“It’s a vision for what the park could be,’’ said Sylvia Salas, executive director of the nonprofit group, which raises money and cares for the Esplanade.
The group is also considering large-scale projects such as replacing the parking garage for the Museum of Science with a walkway along the river, or building a Ferris wheel akin to the London Eye.
The association’s recommendations represent the most far-reaching effort in recent memory to refurbish the park and, while preliminary, they call for broad renovations. The park, world-famous as the scene of the city’s July Fourth celebration, extends along the Boston shore of the Charles from the Museum of Science to the BU Bridge.
A committee of planning specialists, assembled by the group, held numerous public meetings to complete the blueprint and worked closely with officials from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which manages the land and would be responsible for the cost of renovations.
Edward M. Lambert Jr., the department’s commissioner, said the state needs as much as $2 billion to pay for overdue maintenance at its parks across the state.
The group’s plan was presented last night to an audience of some 200 people at the Boston Public Library.
Lambert said he is optimistic that the state can afford improvements if nonprofit groups help fund a portion of the renovations.
“With these properties come an added value to the quality of life that none of us would want to do without,’’ he said at the meeting.
Calling the recommendations a vision for the park, the friends’ group stressed that the proposals are meant for wide public debate and said the more ambitious ideas would take years to materialize. The blueprint did not provide cost estimates or a time frame for the renovations.
But in drawings that accompanied the report, the scope of the plan becomes clear. A stretch of path beside an overpass, now nondescript, juts out over a part of the river, with water on both sides, while a bike path runs parallel.
