Pamela Lee: A Harbor Gateway

Pamela Lee

GSD 2201: Site Representation and Research

December 2010

Objective

In our first semester Core Studio, we created plans for the South Boston Waterfront on three levels: District, Sub-District and Site. The district is technically part of South Boston, though it is quite isolated from the residential neighborhood to its south. The formerly industrial neighborhood is on 1,000 acres of land, most of which is vacant, and the City of Boston has spent decades considering how it will utilize the land best. Mayor Menino has committed to creating an Innovation District as well as building up the Fort Point Channel and Seaport District. My plan involves creating a port neighborhood around the Boston Design Center building, which contains nearly 2 million square feet of space, and from there, attracting a resident population that will be a base for a dynamic neighborhood.

The District & Its Sub-Districts

By looking at aerial views from Google Earth, I was able to see that the South Boston Waterfront district is nearly as large, perhaps even larger, than Downtown Boston. In Google Earth, you can see just how vacant the South Boston Waterfront really is, in terms of residential and commercial development. Most of the neighborhood's 4,000 residents (U.S. Census 2000) live in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood to the district's northwest. The rest of the neighborhood contains large swaths of empty land, much of which is being used for parking.

In my vision, the South Boston Waterfront will one day be composed of seven sub-districts, including the Harbor Gateway port neighborhood. Conley Terminal would be allowed to stay as an industrial port (the EDIC has previously advocated "industrial tourism" in the district). And the rest of the district would become residential, with mixed use space concentrated around cultural institutions.

Find my Google Earth Model Linked Below.

My district plan for the South Boston Seaport. (Click image to view full size.)

Harbor Gateway with Sydney's Harborwalk overlaid on it. (Click image to view full size.)

The neighborhood overlaid on Google Earth. (Click image to view full size.)

Looking down Summer Street toward the BCEC and downtown Boston; this is what the view might look like once our neighborhood has been established. The image was created in Sketchup and then modified in Photoshop by Jessica Yurkofsky and Pamela Lee. (Click image to view full size.)

Port Neighborhood in 3D

Working in Sketchup allowed me to see how building heights would affect view corridors to the water, which I'm interested in protecting, as well as how shadows would be cast off my buildings. Additionally, I was able to gauge that even though there is a 200-foot height maximum (per FAA regulations), it is preferable to build lower than 200 feet because I want the Boston Design Center building to establish the character of the neighborhood, and it is about 180 feet. The Sketchup model of my Harbor Gateway port neighborhood is uploaded in the 3D Warehouse.

Port Neighborhood in Context

The port neighborhood will be established between what is now Black Falcon Ave. and Dry Dock Ave. Summer Street will be rerouted to culminate in our neighborhood and connect with Northern Blvd., which will be renamed and reconnected with Seaport Blvd. to promote circulation within the sub-district. A Harborwalk and park will be located along the Reserved Channel's waterfront. Additionally, an observation tower will be placed at the sub-district's east end so that visitors can watch airplanes take off from Logan, as well as cruise ships as they pull into the port. See the image georeferenced on Flickr.

Key elements of the Harbor Gateway port neighborhood. The model was created in Sketchup. (Click image to view full size.)

A Video Fly-Through

Conclusion

With this project, I hope that people will be able to re-envision the South Boston Waterfront as a residential neighborhood. The neighborhood was once the employment center for much of South Boston and Boston proper, prior to the decommissioning of the the Army Base (where the Marine Industrial Park is now located) in the 1970s. The waterfront's 1,000 acres of land are currently underused and unappreciated, but the neighborhood has so much to offer a residential population. Given that land is scarce in Boston (it is the second largest major city in America, after San Francisco) and the shortage of workforce housing (the deficit will reach 36,000 in the next decade), the district presents large tracts of land on which housing can be cheaply developed.