Burlington Begins Work On Accessible Treehouse Project

BURLINGTON, MA — Construction on a new accessible treehouse structure in Burlington’s Simonds Park is underway, the town Recreation Department announced on Saturday.

The local Gillingham Family and the Simonds Trust are funding the roughly $200,000 project, which will eventually span a series of trees behind the Visco Building at Simonds Park.

The treehouse will be a universally accessible public recreation space, as pictured in concept drawings that the Recreation Department shared over the weekend.

Burlington Parks and Recreation Director Brendan Egan discussed the project in a meeting with the town Parks and Recreation Commission back in April. A local family had approached the town, he said, looking to make a $100,000 donation to a Parks and Recreation Department project.

Presented with options, the family chose to help fund the treehouse. Egan said the Simonds Trust then worked with the town and the family to coordinate the donation and pay for the remaining half of the project, according to Parks and Recreation Commission meeting minutes.

The Parks and Recreation Commission in April approved a contract with the Vermont-based Treehouse Guys, LLC to build Burlington’s new treehouse.

The firm has built a number of similar accessible treehouses for both municipal and private use and was featured in a DIY Network reality show about treehouse building beginning in 2014.

Previous Parks and Recreation Department estimates, also in April, said that work on the treehouse project would take roughly 10 weeks.