URBAN DESIGN FOR RECONNECTING NEIGHBORHOODS

Competition for the Redevelopment of the Area Around the McGraw Highway Overpass.

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There are many warehouses, truck garages, car sales places, and industrial uses on this site. The existing overpass highway manages traffic in one direction. These uses are barriers between the adjacent residential neighborhoods. Our design proposes:

• A new planted roof hill to cover these uses and four new large sound stages that will provide employment to artists.
• The proposed design removes the overpass and leads the traffic to an on-grade road under the hill and a treelined avenue  coming off a traffic circle.
• At one end of the site is a large artists' community in a former ware house. An art path connects the existing artists community to a series of galleries and leads to a subway stop at the edge of the site. The extension of the subway will go along one edge of the site.
• The covered Mill river is day-lighted with a new lake. This creates a beautiful open space that is adjacent to the neighborhood to the SouthWest. This lake is the focus of a new hotel that sits at its shore.
• Other uses are offices at the rear of the hotel facing a large skylit atrium.  A community center with Boston views is at the top of the hill and athletic fields cover the roof on the western part of the site. Senior housing adjacent to community gardens are near the artist community.