Site Documentation

Front Panorama

Rear Panorama

Context Aerial

Aerial

What I initially was looking for in choosing my site was a place that could incorporate both an open landscape condition and a more dense urban condition. However, the contrast shouldn’t be so strong, i.e. not Central Park in New York.

The site I chose is the Big Dig Parcel # 2, towards the North Station end of the Rose Kennedy Greenway. I saw potential in this site because of its strong connection to a landscape idea that is the greenway, as well as strong urban connections. It is directly connected to infrastructure being adjacent to both North Station and Haymarket. It also gives me the opportunity to link together two neighborhoods that were once torn apart by the central artery, Bulfinch Triangle and the North End. The site size is roughly 52,000s.f, and would be an opportune space to all of the program conditions stated above.Figure Ground
Zoning Map

Street and Wharfline Changes

Major ThoroughfaresElevated Railway Lines

The approach I decided to take as far as starting to develop some in-depth analysis of the site, I wanted to look at its evolution since it was apart of the first few landfills in Boston. I gather historical maps, aerials and photographs to get a better understanding of the site.

Boston Landfill Overtime17751808 - Master-plan for Bullfinch Triangle street grid after landfill1826 - Causeway Wharf and separation of Wards1852 - Expansion of Wharf and Bridges to Charlestown

1881 - Railway plans for North Station

1923 Aerial of Downtown - North End

1930 - North Station

1946 Aerial, showing Haymarket and Scollay Square1949 - North Station and the Bulfinch Triangle

1954 - Plan for elevated Central Artery1955 - Artery is ConstructedThe impact of the artery on Boston's neighborhoods

2003 - Artery still up and in use, construction on the "Big Dig" will put it undergroundToday - Now with the highway underground, the artery still exists as a greenway, dividing Government Center and Bulfinch Triangle from the North End.