Along the Marina Bay waterfront in Quincy, Massachusetts, Quincy Navy Park creates a new public place with a deep sense of origin. The park honors the city’s naval history, its veterans and the generations of people whose work and service connect Quincy to maritime life, while providing a scenic destination for public reflection and enjoyment. 

Designed by Halvorson, Tighe & Bond’s in-house design studio, the park occupies a historically significant site in the city of Quincy's Squantum neighborhood. The area was once home to the Victory Destroyer Plant, the Naval Air Station at Squantum, Dennison Airport and later a Naval Reserve Training Base.

At the center of the park stands a Lone Sailor monument, one of a series of 19 statues that make up the U.S. Navy Memorial’s international program honoring those who have served at sea. Surrounding the Lone Sailor, bronze plaques recognize Navy veterans from Quincy, while the original bell from the third USS Quincy anchors another moment of reflection and historical connection. Together, these elements create an interactive public setting for remembrance, learning and everyday gathering on the waterfront.

To help shape the park’s interpretive experience, Halvorson collaborated with Studio 431, Landscape Forms’ custom division, on several of the site’s most distinctive features, including a large-scale ship-hull interpretive wall, a custom armature for the USS Quincy bell, custom wood bench toppers and related thematic elements.

The largest custom structure serves as both an interpretive feature and a defining architectural presence within the park, sharing a historical narrative in a three-dimensional experience visitors can move toward, around and through. Exposed fasteners, ribbed construction and industrial detailing reinforce that connection, giving the interpretive wall a physical presence that feels tied to the history it describes.

“The form is intended to be monumental in scale, reflecting the industry that once took place here,” says Richard Houghton, ASLA, Principal Landscape Architect at Halvorson. “The curve picks up on the hull of a ship, while the end pieces evoke the airfoil shape of an airplane wing. It brings the air and sea history of the site together in a physical form that draws people in.”

The structure’s impact also depends on details that are less immediately visible. Lighting is integrated within the circular cut-outs running up the panel’s ends, and while certain fasteners remain intentionally visible, other components like wiring and access points are hidden to preserve its clarity of form and purpose.

That collaborative process also supported the pace and complexity of the project. Because the interpretive content was still being finalized as fabrication began, Studio 431 coordinated with Halvorson and environmental graphic design firm, Leverage Design Group, to create a flexible system for the graphic panels. This allowed work to progress in parallel while preserving the unique design intent of the final installation.

The custom armature for the USS Quincy bell extends that language into one of the park’s more memorable, tactile experiences. Rather than placing the historic bell behind glass or treating it as a static artifact, the sculptural frame presents it as an object to be encountered up close. Visitors can move around it, touch it and experience its scale, materiality and presence directly. The form of the armature creates a clear dialogue with the larger interpretive panels, reinforcing the park’s broader design theme of honoring not only naval service, but also the beauty, ingenuity and physical craft of shipbuilding itself.

Across the park, Studio 431’s custom work helps make Quincy’s naval legacy visible, approachable and enduring. The pieces support the park’s educational mission, but they also contribute to an atmosphere that is strong in presence, specific to place and carefully integrated into the larger civic landscape. In a waterfront setting shaped by service, memory and public life, these custom elements help give history a form people can gather around, today and for many years to come.