The Esplanade Association (TEA) has made public the details for Charlesbank Landing, its largest ever construction project for a new visitor center it hopes to open in a couple years.

The northern section of the Esplanade could soon be serviced by a building with restrooms, a cafe, community space and sports fields. Currently in permitting with the city and state, planners aim to open the center as soon as 2025.

Charlesbank landing has been in development since 2017, when the Department of Conservation and Recreation held a series of community meetings to replace a pool that had been in disrepair since the 1990s.

The basic outline of what purposes the replacement building would serve were established then, and the pool was demolished in 2019. The space today is essentially an empty lot between the Museum of Science and the Longfellow Bridge.

The state passed legislation approving the project in 2022, clearing the way for the Esplanade Association to finalize its plans and seek approval from environmental and planning regulators.

The current blueprint would serve a wide range of functions, the most public of which would be its restrooms, cafe, lounge and sports fields.

The restrooms would be open year round, a first for the Esplanade. The cafe doesn’t yet have a tenant, but it would be a small footprint likely designed to sell drinks to people enjoying the surrounding space.

The design of the sports fields is still in flux, but landscaping is being considered for soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball and more.

Aside from public functions, TEA is taking a chunk of the building for itself to give landscaping and administrative services a new base of operations.

The pathways around the area would see improved signage, pavement and lighting. Over 50 new trees would arrive with the project, along with rainwater conservation systems the city has been pushing for in new projects as a bulwark against flooding and heat islands.

Over 20 spots for bike parking will be added, doubtless a boon as the city installs bike lanes on Berkeley Street and improves paths around the Charlesbank in the hopes of incentivizing bike traffic to the Esplanade.

“I’m very excited that this is going forward.

I appreciate that we have a design and that the Esplanade Association is being so open to incorporating input from the community,” said State Representative Jay Livingstone at the June 22 meeting that unveiled the design.

The current timeline would have permitting at both the state and city level done in winter or spring 2024, with bidding for the construction beginning immediately afterward. If planners can break ground in summer 2024, the 14-month construction period would see the building open to the public in the summer or fall of 2025.

The Esplanade Association’s designers say the construction wouldn’t block off any of the foot bridges or access paths that exist around the property itself while work is underway.