Once each semester, an organization places wooden benches and chairs in Marsh Plaza. Every time I see these colorful constructions, I am impressed by how, despite their slipshod manufacture, they actually improve the plaza. When they are there more people spend time on the plaza, sitting and talking. Without these benches, the plaza is a lifeless, cold expanse of granite bordered by a row of intimidating stone bollards.
Marsh Plaza is Boston University’s single most important public space. I urge the administration to learn from these yearly installations and hire a landscape architect to transform this granite floor into a public square that will welcome us all and of which we can be proud.
David Roochnik
Philosophy Department