The Well-Tempered Grid: Spatializing Innovation
2022
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Instructor: Andrea Leers
Team: Saad Boujane and Naksha Satish
Location: Boston, Massachussetts
Area: 150,000 m²
Instructor: Andrea Leers
Team: Saad Boujane and Naksha Satish
Location: Boston, Massachussetts
Area: 150,000 m²
For the past ten years, the Boston metropolitan area has seen explosive growth due to its global attraction as a center for technology innovation. Development for “meds and eds” (major hospitals and research institutions) is fueling enterprise districts such as Kendall
Square, the Seaport, and the planned Allston Enterprise campus. The challenges each district face center on keeping them attractive and welcoming for all, providing access for jobs and housing to surrounding communities, and maintaining the quality of urban design
for which Boston is justifiably admired.
Our site for developing a mix of R+D lab space, housing, retail, and community services is a 25-acre parcel of land immediately adjacent to the JFK red line station, where metro, commuter rail, bus, and bikeways all make it extraordinarily accessible. Facing Dorchester Bay and the Harbor Walk, the site is part of the Columbia Point Peninsula—the home of UMass Boston, and the JFK Library. Presently containing approximately 1,300 surface parking spaces, the site is underutilized and adjacent to vacant development sites owned by private parties, as well as a low-scale office building and a hotel. Responding to issues of resilience and flooding will be key to imagining the potential of this landfill site. The goal of the studio will be to unlock the potential of this extraordinary site to provide economic opportunity through employment, access to services, new community facilities, and
connecting the neighborhoods to the water.
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The “Well-Tempered Grid” proposes an urban fabric that reconciles the different street networks and land uses surrounding the site. Disrupting the new grid are strategically placed and distinct blocks of buildings that respond to the adjacent conditions: a gateway node housing biotech and pharmaceutical labs, a learning commons interfacing with the residential neighborhood, and an eco-innovation hub on the waterfront.
The proposal for the Dorchester Bay site presents varied approaches to density, building scale, programming, and urban frameworks; but the exercise yielded critical learnings that were shared across the board. Innovation districts are a recent phenomenon, and a typology that’s not yet well defined—there’s no standard that can serve all sites.
Our site for developing a mix of R+D lab space, housing, retail, and community services is a 25-acre parcel of land immediately adjacent to the JFK red line station, where metro, commuter rail, bus, and bikeways all make it extraordinarily accessible. Facing Dorchester Bay and the Harbor Walk, the site is part of the Columbia Point Peninsula—the home of UMass Boston, and the JFK Library. Presently containing approximately 1,300 surface parking spaces, the site is underutilized and adjacent to vacant development sites owned by private parties, as well as a low-scale office building and a hotel. Responding to issues of resilience and flooding will be key to imagining the potential of this landfill site. The goal of the studio will be to unlock the potential of this extraordinary site to provide economic opportunity through employment, access to services, new community facilities, and
connecting the neighborhoods to the water.
The “Well-Tempered Grid” proposes an urban fabric that reconciles the different street networks and land uses surrounding the site. Disrupting the new grid are strategically placed and distinct blocks of buildings that respond to the adjacent conditions: a gateway node housing biotech and pharmaceutical labs, a learning commons interfacing with the residential neighborhood, and an eco-innovation hub on the waterfront.
The proposal for the Dorchester Bay site presents varied approaches to density, building scale, programming, and urban frameworks; but the exercise yielded critical learnings that were shared across the board. Innovation districts are a recent phenomenon, and a typology that’s not yet well defined—there’s no standard that can serve all sites.
