WHITE STADIUM (3)

By: Lawry Hutcheson
February 25, 2026

This series of WHITE STADIUM linocut prints, created during 2025 by HILOBROW friend and brother-in-law Lawry Hutcheson, are a subset of his LINOCUT 2025 series.

© Lawrence Hutcheson. Click for closer view.

15 March 2025

Here’s the latest installment.

It was too dark to draw before breakfast this week with the time change so I was working alongside the excavators. This is the tree-protection-zone in the foreground with the rubble pile of the East Grandstand in the mid-ground and the Overlook in the background. I started the sketch Monday morning 3/10 looking through an uncovered section of the fence. When I came back after work they’d covered it up, so I had to stand on my tip-toes. Things shifting fast: Sorting and removing piles of rubble. Digging trenches and piling dirt into great mounds. They’re doing some work inside the West Grandstand that looks like the demolition prep they did for the East Grandstand. I was experimenting with how to show the fence and all the layers behind it. I’m mostly pleased with how it came out but also feeling pretty worn down by the whole thing.

I spoke with a few more people this week: “Something’s happening with White Stadium?” “It’s an investment that will bring people to the park and make it safer.” “This was our childhood”.

In struggling with my own thoughts and feelings and how to discuss with others, it felt like having some questions might be useful:

Why is the city paying 100 million to build a pro soccer stadium in Franklin Park? Where is this money coming from? Who will benefit from this project? Could the city do a smaller and less expensive public renovation of the stadium for Boston Public Schools? Why has the city not considered other options?

Do people realize how much larger the new stadium will be? Do people realize how frequent the professional games will be? Are these things only a concern for people who live near Franklin Park or is this a general concern for how parkland can be used and developed?

There are strict laws about what can be built in or around Boston Common and The Public Garden. Why not Franklin Park? When the Winthrop Square project that casts a shadow on The Common went through in 2017 the city got 28 million to be invested in Franklin Park. Why has so little of that money been spent?

How do I avoid getting too bitter and hung up on this as it continues to unfold within our daily space?

The court case with the Franklin Park Defenders starts this Tuesday 3/18.

WHITE STADIUM (3)

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