“Harvey’s Walk” In Hands Of Historic Commission

Neighbors might soon be able to take a stroll down a walkway honoring the memory of a Wooster Square champion.

That’ll happen if the Historic District Commission OKs a plan for a beautified path on Russo Park, a small open space across Chapel Street from the Wooster Square green.

The commission, though, had some reservations.

David Moser, the pathway’s designer, recently presented detailed blueprints to the commission for ​“Harvey’s Walk,” which would pay tribute to Harvey Koizim (pictured), an attorney, banker, and longtime mover behind Wooster Square initiatives who passed away last year.

The walkway, Moser said, would ​“provide a strong connection between Wooster Street and the greater Wooster Square neighborhood and park.”

Moser, the city’s landscape architect, proposed the installation of four concrete planters that would be made to look like stone walls. Sown with perennials, they would run parallel to rows of white pines, nestling an unpaved pathway abutting the court that hosts the City Seed Farmers’ Market every Saturday.

After Moser’s presentation and public testimonies from Wooster Square neighbors, commissioners were hesitant to issue a certificate of appropriateness for the planters due to three reasons: their maintenance, the pre-cast stones being used for their construction, and their possible impact on the farmers’ market — a beloved neighborhood tradition that Koizim himself helped launch in 2005.

“I’m having a lot of trouble with the synthetic materials. We wouldn’t do it for a building so I’m not quite sure why we’d do it for a landscape feature,” said Commissioner Douglas Royalty. ​“Wooster Square is so much about wood and stone and brick. As exciting as the plan looks, there’s so much more that could be done with that space.”

Moser (pictured) began his talk with a brief history of the Russo Park’s development.

Early Sanborn maps from 1911, Moser said, showed that the square once housed buildings for the Young Women’s Christian Association. Revised maps from 1961 revealed the presence of a used car store and a gas station.

The square was designated a park in the early 1960s, he said, citing 1964 documents from the New Haven Redevelopment Agency. These plans depicted a layout similar to the present one — double row of white pine trees, wide concrete sidewalks and pin oak trees.

An action plan from 1982, requesting a national grant for renewing urban parks, detailed the area’s decay. It had become a hangout for adolescents, with unflattering design and extensive graffiti. The low brick walls used for seating doubled as hiding spots for vandals.

Moser said that the square maintained these conditions until 2003, when the parks department finally took out the walls and benches. Around 2009, the not-for-profit Urban Resources Initiative installed some shrubbery next to the white pine trees, forming a makeshift promenade. Despite these additions, Moser said, the park continued to exist forlorn and untended — ​“lacking in special character.”

Enter Peter Webster, a self-described ​“Wooster Square guy” who last year approached the parks department with this current vision for the square, wanting to make something special out of it by commemorating an integral member of the neighborhood.

“I have spoken with Nicole [Berube, executive director] at City Seed and she burst into tears of happiness,” he said. ​“Harvey was very much a part of creating the farmers’ market that we know.”

The new design, Moser said, would be consistent with the 1964 plan since most of its original elements would stay in place. The planters would create improvised seating, extending a couple of feet into the green space without affecting the farmers market or the vendor trucks that park there every weekend, he added.

Ruth Koizim (pictured), a Wooster Square homeowner and Harvey’s widow, testified at the meeting to the walkway’s personal significance, its aesthetic benefits and its potential to foster community engagement with local schools.

“I see this project actually as part of a continuum,” she said. ​“The present proposal would be moving forward on that idea of creating an inviting transitional space.”

The hearing for this application was continued until the commission’s Oct. 8 meeting to allow for the introduction of new information. Moser said he would bring a letter from City Seed explaining how the market plans to interact with the additional landscape features.

Specifically, the commission is looking for more detailed drawings of the planters’ architecture, and a revised list of materials, dismissing the proposed use of simulated stone — ​“the vinyl window of the landscape installation world,” according to commissioner George Knight (pictured, far left).

Neighbors remained buoyed by the hope of honoring Koizim, ​“a man who has done immeasurable good for this city,” Webster said. The unpaved pathway, if completed, would bear a plaque letting pedestrians know they’re sauntering down Harvey’s Walk.

But it would be a small sign, Moser said. Harvey Koizim wasn’t the kind of man who would want to toot his own horn.