'Rose Arbor' At Squirrel Brand Park

Bart Uchida under his restored "Rose Arbor" at Squirrel Brand Park, Cambridge, June 2021. (Cambridge Arts / Greg Cook)

In June 2021, New Hampshire artist Bart Uchida and fabricator Tom Whitney reinstalled Uchida's fully restored “Rose Arbor” gateway into Squirrel Brand Park in Cambridge's Port Neighborhood. Uchida was initially commissioned under the City's under the Percent-for-Art Program to create the steel trellis when the park was renovated in 2004. Repair was required after the structure was apparently struck by heavy equipment.

The park is located next to the former Squirrel Nut Brand candy factory in a neighborhood that was known for its candy manufacturing in the nineteenth century. The park became home to community gardens for 25 years, and a climbing rose vine that flourished during that period took on symbolic significance. Uchida sculpted the archway to support (and echo the shape of) the beloved roses, which previously had been rambling over a chain link fence.

Uchida has also created fencing around Sennott Park in the Port Neighborhood and Clarendon Avenue Playground in North Cambridge.