Enhancing a Boston Landmark: Charlesbank and the Smith Family Pavilion at the Charles River…

Visitors to the Charles River Esplanade(designated a Boston Landmark in 2009) will see an active construction site in the area of the former Lee Pool Complex.

The Esplanade Association, a non-profit organization founded in 2001 with the mission of making life better on the Esplanade for all, broke ground in May 2025 for the construction ofthe Smith Family Pavilionwhich will transform an area of the park that has been largely closed off to the public since the 1990s into a welcoming destination, providing space for a wide variety of uses for visitors.

The term "Esplanade" is an informal name for the state-owned parkland also known as Charlesbank and Storrow Memorial Embankment. The Esplanade is part of the Charles River Reservation, a linear park system that stretches along the Charles River for 17 miles, but also has a distinct identity of its own. The Esplanade as we know it today is a relatively recent creation. Filling of Boston's Back Bay occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century when the Charles River was still tidal.

Charlesbank, the easternmost section of the Esplanade, was built in the 1880s and 1890s on filled land north of Charles Street. Damming of the river in 1908 created a broad river basin with a constant water level. At that time the park at Charlesbank was widened and a new 100 foot wide strip of parkland was created along the southern edge of the Charles River from the Longfellow Bridge west to Charlesgate, where the Muddy River flows into the Charles. The area was transformed again in the 1930s by landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff, with the parkland nearly doubled in width. This was the foundation of the Esplanade as we know it today. Construction of Storrow Drive in the early 1950s brought additional filling to create new parkland to compensate for that taken by the roadway.

In the summer of 2022, state legislation was passed creating the opportunity for the Esplanade Association to activate the former Lee Pool Complex which was opened to public swimming in 1950 and closed in the 1990s. The project will support community needs with the creation of a new, year-round, universally accessible space for the Esplanade and includes numerous indoor and outdoor spaces designed for recreational, civic, artistic, educational, and cultural activities. It will provide wide-ranging environmental improvements focused on climate change mitigation and sustainable practices. 

The new building, designed by Maryann Thompson, Architects and approved by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 2024 will be universally-accessible and feature a staffed welcome desk, public bathrooms (open year-round), café with indoor and outdoor seating, classrooms and community meeting spaces on two floors, and a roof deck providing unique views of the Charles River. The Esplanade Association is responsible for funding the project and managing the operation of Charlesbank over the next several decades.