Latest news from the Armenian Heritage Foundation:
March 2011
BARLETTA HEAVY DIVISION NAMED GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has announced that Barletta Heavy Division has been named General Contractor for Armenian Heritage Park on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, Boston. Construction is slated to begin this Spring 2011.
Barletta Heavy Division is a division of the Barletta Companies with headquarters in Canton, Massachusetts. Barletta, founded in 1914, 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 exemplified their high quality, on budget, on schedule and safe work, while minimizing disruption to the traveling public and MassPort tenants”.
On December 31, 2010, MassDOT instructed Barletta to commence construction of the Park, 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, Jim expressed his appreciation to Bruce Bagdasarian, Esq. for his legal work during the negotiations with MassDOT.
Tellalian Associates Architects & Planners (TAAP), a Boston-based firm, are designers of the Armenian Heritage Park. The initial concept was presented to the Board of Directors by the Foundation’s design committee and its chair Don Tellalian eight years ago. 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.
Armenian Heritage Park on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is designed to commemorate lives lost during the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 and all genocides that have followed and 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 and 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, commemorating 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 lives lost and to celebrate all who came to these shores and reinvented themselves in new and creative ways.
A& A Industries, with headquarters in Peadody, Massachusetts, 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 thirty years.
To date, $5.3 million has been raised for the construction and to establish endowed funds for the reconfiguration of the sculpture, the Park’s care and maintenance, and public programs including the recent lecture on human rights at historic Faneuil Hall.
A few sponsorship/naming opportunities at the Park remain. For information, please contact James Kalustian 781 777-2407 jkalu@comcast.net; Charles Guleserian 617 484-6100 mgmcos@msn.com Haig Deranian 617 484-2215 dhkd@comcast.net or Walter Nahabedian 781 891-7249 wnaha@verizon.net
You may contribute on line at www.ArmenianHeritagePark.net or mail your tax-deductible contribution, made payable to Armenian Heritage Foundation, to the Charles Guleserian, Armenian Heritage Foundation, 25 Flanders Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
