Construction Begins at Upper Ronan Park
Construction for the renovation at Upper Ronan Park began this past week to update the playground, abutting basketball court, and pathways that offer some of the best views of Dorchester Bay.
Ronan Park is in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood and home to the city’s most diverse community and a high population of families with children. Our work began in late 2024 and involved a robust community engagement process throughout 2025. It was incredibly important to the community to maintain the park for all users, upgrade the play space, and preserve the legacy trees. Our final design is the accomplishment of many voices and the diligent ears and eyes of our designers and the Boston Parks and Recreation Department who brought the community’s vision to life.
Our team spent hours at the park, observing what paths people took and how they used the space—ultimately shifting the existing paths to reflect these circulation patterns. The resulting design preserves the park’s sweeping topography with universally accessible paths offering views of the bay and circulation to the park’s features. The new playground mimics the shape of drumlins seen throughout Dorchester and the design takes advantage of this topography by placing the 5-12 age play space about 3 feet higher than the 2-5 space and connecting them with a slide. The playground also features a traversing trike loop. Abutting the upper park, the basketball court maintains the existing mural by local group Artists for Humanity. New surface patterning celebrates the mural by implementing the same color scheme. Intentionally placed porch swings and benches along the pathways throughout the park offer spots of respite and places to view the bay. By working to retain rather than remove the natural topography, the design aims to protect legacy trees, preserve the beloved sledding hill that connects the upper and lower park, and use the significant grade change to elevate the park’s beautiful views.
Construction is set to be complete by June of 2027.
