greenway, a series of parks in the path of the old elevated Central Artery.
The endeavor is still in the planning stages, and organizers — including singer Carly Simon and Harvard biologists Brian Farrell and Andrew Torrance — are just beginning to coordinate fundraising efforts. The complex is expected to cost between $70 million and $100 million. “It’s going to be a tough row to hoe,” says Zook.
But great ideas, like plants, find a way to blossom if they are nurtured properly. Former Boston Redevelopment Authority official Linda Haar, who is project coordinator with her husband, Jonathan, expects to draw on donations from biotechnology firms and conservation organizations. “Fundraising alone is going to take several years,” says Zook. Some skeptics question the project’s feasibility. Then again, 20 years ago many doubted the Big Dig would materialize.
A botanical garden for downtown Boston was first proposed in 1990 by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, but the idea languished for a decade. However, the plan has gained steam in recent years as the Big Dig has been nearing completion. In 2002, Zook was tapped by Jonathan Haar to help create the educational component of the facility. Zook, who oversees SED’s science education program and teaches global ecology and symbiosis in the CAS biology department, was a natural choice: he is widely recognized for his contributions to teaching methods in biology, and he directs the Microcosmos Project, a curriculum and teacher-workshop program that emphasizes the study of microscopic life-forms through innovative projects and simple experiments.
Zook is also president of the International Symbiosis Society, a growing collection of biology researchers and educators from 30 countries, all involved with studying some of the Earth’s most important ecosystems. He is passionate about science education — especially when it comes to teaching people about the relationships between species — because he is convinced that the future of humans depends on symbiosis with the planet. Building an urban rain forest, he says, provides the ultimate opportunity to show how people can most responsibly “fit” into a healthy resourceful planet.
“The main objective of the Darwin Project is to make people aware of the importance of the diverse forms of life on our planet,” he says. “We want to connect Boston’s residents and visitors to the natural world.”
The project’s science education curriculum will have a major presence on the Web, and organizers have already begun collaborative relationships with such entities as the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Harvard Herbaria, Zoo New England, the Boston Children’s Museum, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Montreal Jardin Botanique. “As the project evolves, it will have not just local and regional impact,” say Zook, “but also global connections.”
The ultimate science education experience
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Douglas Zook Photo by Vernon Doucette |
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In 1995, Zook served on a National Academy of Sciences committee that developed the country’s science teaching standards. His work in designing science curricula for teachers began 25 years ago, however, when he was education program coordinator at Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo. “The Darwin Project gives us a chance to work with teachers and other science educators in metropolitan Boston’s public schools so as to get students to start thinking about such themes as biodiversity and ecosystems and integrate them into their curriculum long before the facility is even built,” he says. “On our board and among our volunteers we have an incredible amount of expertise. For example, we have Peter Ashton, the former director of the Arnold Arboretum and one of the world’s greatest rain forest experts, and Edward O. Wilson, the eminent biologist and evolutionist from Harvard.”
Wilson, the entomology curator for Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, is the Darwin Project’s honorary chair and senior science advisor. “The Darwin Project will fall squarely in the rarely filled intersection of education, science, and the aesthetic celebration of nature,” says Wilson. “It will be an ornament to the cultural life of the city.”
The project is also designed to provide a southern gateway to the Rose Kennedy Greenway, nearly 30 acres of parkland that will be built on desolate land under the demolished Central Artery, from Chinatown through the Wharf District and the North End to the FleetCenter. Zook likes to point out that unlike the other acres of the Greenway, which will be exposed to the harsh elements of winter, “the Darwin Project will remain green space and accessible year-round.”
In keeping with the habitat protection theme, the facility will host plant, fungal, and animal species that are on the brink of extinction. But Zook says the presence of animals, including butterflies, will be done selectively. It’s not meant to be a petting zoo. “We don’t want it to be a science museum, either,” he says. “ Boston already has an excellent science museum. We want to have an interactive natural history experience.”
Zook is clearly excited about the Darwin Project’s potential as one of Boston’s great destination points. He notes, for example, that preschoolers in SED’s Early Childhood Learning Laboratory enjoy going up to the third floor and visiting the indoor pond and plant display, part of the science education exhibit area. Just imagine a child’s reaction upon entering the Darwin Project’s one-acre tropical rain forest, feeling the moist breeze from the waterfall, watching a butterfly alight on a rare flower, and then walking up a spiral walkway to the tree canopy 100 feet above the floor.
“A lot of botanical gardens across the world are important showcases for plants,” says Zook. “But this has the potential to be so much more.”
11
February 2005
Boston University
Office of University Relations