January 7, 2008

Re: Pulaski Park Redesign presentation to BPW Board
meeting Jan 9th @ 7pm at Locust st.

Dear Members of the Northampton Board of Public Works,

We, the Tree Stewards of Northampton, are delighted to respond to your
invitation to submit alternative designs for Pulaski Park. Since
receiving the email of January 2 from the Chair, Mr. Bob Reckman, we
support this idea of inviting other designers to develop alternative
schematic designs and open up this process for a longer time span. We
would like to encourage the Board to initiate a formal process, and
announce this to the design community at large. To that end, we have
begun work on a new design for the Park and are offering to facilitate
that process for the public.  As you can appreciate, we need time to
complete and present our design and are therefore requesting 90 days
to do so.

Since the last public meeting, the Tree Stewards of Northampton have
contacted design professionals and interested citizens.  We intend to
expand our outreach in the coming weeks.  Through a broadly
collaborative process, which can include public charettes, we are
confident of presenting one or more bona fide design alternatives for
the Board's consideration.

Our plan will prioritize the following:

1.  Identify and incorporate positive features of the "Phase 1" Denig
design proposal.
2.  Identify and incorporate positive features of the existing park.
3.  Introduce and incorporate essential "ecological sustainability"
concepts into the design, e.g., energy efficiency, resource use,
environmental impacts, etc.  This is the most critical angle not
apparent in the Denig Design proposal.

Our members have attended one or more of the Pulaski Park Redesign
Committee meetings, have regularly reviewed updates on the Pulaski
Park Redesign website, and have appeared before you at your December
12 meeting, so we believe we are informed about and in tune with many
of the immediate interests and concerns of this public process.

Please confirm our request for 90 days and let us know what the
process will be, to whom we will make our presentation, and who will
make the final decisions.   Also, please inform us of any specific
design elements you wish us to take into account.

We thank you for this opportunity.  We look forward to the process and
its outcome.

Sincerely,

Sue Crimmins, Chair
Tree Stewards of Northampton
413-584-6171 -- sbcr...@crocker.com