Copley Square hasn’t been renovated since the 1980s. The city has decided it’s time for an upgrade.

The Boston Parks and Recreation Department, along with the Boston-based design firm in charge of the project, Sasaki, held a virtual meeting Monday to determine the future direction of the space and solicit feedback from local residents.

“We have a much-loved square that we're asking an awful lot of,” said Kate Tooke, design principal at Sasaki, who designed a previous iteration of the square in the 1960s. She cited the “stressed” greenery in the square, the cracked pavement and the fountain damaged by skateboarders and running on old machinery as the reasons to start this project now.

“The Parks Department is thinking forward: what can we do to ensure that we have this much love to [this] city square, and upgrade it to 21st century standards?”, Tooke said. The Parks Department is updating Copley as part of a larger initiative to ensure Bostonians equitable access to public parks.

Copley Square is the home of Boston’s New Year’s Eve celebration, the city’s largest farmers market and countless protests and marches and serves as a gathering place near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Copley is also a commuter crossroads and an oasis for the lunch crowd.

The project is still in its initial planning stages, as Abigail Chatfield, project manager at the Parks Department, reminded the audience throughout the evening. For now, Sasaki is still in an initial analysis phase.

The firm is currently soliciting survey responses about residents’ thoughts on how the space should function and what it should look like and will start drafting designs in 2021. The public will be able to weigh in on proposed design options next year.

Sasaki then expects to have a refined concept plan ready for public approval around early spring. If that plan is approved, the firm will then secure the necessary contracts. Construction is slated to start in and continue through at least 2022. Throughout the meeting, Tooke and other staff from Sasaki enlisted the audience to participate in live surveys to determine the priorities of the park. When asked what elements they’d like to see in a Copley Square redesign, many attendees answered that public art, an interactive fountain, skateboarding friendly features, greenery and a pavilion or café were desired features in a redesign.

Most survey respondents also voiced support for a mix of greenery and pavement, a design that caters to bustling social gatherings rather than quiet ones, and a total reimagining of the space rather than a smaller scale spruce up.

“As we've seen in the last year, outdoor spaces are more and more important to our sanity and health,” Chatfield said, referring to the need for outdoor socializing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The obvious challenge is how do we keep up?” she said. “One can see the various aspects of the square suffering from use: pavement is cracking, trees have suffered, and the lawn gets trampled. We need to upgrade it so it can better serve our needs today and tomorrow.”